I have started a Flickr account which you can find at this link.  I haven’t used Flickr before, mainly because it was just another thing to add to the workflow, re-sizing and uploading photos.  But Lightroom 3 has a very neat new feature that allows you to very quickly publish and manage photos on Flickr.  Its as easy as dragging and dropping a thumbnail from the gallery view and then it watermarks, re-sizes and adds to whichever set I tell it to.

When I shoot all of my winter work, the majority of the best shots have to be saved from public consumption until they have appeared in the adverts and magazines.  But there are also hundreds of nearly awesome shots that didn’t quite make the grade and until now these ones mostly stay on my hard drive.  But now I have decided this is a good way to share more photos so keep an eye on it and I will update the photos a few times a week with shots from various trips over the last few years.

The day has finally come , and now the clock is ticking for those of us who are running the beta version of lightroom 3.  The beta will expire on June 30th and after that point you will have to purchase a copy of Adobes flagship image organizer to continue to use it.  Like a lot of people out there I have been testing LR3 for some time and it is a vast improvement over LR2.  Earlier in the winter I tried out Aperture 3 as well, but for me Lightroom’s file organization was much better.  I don’t profess to be a Lightroom expert but I know what works well for me. You can also download a trial version of the final release candidate and try it for 30 days  to help make the decision to upgrade or not and you can also Get 30% off Lightroom 3 when purchased with Photoshop CS5 software which is a pretty good deal.

Catchy title huh?  This is a short post but one that I hope might help a few people out.  Firstly, if you are a PC user then i’m afraid I can’t help you with all the details, but at least read the first few paragraphs to find out why you might want to do this.  In the past 18 months I have had three hard drive failures, 2 in laptops and one in an external USB drive on my desk.  It happens and I hope by now we all know that.  I’m not going to preach on backing up your files, that’s for another time…..

A few times in the last few months I have found myself working in a location that is fairly remote.  No Apple store or computer parts store within a thousand miles, and not somewhere that gets any kind of speedy mail-order servicing either. So what would happen if one of my laptop hard drives had failed in one of those locations?  This is mostly relevant to photographers who travel a lot, and especially those who visit remote locations, but the solution is actually fairly simple and remarkably cheap.  A bootable external drive that can run Mac OSX is the answer.  It doesn’t even need to be a 2.5″ hard drive, you can actually boot to Snow Leopard directly off a USB keyring as long as its big enough!

A full install of Apple Snow Leopard needs just a little bit more than 8GB of space so if you have a thumb drive or an old 2.5″ hard drive lying around that is bigger than that then you are good to go.  I did this recently with an old 320GB 2.5″ drive that I had in a draw.  If you have an old hard drive you will need to buy a SATA case for it but the cheap and cheerful ones can be had for about $30 from any good computer store.  Now if you want to try this on a USB memory stick you aren’t going to have much room for things other than the operating system, but at least it would get you back up and running and able to download your memory cards to something.  If you are using an old hard drive (or a new one as they are so cheap these days) then you will be able to install OSX and all your necessary programs on there too.

The first step is to plug the USB device into you computer and open up Disk Utility from the utilities folder in the applications section.  On the left hand side find the drive that you wish to install OSX onto and click it.  Now click on the button labeled partitions which will open the partition configuration menu.  From the drop down box select “1 Partition”.

Now click the options… button at the bottom and make sure that you select GUID Partition table.  This is the really important part!  This is what allows your computer to recognize the disk as a bootable disk on start up. Click OK and then click Apply on the partition screen.  WARNING!!  This WILL erase everything on the disk!  So check the disk before you do it!

Now go ahead and insert your Snow Leopard install disk into your DVD drive.  Click on the option to install, and when prompted, select your newly formatted USB drive as the install destination.  The progress screen will come up and its going to tell you it’ll need some time to install.  Bear in mind that all the data is being transferred through USB now so it’s going to take longer than it normally would.  Part way through the install process your computer will automatically re-boot and boot from the USB device.  Once it’s done you will see the Snow Leopard intro on the screen and you are done!  Now install all the essential programs you need to get your work done like photoshop or lightroom and shut down the computer.

Now here’s the next important thing to remember.  With the USB drive plugged in, when you turn your computer on you need to hold down the OPTION key if you want to boot from the external drive as soon as you see the white screen appear.  If you do this and keep holding it, eventually a screen will appear that will ask you which drive you want to boot from.  Selecting your USB drive will allow you to run OSX from that just as you normally would.  Things might seem a little bit slower running from USB, especially if its on a thumb drive, but I tried it recently and was actually rather surprised at how well it handled things.

So if you have a drive lying around at home, why not do this one day and keep the USB drive hidden in your travel bag.  You never know when it might come in handy!  The second scenario is that your computer stops working entirely while you are away.  Well now you just need to find another Mac somewhere and you can plug in your USB drive and boot from that to have access to all the programs you need !

