PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR - THE STOCKING STUFFER VERSION

Montreal, Canada, December 22, 2013.

A few low-cost stocking stuffers just in time for Christmas. And I mean just in time.

If there is a photographer on your gift list or maybe you just feel like treating yourself, then I offer a few suggestions below. Most of these items are under $50.00 and even if you or the lucky person you are buying them for already owns a few of them, adding another will not be seen as a mistake. Like all my other gear recommendations on this blog, I own and use all these items.

Having a few $13.99 Frio universal locking cold shoes around will allow you to couple your strobes to light stands. Forget one of these and you better have some $16.99 gaffers tape handy.

Attaching your strobes to a light stand is one thing, but without a $34.19 Manfrotto swivel lite-tite umbrella adapter you won't be able to aim them correctly. And this also allows you to use an umbrella. Again without this you'll be back to using gaffers tape.

There are all kinds of camera straps out there from something you picked up while on vacation to Disney World, to some fancy overpriced leather model. For me personally, when it comes to a camera strap I prefer something simple like a $26.95 Think Tank double-sided non-slip strap.

Two versions of the clamps are shown, with and without the flash shoe.

I've talked about the $61.18 Manfrotto spring clamp with flash shoe, better known as the Justin Clamp,before. When you need to position a second strobe and a light stand is just not going to work, this clamp will get you out of a jam all day long.

I own quite a few reflectors and am well aware that a cheap piece of foam core will do the trick, but if you are a one-person operation, the $49.88 Lastolite 18-Inch mini TriGrip  allows you to easily position the reflector with one hand while holding a camera with the other. Also, if you happen to have an assistant, they will easily be able to hold this in one hand while positioning a strobe they are holding in the other hand behind it giving you some very nice diffused light.

In my opinion you can't have enough bags and while backpacks and other camera bags are quite expensive, satisfy your need to get more organized with something like a $17.75 Think Tank cable management 10 clear plastic pouch. I use this pouch to hold the charger, cables and spare cards for my Fuji X100S. Maybe getting better organized is on your New Years resolution short list?

And finally, if you think the above items are too expensive, you can't go wrong with a pack of ten Think Tank red whips at $7.99. You will be the envy of all the other photographers with tangled cables.

If you've read this far then I thank you for indulging me while I recommend some products via the Amazon associate program. I don't write this blog for profit, but the few dollars I mange to earn a month does provide me some satisfaction.

You don't want to be out in this weather shopping, do you?

I hope you all had a great year in photography and I wish you the best in the New Year.

Thank you again for visiting blog.jfwphoto.com in 2013 and remember to get out there and shoot!

MEMORIAL DAY - A PERFECT DAY FOR A PHOTO WALK IN DC

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is the newest addition to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

I know it is not the final Monday in May. This is memorial day with a small "m."

It started as a government snow day and it doesn't take much in the Washington, D.C., area for the government to shutdown due to weather, or even the threat of weather.

On these days the temptation is to stay inside, pour a second cup of coffee and just spend the day relaxing. Of course the other option is to grab a camera and take advantage of the weather and day off to get some unique shots. On this day, and after a text from a friend reminding me I should be out shooting, I decided to head downtown.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the final stop and by this time the sun started to come out and made for some interesting reflections in the still wet stone.

In the absence of a specific assignment, I like to pick a theme prior to heading out on a shoot. It doesn't mean I have to stick with the theme, but I find that it is helps to focus, otherwise I just walk around aimlessly with my camera and end up disappointed at the end of the day. So the natural theme I self assigned myself was to capture Washington, D.C., under a blanket of snow.

Now remember when I said earlier in this post that it doesn't take much for the government to shut down. Well this was the case and as I exited the metro at Foggy Bottom it was apparent that my theme was already melting away. There was NO snow.

The Lincoln Memorial was a good starting point.

With that idea out I decided to just start walking in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial and see what I could see and before I realized it, I found myself walking from memorial to memorial and it hit me, or more specifically a new theme came to light; memorial day. Not the most original theme of course, but if you are in Washington, D.C., you really are in the perfect place for this kind of photo walk.

The route I took from the Lincoln Memorial to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

I started at the Lincoln Memorial (A) and made a counter clockwise loop ending at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (E). Along the way I stopped at the Korean War Memorial (B), Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial (C) and the World War II Memorial (D).

Snow was the most apparent at the Korean War Memorial and somehow the most appropriate.

There were very few people around and while I usually try and include people in my photographs, this day I concentrated more on the memorials themselves. I carried only my Fuji X100S and shot in black and white mode all day.

