Sunday, February 27, 2005

New Posts Soon!

I'll soon be able to post some new photos to the blog since the month is about to roll over (Flikr is maxxed-out for February)!

In the meantime, I'd like to revoke my recommendation on the 24-105mm G-VR and replace it with the 24-85mm G (not the D). I had the chance to try all three lenses (the 24-105mm G-VR, the 24-85mm D, and the 24-85mm G) and without question the best image quality of the three was the 24-85mm G. The 24-85mm D was the worst of the batch but had the advantage of using the least amount of light. If you're looking for a fast lens, then I would still recommend the 24-85mm D over the 24-85mm G, but if you can stand the little bit slower lens, the quality of the 24-85mm G's image more than makes up for the speed difference.

Monday, February 14, 2005

Equipment Recommendations

I've had a few people contact me looking for information about the type of hardware I use and what I would recommend. I'm certainly not an expert on the subject and there's no easy answer to that question aside from recommending the Apple Macintosh, Adobe PhotoShop, and a digital SLR (of which the only manufacturer I can recommend is Nikon). Based on that I've put together a basic kit through B&H Photo & Video who is my online retailer of choice (excellent service, fair pricing, and good selection and stocking).

Item and B&H Photo LinkB&H Price
Apple 17" iMac 1.6GHz w/ 512MB RAM, 250GB HD, Combo Drive$1,574.00
Epson Stylus R800$369.95
USB "A" to "B" 6 Foot Cable$12.95
Adobe PhotoShop CS$589.95
Lexar CompactFlash Type I & II USB Card Reader$19.95
Nikon D70, 6.1 Megapixel, SLR, Digital Camera with Nikon 18-70mm DX Zoom Nikkor Lens and Sandisk 1GB Extreme III CompactFlash Card$1,299.95
Total$3,866.75

There are certainly other options to lower the cost slightly or improve the quality. This system though is a simpler version of the system I which will produce 8.5 inch wide prints from a desktop computer.

I prefer to work from a laptop though and have a 13 inch wide printer (I like 11x14 and 13x19/13x20 prints, but 16-24" wide would be even better if I could afford the printer). The flexibility of the laptop has seduced my photographers lately with its ability to pass files from the camera to the laptop for preview in the field along with editing and prep work almost anywhere you choose. I also prefer to use a selection of higher quality lenses than a single versatile zoom lens. So to to answer the question of what I would buy if I were to start from scratch today I've assembled this system.

Item and B&H Photo LinkB&H Price
Apple 15" PowerBook G4 1.67GHz w/ 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, SuperDrive$2,289.95
Epson Stylus Photo 2200$609.95
FireWire 6 Foot Cable$19.95
Adobe Creative Suite Standard (include PhotoShop, Illustrator, & InDesign)$949.95
Lexar CompactFlash Type I & II USB Card Reader$19.95
Nikon D70, 6.1 Megapixel, SLR, Digital Camera$999.95
Lexar 2GB WA CompactFlash Card$194.95
Nikon Zoom 17-55mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S DX Lens$1,349.95
Nikon Zoom VR 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF Lens$509.95
Nikon Zoom VR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED AF Lens$1,429.95
Nikon Micro Nikkor 60mm AF$379.95
Nikon Micro Nikkor 105mm AF$649.95
Total$9,404.40

This is not my unlimited funds dream system (which would include the new Nikon D2x), but this is the list of all the parts I'd purchase to get the full range and quality I'd like without going overboard. I currently use only the Epson Stylus Photo 2200 and Nikon 80-400mm lens from this list. Everything else noted are newer offerings released after I made my purchase decisions (my primary lens is the Nikon 18-35mm ED Zoom -- an excellent wide-angle choice for the price). The wonderful thing with interchangeable lenses is that you don't need to buy all the parts at once but can pick-up a lens as you need or want it. I would probably start myself off with just the 24-120mm zoom lens as a good general lens and add on from there (i.e. the 60mm Micro in the spring to shoot flowers or the 80-400mm zoom in summer for wildlife).

Now after all that I'd like to note that the equipment does not make the photographer. I've seen people shooting excellent equipment who get photos that I'd be ashamed to show friends let alone display. I've also taken excellent photos from a point-and-shoot camera that rival some of the photos I've take with much better hardware. While the better equipment allows a photographer to better explore their potential, don't expect a better camera to make you an instant expert. Good photos are largely due to experience. The only way to get that experience is to shoot photos. Get out there and shoot! Don't be afraid of taking a bad photo -- humans learn from both mistakes and successes.

So that's my 2¢ for those who were interested.

Darryl Wattenberg has no affiliation with any company listed above. All pricing as of February 14, 2005.