If you are a regular visitor to my site you will have noticed that it has been unavailable for the past 5 days or so.  The company that hosts my site had total server failure and as such, everything hosted on it was down while they copied the vast amounts of data over onto new servers.  If you have tried to send me an e-mail over this period, I will not have received it so please try again later today and things should be back to normal.  Thanks for your patience!

RSS Feed

I noticed in my website statistics that a large number of people unsubscribed from the RSS feed during the outage period, most likely because their reader was displaying an annoying error message when it could not retrieve my feed.  Please re-subscribe again so that the content can be delivered !

I’ve been on the road for the majority of the last month so posts have been a little sparse.  Over the last few weeks though there have been quite a few announcements in the photography world with the PMA tradeshow taking place in the US.  In case you missed any of them, here is a quick run down of new developments.

• Apple has announced Aperture 3. The third iteration of the popular image cataloging program features some big advances that look likely to bring it more in line with Adobe Lightroom.  It even features full support for video including options to edit the videos in Aperture.   Available to purchase here.  You can download a free trial from the Apple website and give it a try for a month.  At the moment I am using Lightroom 2.0 but I have been unimpressed with the speed of it.  I’m definitely going to give Aperture 3 more than a passing glance, especially with its video support.  I’ll report my findings but feel free to chime in with comments below of you have already given it a trial.
• Nikon announced 2 new lenses , the 24mm 1.4 and the 16-35 f4 VR.  With the 24mm lens Nikon is just playing catch up to Canon’s stunning 24mm 1.4 that I have recently purchased myself.  I’m sure Nikon users will welcome the addition to their prime lineup.  With the 16-35mm f4 VR though , Nikon looks to have produced a fantastic and currently unique lens, the only wide angle stabilized zoom available on the market.  Previously Nikon had no compact f4 zooms where Canon now has a nice selection.  Something that has been a frustration for Nikon shooters who would benefit from lighter weight lenses.  With this lens though, Nikon has jumped right into that market AND added VR (for the canon shooters that is simply Nikon’s version of IS).  If I were a Nikon shooter I would jump on this lens!!
• Canon has announced a new Camera, the Rebel T2I or the 550d depending on which part of the world you live in.  The camera features the same 18MP 1.6 crop sensor from the 7d and impressively retains all the same video functions as its more pricey brother.  This is a very nicely specced camera for those looking to get into photography without breaking the bank.  The 7d’s sensor is very capable of producing great images the the video functions of the T2I are much better than the other Rebels in the lineup.  Obviously the T2I lags behind the 7d in terms of weather sealing and build quality as well as autofocus system but nonetheless its packing some impressive numbers for a camera retailing for much less than $1000!
• Sigma introduces a slew of new lenses at PMA but the one that caught my eye was the new 8-16mm f4.5-5.6.  This is a rectilinear lens designed for crop body sensors and produces the widest available non-distorted view yet for these types of cameras.  All you guys out there shooting the 7d should definitely keep an eye out for a review.  Looks like an interesting product.  They also announced an 85mm 1.4 lens.  Given the prohibitive price of the Canon version of this lens, this could be a winner too if the IQ is in the right ball park.  We’ll have to wait for some reviews.
• Samsung has now joined the field of high quality pocket friendly digi-cams with the new EX-1.  Featuring an f1.8 24mm lens it sets itself up firmly against the likes of the Panasonic lx3 and the Canon G11 or S90.  The f1.8 lens is the fastest in it’s field and it also features a flip out screen like the G11.  Again, this has just been announced so we will have to wait for some reviews but it’s one to keep an eye on if you are interested in a high quality point and shoot that lets you capture RAW images.

Canon was not present at the PMA show but they will have a strong presence at the upcoming WPPI show next month.  Expect at least a couple of new lenses from them, including the oft-rumored 24-70 2.8 IS (via CR).  We should also be seeing the firmware update for the 5dMKII early next month that will enable 24p mode.  Recent rumors have also indicated that there will be some new audio features enabled too , audio meters and maybe a live on-screen histogram.  There were a lot of other things announced at PMA but the majority were consumer p&S cameras that I have no interest in.  These are just the things that caught my eye though.

I’m in the lucky position right now to have all three of Canons latest cameras sitting here in front of me. I have been using the 5dMKII since January last year , I purchased a 7d in August and just over two weeks ago I picked up the new Canon 1dMKIV.  Whilst I’m not going to do exhaustive comparative testing between all the cameras (I simply don’t have the time to do this and plenty of websites out there will do this anyway) I thought I should collect together some of the thoughts I have had whilst using these cameras.  These 3 cameras cover a broad spectrum in pricing so they are likely to appeal to both professional and amateur photographers.  Which camera would I chose for a particular task?  Read on to find out.