Even though there was no snow, or very little snow on the ground, everything was wet which made for some great reflections. Also as the day wore on, the sky cleared up and provided some nice light and cloud formations.

Just because the theme for the walk was memorial day, it doesn't mean other things won't catch your eye along the way.

Give yourself an assignment or pick a theme to get started and get out there and shoot. Don't wait for a rainy day. But if it is raining, or snowing, all the better.

WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, SHOOT - PHOTOGRAPHING THE SECOND AVENUE SUBWAY

The future 86th Street Station is part of the Second Avenue Subway project in New York City.

As a photographer for the Office of Naval Research I often have the opportunity to photograph some pretty cool things. Most of the time it comes down to access. If you think about it, as photographers we are often provided access not available to the general public, so when an opportunity arises to photograph something unique, we take advantage of it.

And sometimes opportunities arise because we know the right person. That was the case recently when I had the chance to photograph the Second Avenue Subway Project currently under construction in New York City.

A group photo of neighborhood residents affected by the construction is taken as part of their tour.

My good friend Patrick Cashin, Navy and Air National Guard veteran, is a photographer with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and is responsible for documenting all aspects of the New York transit system. Part of that documentation includes major construction projects and his recent work photographing the Second Avenue Subway Project is amazing. Pat has never been one to brag, so when he sent me an email earlier this year with a link to a feature that Flickr did on him, I was awed by the work and his story behind it.

While major construction and blasting is completed for phase 1 of the project, scenes like this still serve to offer a glimpse of what it takes to create new stations and subway lines.

The very first thing that caught my eye when I saw Pat's photographs was the shear scale and size of the project and how some of the photographs he captured looked like they could have been taken 100 years ago when the first subway was built from City Hall to the Bronx.*

So last month as I was planning my trip to New York City for Photo Plus Expo, I made plans to meet up with Pat, even if only for a quick lunch or dinner. He responded that he was also attending the expo, but the real surprise was that he asked if I would be interested in joining him on an assignment the next day photographing underground. Better yet, he had secured permission for me to photograph as well.**

Typically only residents of the neighborhood affected by the project are given the chance to tour the project. One restriction, however, is that they are not allowed to take photographs, which is why the MTA provides a photographer to both document the tour and take a group photo.

View of the future 96th Street Station using the train tunnel to help frame the shot.

There were two tours scheduled and I would be able to stay underground with Pat between those tours, giving me a total of about three hours to take photographs.

For gear I was pretty sure of two things. That it was going to be dark and that I wanted to shoot wide, so I brought with me the Nikon D3S along with two lenses, the 14-24mm and 24-70mm. And of course I also had my Fujifilm X100S . I knew that light would probably be the biggest issue. I didn't bring a tripod so I relied on the high ISO capabilities of the Nikon D3S to capture the scene. The trade off of course is noise. I processed the images using Lightroom 4.0 where besides some color correction, I opened up the shadows and ran some noise reduction. But for the most part a little noise in these types of photographs does not bother me. With few exceptions I set my ISO to 3200 and everything was shot RAW.

Including a MTA employee in the photograph helps to show the scale of the train tunnel located at the south end of the future 86th Street Station.

Once underground I really was struck by the size of the project, but how do you translate that in your photographs? Using a wide angle lens and including people is a great way to give the view that sense of scale. Even though this was Saturday and there was not any work going on, I was able to include a few workers who where on hand mostly for safety reasons.

An opening to street level allows natural light into the future 96th Street Station which created some challenging mixed light situations.

Another challenge was the mixed lighting. It turned out to be a bit of daylight mixed with fluorescent and who knows what else. In situations like this I always shoot both JPEG and RAW which then gives me the option to color balance after the fact. Why both? Most of the time I never open the RAW images from an assignment. I think of the RAW files as my insurance, because in reality JPEGs just fit into my work flow allowing me to quickly download, caption and transmit. And in this case I wanted the JPEGs so I could look at and edit a few images on my iPad during the train ride back to Washington, D.C.

Shooting wide with the Nikon 14-24mm lens allowed me to emphasize the size and scale of the project.

Do you have friends or family that can get you access to interesting places? I bet if you think about it, you do. Also think about what you do for a living or something you have access to and if it might be interesting to a photographer friend. We tend to not think of what we do as interesting, but in many cases if you stepped back, you would realize that there might be unique opportunities all around.

An MTA employee makes the 150' trip to the surface from the future 86th Street Station.

MTA on Flickr:
Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York

*This project was originally proposed in 1929 as a major expansion, although work never commenced due to the Great Depression. Digging for the project did begin in 1972, however it only lasted a few years before New York became insolvent. Ground breaking for the current project happened in 2007.