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Port Huron: The Hollyhock

Our last stop for the day -- as the sun was begining to set -- was near the Bluewater Bridge. South of the bridge is a Coast Gaurd Station in Pine Grove Park which is partial visiable from the riverwalk.

Anchors
Anchors
Moored at the Coast Gaurd Station is The Hollyhock -- a Buoy Tender Ship. This ship and her crew are charged with minding the buoies in the Great Lakes.

Anchor Ice
Anchor Ice
Ice covers the anchor of the buoy tender.

Light!
Light!
Using the 80-400mm lens I was able to grab this stunning image of a light on a mast of the ship. Sunset brings out the best colors.

Port Huron: Pere Marquette Bascule Bridge

Survey Marker
Survey Marker
(Instant posting from cameraphone.) I was here. Now, were is here?
This is the former Pere Marquette Bascule Bridge at the riverfront. An industrial zone for decades, the area is in the process of conversation to a park. With the site cleaned up we were able get some access to the waterfront. This survey marker is right at the edge of the bridge on the south-side of the Black River.

C&O RR: Keep Out
C&O RR: Keep Out
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This sign sits at the edge of the park, just at the end of the current CSX yard. The touch that really made this humorous though is the barbed wire around the sign.

Pere Marquette Bascule Bridge
Pere Marquette Bascule Bridge
Here is the former Pere Marquette Bascule Bridge. The bridge has been left up for decades and the tracks no longer connect at either end of the bridge. Its a distinct item along the river front and not to be missed.

No Wake
No Wake
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No need to worry about the wake now.

Tree & Telegraph Pole As One
Tree & Telegraph Pole As One
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I really loved this merger of the tree and telegraph pole. I only wish I had a wider lens for this one.

Port Huron: Maryville Riverview

Reflections at the Seawall
Reflections at the Seawall
This was our first stop along the river. The boat lauch and water level station provided us a vast selection of images to record.

Wanna Swim?
Wanna Swim?
This ladder leads to a rather cold swim (as if the current weren't enough of a challenge).

Seawall
Seawall
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The reflections of the seawall at the boat slip are interrupted by the small pieces of ice.

Water & Ice
Water & Ice
The rock base at the boat slip is visible as the ice breaks away.

Riverview
Riverview
These old piers were fenced off and without question as to why.

Riverview
Riverview
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This lovely view across that same decaying pier looks upon one of Canada's river-front plants.

Gulls' Burg
Gulls' Burg
These Seagulls enjoyed their own little cruise aboard one of the floating ice chunks.

Port Huron: Marysville's Detroit Edison No. 203

My friend and I took a day trip out to the Port Huron area on a photo hunting mission. We came back with some excellent shots from what was an unbelievable February Saturday.

The Detroit Edison Locomotive No. 203
The Detroit Edison Locomotive No. 203
This first photo was an instant post from the camera phone of our first stop -- the Detroit Edison No. 203 steam locomotive (0-6-0) on static display at the Marysville Historical Museum.

THE
"THE"
There was something about the word "THE" on the tender with the deep blue sky and shadows from the trees I found attractive.

Metal Mushrooms
Metal Mushrooms
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With the jacketing removed from the locomotive all these staybolt caps were exposed. It reminded me of a field of metal mushrooms.

Double Handles
Double Handles
Larry was particularly interested in this double handle assembly on the locomotive tender.

Bolts, Handrail, and Sky
Bolts, Handrail, and Sky
For the final image in this series I present you with the smokebox of the locomotive.

There were a couple of other choice photos from this series that I would like to have posted here as well, but alas the Flickr account is maxxed out for the month so they will have to wait.

Friday, February 11, 2005

Stand Back

Stand Back

What more can say about this photo? This image was captured at the Birmingham, MI Amtrak Station by the cameraphone (handheld) waiting for a friend.

PhotoBlog Template Changes

I've been working on updating the supplied Snapshot template from Blogger and have nearly completed my mission. At this point I've replaced the provided header graphic with a new one of my own. For those who might not recognize it, the LCD at the lower left from the D100 as is the image of the controls on the left side of the camera body at the right of the title bar. The center image of the tiger was taken at the Detroit Zoo and the large image to the right is the Pere Marquette 1225's drivers and rods. My plan has been to model the entire blog from the cool gray provided in the template and the Blogger Blue. I'm not fond of the Blogger Orange for more than a trace element here or there, so the large quantities in the sidebar have been removed. The pink used for links in the template and header was nice, but not me, so out those went. These little touches aren't much but it has made this PhotoBlog my own and help bring the focus of this blog back to the photos.

Fred @ the Office

A Picture Share!

Fred at the the office enjoys my PhotoBlog.