People always e-mail to ask me question like “which is the best camera 5d or 7d ?” “Which has the best low light performance, 5d or 1d?”.  The problem is that people never ever give me any information as to what they want to use the camera for so often it’s hard to answer that question of which one you should get.  Quite simply, there is no perfect camera for EVERY situation.  But then most photographers will hardly ever find themselves in EVERY situation anyway.  Some may need low light sensitivity because they do a lot of work indoors, some may require a large number of megapixels because they print their work as fine art at very large sizes and some may shoot sports, requiring a higher number of frames per second.  Very few photographers will find themselves ticking all these boxes.  Of course i’m simplifying things slightly with those three categories….. but you get the idea.  Having used these three cameras for a while now I thought I’d put down some of my thoughts and opinions……warning , it’s a bit of a long one though.

5dMKII

Ever since I got this camera last year I have been in love.  The quality of the images it produces are quite simply breathtaking if you attach an equally nice piece of glass to the front of it.  With it’s full frame 21MP sensor it easily produces the most detailed photos out of the 3 cameras.  if you were to put a photo taken with the 5d and 7d next to each other there would be absolutely no doubt as to which camera took which photo.  The results are night and day.  With the price of the 5dMKII falling recently, the difference in image quality is not even reflected by price difference any more.  If straight up image quality is all you desire, the 5dMKII is the camera you need.  With such a large sensor though, any shortcomings in your lenses will become more evident.  Particularly corner sharpness and vignetting at wide apertures.  Pick your lenses carefully for this camera, only the best will match the detail produced by the sensor.

Video quality on the 5dMKII is far superior to the 7d.  This is something that I have been asked a lot too recently and my quick answer has surprised a lot of people.  To my eye, the 5d video is far superior in clarity and sharpness to the 7d video.  That is not to say that the 7d video is bad, not at all, but it is not as good.  The size difference between the 5ds full frame sensor and the 7ds 1.6 crop sensor is the reason for this.  If absolute quality of the video is your goal, the 5dMKII should be an easy choice over the 7d.  If multiple frame rates are a factor then that raises some more questions which will be discussed later.  Right now, the 5dMKII is only capable of 30.00 fps although a 24/25 fps firmware update will be available in the coming months (it will not include 720p 50/60fps)

A couple of things that I do not like about the 5dMKII…. shutter lag and 1/200x-sync speed.  The shutter lag on the 5dMKII is noticeably longer than both the 1dMKIV and the 7d.  After some time you will find yourself adjusting to it but it can be disadvantageous if you are shooting simultaneously with 2 different cameras.  I use the 5dMKII a lot at night time when i’m shooting urban skiing and snowboarding and it is still possible to time things perfectly with one shot but it is a noticeable difference.  The second thing that I do not like is the 1/200 sync speed.  This is no problem at all when shooting in a studio or at night but it makes it very hard to shoot with strobes outside in daylight.  Other cameras have a 1/250 or higher sync and you can often push those even further with minimal flash banding.  The 5dMKII though is stuck at 1/200.  Pushing it even to 1/250 leaves a huge portion of the image unlit by the strobes.

If I am traveling light and not shooting any kind of sports then the 5dMKII is a no-brainer to pick.  I believe it to be the ultimate travel photographers camera.  It’s is extremely lightweight and also physically smaller than 1 series cameras which in-turn makes it more discreet.  The batteries are incredibly efficient and 2 of the tiny batteries will keep you shooting all day long.  Some people sight the lack of great weather sealing as a negative against the travel camera tag, but I would say just use on of THESE if it starts to rain.  In this case, the positives far outweigh the negatives!  By coupling this camera with the 24-105mm f4 lens you have a formidable piece of kit.  Add to that a wide aperture prime such as my new favorite, the 24mm f1.4 II L and I would happily travel the world with only that.

Now on to low light performance.  The 5dMKII performs the best in low light situations.  You can make enormous, beautiful prints from photos shot at ISO3200 and higher.  Even when comparing to the much newer 1dMKIV, the 5dMKII has a slight edge in low light performance, again thanks to it’s full frame sensor.  Much has been said about the low light performance of the 7d, yes its good for a 1.6 crop but personally over iso 1600 it was not acceptable to me.  This isn’t based on specific tests just real world shooting.

I’d like to say a quick note about frames per second too, obviously the 5dMKII is the slowest of the 3 in this category.  3.5 fps is VERY slow.  If you only intend to shoot naturally lit sports, this is not the camera for you, you will need something faster.

Canon 7d

I had high hopes for this camera on its announcement.  A fast fps camera in a small package is the dream for any photographer that has to carry their equipment on their back all day.  I had to try one out so I picked one up as soon as they became available.  Video functions were fun to play with, especially the 60fps 720p mode.  Quality was acceptably high in the video but not as good as the 5d.  Still much better than traditional video cameras like the Panasonic HVX though.  Ergonomic improvements such as dedicated video buttons were a welcome addition over the 5d.

