Great News!

Waiting for Wisdom

This Saturday, July 31 is the Wildflower Festival at Kirkwood. You've heard me rave about it before. This is the only outdoor show we do and we have a blast!

• Music
• BBQ
• Wine and Beer tasting
• Guided Hikes
• Ride the chair lift
and of course, lots of art! Including my newest images of an owl nest that you won't want to miss. And more large cloth panels to delight your visual senses.
NOON to 5 PM Kirkwood California
See you there!





Badgers










More good news!

I'm heading up a Wildlife Photography Workshop in the Grand Tetons this fall. (see side bar)

I'll be the workshop leader for Nikonians Academy and look forward to many new adventures. Hope you'll join in.

Our MarchTour to Costa Rica is reserved for photographers though Nikonians and we are in the planning stages for Africa next May.

The two tours to Costa Rica in February still have seats available so let us know if you are interested.

D300 and why I sold my D200

I said in an earlier post that I would tell you why, after one shoot, that I decided to sell my D200 instead of keeping it for a second body. Well, Nikon helped me make that decision. You see, in Nikon's infinite wisdom to sell more cameras they moved some very important and often used buttons on the D300. First, they moved the image preview button so when switching from the D300 to the D200 you inadvertently push the wrong button to view the image or histogram.  

When pushing where the preview button is on the D300 on the D200, you get Menu instead of preview. If you push the Menu button on the D200, but you have the D300 in hand, you get the preview.

For many shooters this is not a problem, as the second body might only be used occasionally or as a back-up. For me, as a wildlife photographer (sports photographers will have the same challenges), I may switch between bodies every few shots. Why? Because I may be shooting a wide-angle or short telephoto on one body and a long tele on my tripod with the other body. When the action gets hot and heavy, I will be trying to cover all angles. No time to think which camera I have in my hand or which button is where. The last thing I want to do is miss the shot because a button is in the wrong place!  

Well, that is exactly what happened in Costa Rica when I was at a Quetzal nest waiting for the male to return. I noticed something wasn't right. I inadvertently pushed the bracket button and, since I don't use bracketing, I couldn't figure out how to turn it off!  Yep, the Quetzal returned to the nest while I was fussing with the buttons to turn off auto-bracketing!  See the image above, all I got was the tail-feathers sticking out of the nest!

As soon as I returned from my shoot in Costa Rica I found a willing buyer for my D200.  A good deal for him, and an opportunity or me to get a second D300!

D300 low light

Before we left for Costa Rica, I added to my digital gear a Nikon D300. It is all it is said to be. A great improvement over the D200 though the D200 is still an excellent digital camera. I have made many great images with the D200 and was planning to keep it for a second body. I'll tell you why I didn't in another post.

We were fortunate to find a festiva in the town of Samara before our "In The Rhythm™" tour began. Samara is one of our favorite small towns to hang out in. Anyway, during festiva there is usually a horse parade, high steppers, with winning ribbons and trophies. After the parade they have a bull riding contest. Lots of fun and great photo opportunities.

The bull riding is not like anything you've seen before. The local macho men get into the ring and when the ride is over, antagonize the bull. Naturally, when the bull chases them, the macho men head for the safety of the fence. What a blast! The bull usually gets the best of them and eventually is lassoed by a caballero and led back to the pen.

In this situation, the advantage of the D300 is its ability to capture images in low light at higher ISO, using higher shutter speeds, and with very little noise. Noise is the digital equivalent of grain in film. Remember how grainy 400 to 1600 ISO film used to be? Those that are not into photography might want to skip this technical stuff. Anyway, the D300 does such a great job with low light and high ISO, as witnessed in the image above.  You can tell by the shadow that not one hoof is one the ground! (3200 ISO, 1/160 sec., f2.8, -1 EV, aperture priority, Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 VR lens set at 95mm, no flash, hand-held)

I will post more at my web site soon:  http://www.stamates.com