Phase I of the current project begins at 96th Street then runs south where is will join the existing 63rd Street Line. Additionally, three new stations will be located at 96th Street, 86th Street and 72nd Street. I entered the project via 125 foot elevator at the 86th Street location and then walked underground via the rail tunnel to the 96th Street station and back.

**In order to photograph the project I had to sign an agreement with Capitol Construction limiting my use of the photographs and while I do retain copyright, I am unable to license them for commercial use. For all inquiries about photo use, please contact Rosanna Alcala at ralcala@mtacc.info.

BREAKING THE AA BATTERY CYCLE

Batteries are key to all things digital.

About seven months ago I decided to stop the endless cycle of purchasing AA batteries and made the switch to Sanyo's eneloop Ni-MH rechargeable batteries for use in my strobes.

There are plenty of rechargeable battery options out there, but so far I have not had any issues using these in my Nikon SB900 and SB910. I also have been using them in my wireless keyboard and mouse.

Upfront they are more expensive than traditional AAs, but if you have ever had to run into a convenience store on the way to an assignment, then you know that isn't always the case. Given that scenario, spending $12.99 on a 4-Pack of rechargeable AA's  seems like a bargain, right?

Things to consider if you make the switch.

1. Buy enough rechargeable batteries so you can eliminate the need for traditional batteries altogether.
2. The batteries come pre-charged and are ready for use right out of the pack.
3. Once charged, the manufacturer claims the batteries will hold that charge for three years.
4. While initial cost is more, they pay for themselves quickly.
5. You have to carry another charger and remember to use it.

I recently read a great tip for organizing your rechargeable batteries over on Joe McNally's blog. To avoid mixing charged and depleted batteries use two pouches, such as Eagle Creek Pack-It Sacs, one green for charged batteries and red one for depleted batteries. If you can't find red and green, then really any two colors will work as long as it makes sense to you.

Final word of advice if you decide to make the transition. Habits are hard to break, so be careful to not throw your new rechargeable batteries in the trash. The best case is that you realize it and have to simply dig through the garbage, worse case, it becomes an expensive mistake.

Finally if all goes wrong, there is always that convenience store.

IS THAT A LEICA?

My Fujifilm X100S complete with gaffers tape.

As an owner of theFuji X100S for the past five months I've heard that question more than a dozen times. Second only to "Wow, do you still shoot film?"

It's a fair question. The Fuji X100S does somewhat resemble the Leica digital M9 or the M3 film camera and maybe that was what Fuji designers had in mind.

Somehow I think the X100S secretly likes this question. It's like watching a cover band that sounds just like the real thing and knowing that I only had to pay a fraction of the cost and had just as much fun. And just maybe that cover band breaks out and becomes famous on their own one day. Then goes from famous to classic.

Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto, Canada.

The first time I heard this question was in Toronto, Canada, during my first ten days with an X100S I rented from Borrowlenses.com. My guide during a beer tour (on the record, this was a personal shooting assignment) of the city actually combined the top two questions by commenting how cool that I was both using a Leica and shooting film.

Heron Marsh Trail in the Adirondacks, New York.

A couple of months later on a trail in the Adirondacks as a couple approached I could see the husband eyeing my camera. Just as we came together he commented that it had been a while since he had seen someone using a Leica. What really made this special was that he asked that question with a heavy German accent.

Red scooter and sign in Brussels, Belgium.

In Brussels, Belgium, as I was checking out of the hotel the desk clerk clearly was talking about something other than my bill. I was having a bit of trouble understanding him with his French accent until I heard the word Leica. Then it was clear, he was telling me that he hoped one day to afford one. Once again I took great delight in showing him that it was not a Leica, but in fact, the new Fuji X100S. Score one for international relations.

Randy's Donuts in Inglewood, Calif., near Los Angeles International Airport.

Then just the other day on the shuttle from the rental car agency to LAX I could feel the man across from me looking at the camera in my lap and sure enough, he finally asked which Leica I was carrying. I'm not sure even now he believes me that it was not what he thought it was.

Perhaps the 10mm red metal soft shutter release button I've recently added subliminally makes one think of the Leica emblem. Given that the red shutter button costs 96 cents,* combined with the $1,299 price of the X100S, I have a few more cameras to buy before my Leica 'impostor' equals the cost of an actual Leica M9. But this classic is mine.

*While the button costs $0.96, there is a $4.99 shipping cost. Also, there seems to be an issue losing the button which did happen to me, although I was lucky enough to find it in the bottom of my bag. I have since used super glue.