Who is the 7d for then?  Well as it turns out, Canon did not make any leaps in image quality over the 50d.  Cramming 18MP images into a 1.6 crop sensor was, in my opinion, a ridiculous idea.  If they had left it at 12MP it would have been an entirely different camera.  Unfortunately, with a camera in this price bracket they are targeting a consumer group that is not necessarily totally clued up on the technicalities of sensor size and pixel density.  The fact of the matter is that I have had commercial posters printed 20ft wide with my 8MP Canon 1dMKIIN.  20FT !!  And they look fantastic (check the galleries in my facebook group for some examples)  You do not need to have a huge number of MP in order to make large prints, it is far far better to have lower noise than larger photos.  For the most part, professional photographers now understand this, the new 1dMKIV is only 16MP and the Nikon D3s is only 12MP and there are NO complaints about either of those figures.  Canon made the decision to put 18MP in the 7d just to appeal to the consumer market which has been sadly misled into thinking that the MP count is the magic number.

7d photos were not bad, there are plenty of examples out there to look at on the review sites.  Compared to cameras in the same price category it is superior, but for someone who owns a 5dMKII and a 1 series camera the quality difference is fairly large.  Rightfully so , the other cameras are FAR more expensive.  So who is the 7d for then?  The feature set on the 7d is quite incredible for a camera in that price bracket.  For an amateur photographer who likes to take photos of many things from sports to landscapes and maybe the odd video, this one is for you.  It is not the best at anything, but it does everything and it does it better than other cameras in a similar price range.  If price is your deciding factor then this one is for you.

A few other things i noticed while shooting with the 7d:

• 8fps is not always 8fps.  The camera slows down the max FPS in darker situations or when using a lens with a small maximum aperture.  Try firing a burt at 8fps and then covering your lens with your hand to hear it slow down even with shutter priority set to a high enough shutter speed to maintain 8fps.  I spoke to Canon about this issue, they were aware of it and said it was simply a feature of the camera.
• Spot AF point is a great idea.  The 7d allows use of a spot auto focus point that is much smaller than the others making it easy to focus on tiny subjects far away.  It works very well.
• The auto focus system in general is excellent.  As good as my old 1dMKII , but far far inferior to the new 1dMKIV
• Weather sealing is great, i shot all day with the camera soaking wet.  No problems.
• Its very light but sturdily built.  Oxymoron?  No , compared to a 1 series it is very lightweight but at the same time it feels solid in the hand.
• AF point selection is a bit over complicated for my tastes.  I prefer the simpler 1dMKIV.
• 1/250 sync is fine but it cannot be pushed to 1/320 like the majority of the 1series cameras.  Pushing past 250 produces significant banding.
• JPEGS from the camera exhibit significant noise reduction and smoothing.  They need considerable sharpening in post, but they respond well to the sharpening.  Try and shoot in RAW when possible.
• If one more person asks me if the 5d quality is really that much better than the 7d I will stop answering e-mail questions The difference is night and day.  Full frame vs 1.6 crop , c’mon people!!

Canon 1dMKIV

This is the big daddy of current Canon family.  Only recently available in limited numbers before the Winter Olympics , I was luck enough to get one from CPS a few weeks ago.  Initial impressions are all very positive.  Low light performance is not quite on a par with the 5dMKII, but it is so close that it requires pixel peeping to notice it.  10fps is ridiculously fast but the number of photos you can shoot before the buffer is effected greatly by the speed of your memory card.  I would recommend at least 30mb/s cards.  If you have older cards, now would be the time to upgrade.  Build quality is incredible, as you would hope for in a product that costs more than $5000.  It feels like you could take this to the end of the earth and back again and it would still keep ticking.  Video clarity is so similar to the 5dMKII that its impossible to tell the difference without close scrutiny.  Where the 1dMKIV comes into its own though is the available 24/25/50/60 fps modes.  The “jello vision” associated with DSLR video is also hugely improved.  I have found it possible to perform much faster panning motions with this camera before seeing the dreaded rolling shutter effect.  If video is your main goal , the 1dMKIV is the camera for you , as long as price is not an issue.

The auto focus system of the MKIV is greatly improved from the last 1 series camera that I owned which was the 1dMKIIN.  I skipped the MKIII after the reports of bad focus in that camera but the MKIV seems to have no such problems.  I have seen none,and have heard of none reported on the internet.  Believe me people will have been looking hard for it after the MKIII debacle!!  What is interesting is Canons decision to leave out some of the new focus modes that were implemented into the 7d.  The 7ds zone focusing modes seem like a good idea and at first I was a little annoyed that they were not included in the flagship camera.  Once I shot with the MKIV though I realized that they are just not necessary though, the MKIV AF is so intelligent that you just don’t need it.  And less complex AF point selection is beneficial in situations like sports shooting.  With the 7d I found myself spending much more time trying to decide which type of focusing i should be using.  In a sports situation I would have missed the shot by the time I had decided.  Canons solution, just let the camera decide.  The only thing I would like to have seen is the 7ds spot AF point.  Dedicated video buttons were left off the MKIV but again I believe this was just for simplicity and a cleaner design.  The use of the AF lock button as the Rec. Start/Stop button is a good solution and works very well.  Much more intuitive than the 5dMKII.

Image quality is fantastic, infinitely more impressive that the 7d (obviously at 3x the price) but not quite as detailed as the cheaper 5dMKII.  Again, if quality if your priority, the 5dMKII is still the best bet but if other factors enter into the decision like durability and shooting speed then the 1dMKIV will still hold up admirably to pixel peeping and production of large fine art prints.  Low light shooting is very impressive too.  With my MKIIN I would try not to shoot over ISO 400.  Now I can shoot at ISO 1200 and achieve similar quality photos.  Low light is not quite as good as the 5dMKII, but in most situations it is so similar that it does not matter.  Impressive given the 1.3 crop sensor.

In my opinion the 1dMKIV comes as close as possible to my ideal camera. Some people are not happy about the 1.3 crop factor but for me I think I prefer to have the longer reach on my telephoto lenses.  My 15mm fisheye is not a full 180 degrees but again, there are lenses that can offer that field of view if I really needed it.  16MP images are far bigger than I will need in the majority of situations but its nice to have nonetheless and the build quality means that I never have to worry about the camera, just the photos.  For those who skipped the MKIII, you will also notice the reduction in weight with the new LI-Ion batteries in the MKIV.  Coming from a MKIIN I can tell you that it is a noticeable difference both in the camera and the weight of the spares that you have to carry in your pack.

Most people will always find something to complain about when a new camera is announced but the fact is that all specifications are a trade off.  It is impossible to have the mythical 21mp, 10fps, full frame camera that fits in the palm of your hand (at least with current technology).  The quicker that people learn to understand how one specification affects another the quicker they will find their perfect camera, more than likely its out there already.

If you are looking to become a ski or snowboard photographer then get ready for a long shopping list of gear you are going to need.  Every time I pack my gear for a trip I’m amazed at the amount of gear I have amassed over the last few years.  Some of it is fairly specialized and only necessary for people that shoot full time for a living, and some of it I would recommend for everyone looking to get into the business.  In no particular order here is my top ten list of things you will need to get started!

1. Avalanche Transceiver

It’s not worth losing your life to get a shot so make sure you wear a transceiver while you are shooting in the backcountry and make sure you know how to operate it so you can save your friend’s lives if they get caught in an avalanche.  I have always used Orthovox transceivers and can highly recommend them, though there are plenty of other great manufacturers out there.  I recently had the opportunity to play with the Orthovox S1.  A really incredible piece of kit that graphically displays victim location on the screen to help interpret beacon signals.  Currently though , I am using the D3

2. A head torch

Not something that would immediately spring to mind as a useful accessory but I use this thing all the time.  If I’m shooting at night time I am absolutely guaranteed to lose either a lens cap or a very overpriced flash cable unless I have the head torch on.  Its just too easy to misplace all the little bits and pieces.  I also carry it in my pack when I’m sledding.  Snowmobiles are notoriously unreliable and you never know when you’ll be out in the backcountry for longer than anticipated.  I have a Petzl Tikka which seems to have great battery life and is plenty powerful enough for me to find those pesky lens caps when I drop them in the dark!

3. A 70-200 zoom lens

The 70-200mm range is by far my most used range for shooting ski or snowboard photos.  Take the time to save up for a good quality lens in this range.  Canon has 4 versions to suit many budgets and all of them produce great images.  Nikon and Sony also make very sharp 70-200 zooms.  Canon actually announced a new version of their workhorse lens last week , the 70-200 f2.8L IS II.  Apparently improving on sharpness and image stabilization over the previous version.  I used to own the original f2.8 l IS version myself but swapped it last year for the new f4 L IS version which was even sharper but also half the weight of its f2.8 cousin.  So far I have been very happy with my choice.  For me , the 70-200 f4 L IS is the best one for skiing with, its just so light!  And then I have an 85mm f1.8 for those times when i really need a wide aperture for portraiture.

4. Fisheye lens

The fisheye lens is the second of what I would consider to be an essential lens for this kind of photography.  Any other focal lengths between the fisheye and the 70-200 can be debated upon but this one should be on your list.  I use a Sigma 15mm fisheye and it produces some great results.  The Canon is comparable in sharpness and these days they are actually a similar price point.  The 15mm fisheye is only a true 180 degree field of view on a full frame camera such as the Canon 5dMKII.  On a 1.3 crop camera such as the 1dMKIV it still produces a pleasingly wide FOV but by the time you put it on a 1.6 crop camera like the 7d, it starts to lose a lot of the benefits of such a lens.  If you shoot with a 1.6 crop camera you would be best to consider a wider fisheye like the 10mm sigma or the Tokina 10-17 fish.  Nikon users can make use of their fantastic quality 10.5mm fisheye. I use this lens for everything from powder shots in the trees to urban rails in the city, it goes everywhere with me.

5. A good camera backpack

If you are going to ski all day with a heavy backpack then you need to make sure that it is comfortable and will protect your precious gear from the elements, and any mishaps you might have along the way.  When I first started to cart around a serious amount if gear I had trouble finding the right bag for the job.  There are several packs out there from Burton and Dakine but they lacked enough room for gear other than cameras and lenses.  If you are spending time in the backcountry you need room for a plethora of other gear such as safety equipment,food and clothing.  The solution comes from a company called F-Stop.  Now, full disclosure;  I am on the F-Stop pro team but I was using their equipment before that happened and it now puts me in a position where I can offer my advice as to what changes should be made to create the ultimate backcountry photo pack.  The result is the SATORI , the company’s largest photo backpack.  For those looking for a slightly smaller pack , they also make the Tilopa.  F-Stop packs are made from incredibly rugged material and the zippers that are open to the elements are seam-sealed to protect from rain and snow.  The internal camera block is removable and smaller sized compartments can be inserted to leave more room for non-camera equipment if you need it.  Having a comfortable pack can really make the difference to a long days shooting.

6. Plenty of hard drives

Hard drives will fail, it’s an absolute certainty because they are mechanical devices.  The question is when…?  It could be tomorrow or it could be in ten years time but at some point, you WILL lose your photos unless you have backups made on multiple drives.  If you store your photos on the drive inside your computer it will fill up rapidly.  With today’s SLRs producing images up to 22 megapixels , and the 7d producing 18mp images at 8 frames per second,that means that for every second of shooting you are producing roughly 200mb of images.  The general rule is that you need at least one backup of images to remain safe.  In other words, every 2.5 seconds of shooting will require 1 gigabyte of data storage!!!  Thankfully disk space has come down dramatically in price and there are now many easy solutions for easy backup.  The products from Drobo have been a huge hit with multimedia professionals and I can highly recommend both the products and the service that the company provides.  If you are unfamiliar with their products take some time to watch the videos on their site, they offer excellent piece of mind and totally hassle free redundancy of images.

7. A website

If you don’t have a website to display your work these days you are going to be making it very hard on yourself.  Gone are the days when you either needed to understand complex programming languages, or pay a fortune for a slick looking website.  If you can’t afford to pay a designer for an original site, there are several companies out there offering easily customizable template sites that integrate everything an aspiring photographer could need to display their work.  Check out Livebooks.com and GraphPaperPress for example.  Keep your portfolio site simple to navigate and please DO NOT put automatically playing music on them!!  That is the quickest way to get someone to leave your site!  Remember that your website will often be peoples first impression of your business and your photography so be careful which images you put on there.  Think quality not quantity.  I’d much rather see just ten great photos , than the same ten great photos with 20 mediocre ones mixed amongst them.  I do not consider myself to have more than rudimentary understanding of website design and yet I was able to create my entire site myself using only tutorials available on the internet so there really is no excuse for a shoddy looking website these days.

8.  Rocket blower sensor cleaner

Even though newer cameras have automatic micro-vibrating sensor cleaning functions, they don’t keep all the dust off.  There are several similar products available but the Giottos products do a great job and are available in many different sizes.  Due to their grenade-like appearance, expect to get some funny looks from airport security personnel though!  Continually changing lenses outdoors means that you will get dust buildup around the mirror mechanism but a few squeezes with the blower and you will prevent that dust from ever getting to the lens.  If you have more persistent particles check out the products from Visibledust.  I use their wet cleaning fluids every few months and also their statically charged brushes if the blower can’t shift the dirt.

9.  Two-way radios

Most consumer 2-way radios now all work on the same frequencies as Motorola radios so you can get away with buying some Walmart specials if you have to, but I’d recommend getting a pair of Motorola ones with a recharging stand.  A lot of riders will have their own radios so you might not always need both of them but at least it’s there if you need it and then you also have a spare battery pack for longer trips.  Motorola make a huge range of radios which have different ranges and features.  Some will give you weather reports and some will even charge up via USB ports which is a useful feature for the traveling photog as that’s one less charger you have to bring with you!  The MR350 is a great choice.

10.  Good winter gloves

Personally I can’t stand having cold,wet hands.  If I’m skiing all day and not shooting, my hands stay warm.  But shooting skiing or snowboarding rarely means skiing all day.  A lot of time is spent standing or sitting around waiting for the best light, or climbing through waist deep snow or building a jump.  If my hands are cold or wet I can’t think straight and its always the first part of me to get cold.  I would highly recommend having a spare pair of gloves AND a spare pair of liners in your pack.  Sometimes I shoot with the POW Photog glove that I have written about before on this site and sometimes I just use regular glove liners, removing my hand from my thicker glove when it’s time to shoot and replacing them immediately afterwords.  Obviously many companies make great winter gloves but I have always been very very happy with the goat’s leather gloves made by POW.  I get a new pair at the beginning of each winter and they easily last me a whole years shooting.  I keep a pair of their fleece lined mittens in the top of my pack for wearing at the end of the day on the way home.  Mittens generally keep you warmer but you obviously lose some dexterity so they are great for the end of the day when you are done shooting.  Trust me, you don’t want to get stuck out in the backcountry with one wet pair of gloves!

The blog went quiet for a couple of weeks there as I have been away in Alberta shooting alongside the Poorboyz Productions crew as they work on their new Ski film called……ohhh I can’t tell you that just yet   But I can tell you I just got a sneak peek at the trailer and it WILL blow your mind.  We headed to the city of Edmonton on new years eve to shoot urban skiing for 10 days with Matt Walker, Leigh Powis, Mike Henitiuk and LJ Strenio.  Poorboyz filmers Pete Alport and Cody Carter met us up there and we all piled into a basement apartment kindly provided by Mike’s grandparents.  You can read a little bit about our exploits on the Poorboyz blog HERE. I wont go into too many details, the features we hit have to remain a secret for a while but you can see some snap from my Canon s90 on the Poorboyz blog and also on my Facebook page.  While I am on the road I don’t have a lot of time for blogging but Facebook is a quick and easy way to keep people up to date with some behind the scenes photos so please become a fan if you’d like to follow that stuff!  You can also find regular updates on my Twitter page.  By the way, i’m still loving the s90.  To know you have something that powerful in your pocket is very useful!

From an equipment point of view I pretty much took everything with me on this trip as I was driving there.  90% of my photos were shot with the 5dMKII though I did also have my 7D with me too.  If I can use the 5d I always will, the image quality is leagues ahead of the 7d.  The 7d gives me a fast FPS but the majority of urban images I use a multitude of flashes and that gives me the opportunity to use the 5d instead because i’m only taking one shot per trick.  Occasionally I used the 7d for flash work too because of its slightly faster sync speed.  The 7d is rated at 1/250 x-sync where the 5d is only 1/200.  I was slightly disappointed to see that it was not possible to push the 7d past 1/250 without serious banding.  With my old 1dMKIIN I could easily use 1/320 with no problems.

Portable office!

The temperature when we arrived in Edmonton was -20 Celsius and during the trip it regularly dipped below -25 and even to -30 on one day.  I was initially very worried about what effect this would have on my gear.  Nothing is really designed to be used in those conditions and temperatures that low was new territory, at least for such prolonged periods of time.  I’m happy to report though that I had very few troubles and I was amazed at the resilience of my gear.  Both filmers from poorboyz would eat through batteries on their video cameras even with hand warmers taped to them but I could easily shoot all day with one battery in my 5dMKII!  I did experience slightly higher than average battery usage from my pocketwizards but nothing too shocking and all of my flash batteries lasted very well.  In particular, the battery pack in my Elinchrom Ranger.  It seemed to be totally unaffected by the cold and I got just as many full power pops out of it as I would expect in a normal situation!  Incredible in such low temps where sometimes the battery would be exposed for up to 3 or 4 hours at a time.  With the pocketwizard multimaxes, I did notice that the LCD display would go totally blank in the cold after a few minutes, but it would always come back to life at the end of the shoot once it warmed up.  I did get one of my Multimaxes stolen during a shoot when i turned my back, so if anyone hears of one for sale in Edmonton perhaps you could contact me…..

I did receive a nice piece of news though while I was away, a call from Aden Camera in Toronto to say that a Canon 1dMKIV had arrived at their store with a note to say that it was for me!  Only a week earlier I had inquired as to the availability of the camera in Canada and was told that it could be many months before I could get hold of one because a large number of them were being set aside for the Olympics.  I have a couple of big trips coming up, including a trip with Salomon to Japan and I really wanted to get the camera for that trip so a big thanks to Canon Canada for getting me one so quickly!  I will be posting info on it soon!

Next week i’m off to Retallack Cat Skiing lodge with Poorboyz, Dane Tudor, Mike Henitiuk and Charley Ager.  It will give me a good chance to put my mew 1DMKIV through its paces!

Almost exactly a year ago I posted some information about the RED Scarlet Camera.  Since that time there have been a number of “announcements” from the company but most of them have said more or less the same thing. “  The cameras are delayed , but here is some more computer generated graphics of something that might possibly look like the camera when it finally arrives”.  I would imagine that Jim Janard and his crew at RED have had to re-think a few elements of their designs in an attempt to combat the surprising success of Canons DSLRs in the video field. A year ago, nobody really saw it coming, but today its no surprise at all to find Canon 5dMKIIs and 7ds on the set of hollywood blockbuster movies attached to Panavision prime lenses.  ( Funny story… Panavision has actually gone and melted all of their Panavision to Canon lens converters because they are sick of seeing so many of their lenses not being mounted on their cameras!)  Canon seems to have swooped in (or stumbled into) to the exact market that RED was targeting with their Scarlet plans so it’s really no surprise that things went back to the drawing board for a while in order to add a few more features.  A few people out there (myself included)  were a bit worried that the Scarlet project was doomed to vaporware status.  Continuous updates to CGI models, but no actual camera to play with.  After all, most companies do not tend to announce cameras until they are nearly complete, shrouding the whole development process in secrecy.  But Scarlet has been on the table for some time, or at least drawing of it anyway……

For some time though Jim Jannard has been throwing around the November 30th date though as a day when we would learn more info about scheduled release and pricing.  Their motto though is “Everything is subject to change , count on it!” so i’d be very surprised if this information stays the same up to the release date.  None the less, they have provided a little more information about the cameras than usual so this time i thought it would be worth posting about it.  I know that there are still some stills photographers out there that don’t see the point in learning about shooting video, and those guys might want to skip this post.  But i’m still firmly in the camp that believes that convergence is inevitable, and if I keep my finger on the pulse then it won’t be such a shock when it comes!

There are 3 cameras then that we now have more information on.  The Scarlet is to come with 2 sensor variations, 2/3 and full frame.  The 2/3 will ship (hopefully) in may-june 2010 and the FF35 version will be Summer 2010.  The 2/3 version comes in 2 options , either with a fixed 8x zoom lens or as a “brain” with the option of adding components and prime lenses.  Specific details are laid out below in the table.  The FF35 version is only available as the kit which allows you to totally customize the accessories that you attach to it.  The list of accessories and pricing is also laid out below.  My initial thought is that the 8x zoom 2/3 version seems like a good deal and will be very popular for people filming action sports like skiing and snowboarding (a field in which i know many people).

If you are looking to build up a kit with the 2/3 sensor brain then the mini prime lenses are looking great, and very compact.  But the problem I see with that is that if you decide to upgrade to a FF35 brain later…. your lenses won’t work.  If you are looking to build up a rig with the FF35 kit then you’d better be ready to drop some serious cash !  The pricing is not even close to the same league as buying a Canon DSLR and shooting with one of those, so these Scarlets had better be damn good!

A few things jump off the features list at me.  HDR photo mode for one, this could go either way.  Personally i’m not a fan of HDR photos and I hope that this is not a gimmick.  Most camera companies have shied away from adding this so far though i’m sure that they could if they wanted to.  I just hope that its not too over the top and that it is user configurable.  For the most part the camera is really geared for video and not photos.  At the beginning of the development cycle it was touted as a stills camera a lot more but there seems to be less and less mention of this these days.  For one, it looks incredibly un-ergonomic for a stills camera anyway…..  Touch focus tracking is a nice addition though and something that i’m sure we will see on all cameras within 2 years, just like on the iphone, touch the part of the screen you want to focus on.  So simple.  I’ll leave you with a few more photos of the camera and also a rather cool looking ” RED Station” which seems to be a high speed multi-card reader. Cool idea.  I also see that the ” Bomb EVF” has a built in heater for use in extreme cold environments!

Since the beginning of November Whistler has received 493cm of snow, and it’s still falling. This has smashed the previous record for November with 10 days still to go. Originally the mountains were due to open next weekend on the 27th but with the heavy snowfall early in the month, Whistler Blackcomb pulled out all the stops to get some lifts turning for everyone a few weeks early. Thanks for all the hard work guys!

Mike Henitiuk heading into heaven...

Leboe

A couple of days ago I headed up the mountain with Jeff Thomas from Poorboyz, Mike Henitiuk, TJ Schiller and Riley Leboe as they begun filming for the new movie.  Overnight there had been 2ft of snow to add to the already impressive coverage and it continued to fall all day.  This is the 7th winter that I have skied at Whistler Blackcomb but I can honestly say that was as good as it gets. Bottomless powder.  In fact it was almost too much, the alpine is yet to open so we were left skiing mid mountain lines in the Garbanzo zone.  With that amount if snow you need some steep pitches to maintain speed and it was a struggle to keep moving as the snow piles up above your waist.  We hunted around the same zone all day and eventually found some nice pillow lines for the guys though.

Me - Stoked to be back to work!

The long range forecast for this place is equally impressive, looking like we will smash well through the 500cm mark in the near future which would account for half of Whistler’s average annual snowfall in just one month. It’s a pleasant surprise to be back into winter work so early and if this is a sign of things to come this year it’s going to be one to remember.

Riley Leboe all smiles

Big thanks to the Whistler Blackcomb PR guys and girls for hooking our crew of riders up so we could get out there and start to document this crazy weather!

TJ Schiller. Skullcandys workin the pow too!

UPDATE: Here is a sneak peak from Poorboyz with intro from yours truly.