My Car and Camera Phone

Honda Element

Yet another test? Yes! This is an outdoor test on an overcast February morning of my Honda Element behind the office.

Cats in August

Cat Mirror
Cat Mirror
Cheddar and Pepper play against the wall at the old Pembroke Manor apartment.
Taken on August 23, 2004 at 9:32pm EST


peek-a-boo
Peek-A-Boo
Cheddar does his old game of peek-a-boo from inside a Sprite box.
Taken on August 23, 2004 at 9:29pm EST

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Another Test

A Picture Share!

This is another test image from the new camera phone. I'm not pleased with the images off this thing, but at least some of the trouble I fear is their blue LED "flash." I'm sure I'm be playing with it more.

New Camera Phone Test

A Picture Share!

So this is a test photo from my new phone -- the Samsung MM-A700 (also on the SprintPCS network).

Camera Phone Test

Camera phones are one of the worst devices ever created. They are quite handy though.

A Picture Share!

This was a quick test done with my Samsung N400 SprintPCS phone.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

January 22, 2005 Snow

Snowy Fire Lane
Snowy Fire Lane

We had a heavy amount of snow in just a few hours on January 22nd. Driving was risky so we stuck close to the apartment and got a bunch of the chores done. About noon we ventured out to check out the snowfall. These couple of photos are the "prettiest" of the bunch.

Snowy Fire Lane
Snowy Bush

Birds in Ohio

The day after Christmas Drie and I were at her parents place in Ohio for a few hours before driving home. They have several bird feeders attraching the local birds and squirrels. Through the windows of the house and sun porch we snapped shots as best we could.

DSC_5083
DSC_5083
DSC_5083
DSC_5083

Pere Marquette 1225 in the Snow

Steam Locomotives don't run often in the snow. The Steam Railroading Institute ran a series of Christmas family trips though in 2004 titled the North Pole Express. The trips ran from Owosso to Cheasaning (the North Pole USA), Michigan where the passengers enjoyed the indoor carnival (see the photos at MSTRP). It was a spectacular series of runs which generated some wonderful images.
Snow on the Rods
Snow on the Rods
Snow on the Rods
These three images were snapped the last weekend with snow on the ground and the locomotive. I took advantage of the crew's servicing time on the 400-ton locomotive to enjoy some of the details coating in snow.

Some Other Photos

Just incase you were not aware of a couple other options to check-out my photos, check the following sites:
Darryl Wattenberg's Michigan Train Watchers: This is a site that I started many years ago following a trip to New York to ride and watch the C&O 614 steam locomotive. It ballooned from there and eventually led to my involvement with the MSTRP/SRI (see next item). The site has a large number of photos including some of the best in Railfan photography I've produced.
MSTRP/SRI: The Michigan State Trust for Railway Preservation, Inc.'s Steam Railroading Institute owns and operates the Pere Marquette 1225 steam locomotive. After shooting an excursion to Clare in 2001 I ended up volunteering with the group shooting both stills and video. My work is scattered throughout the site. Some of the better, high resolution stuff is posted in the pressroom.
Darryl's Photos: This was a site I started to convert many of my early 35mm film albums and first digital experiments for viewing on the web. It's a long involved project that ran out of steam, but there's still some good stuff posted there.

A Sad Day for Film

Hasselblad 500C System on eBay
Hasselblad 500C System on eBay

Today I got my two film cameras closed through eBay auctions (boy I hate dealing with eBay). My Hasselblad 500C system (above) was by far my favorite, but alas, it was more than three years since I'd run a roll of film through the camera (and Hasselblads don't like to not be used). The Nikon FE2 was my workhorse 35mm film system (below) and that hadn't been used in more than a year. I really hated to part with either camera, but they weren't doing me any good sitting in the closet, and drooling over the Nikon D2X made me realize that it was time to let it go.

Hasselblad 500C System on eBay
Nikon FE2 System on eBay

Drie and I still have one film camera (the Nikon N80), but most of the time we're using the digital SLR (Nikon D100). With any luck we'll be looking at the Nikon D2X soon, but its soooooo pricey!

Detroit Zoo: Tigers

Nap Time?
Nap Time?

The tigers were all inactive when we arrived. Two of them, including this one, were sleeping in their cave before the bustling children with their parents woke them up.



Why am I up?
Why am I up?

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This poor tiger didn't seem too pleased that his nice morning nap had been interrupted.



Bored Tiger
Bored Tiger

And this very bored tiger simply waited by the exhibit door hoping to go inside.



Playtime
Playtime

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Since they obviously were not going to get any sleep with all the noisey people, perhaps some light-hearted play was in order.



Tiger Parent
Tiger Parent

This poor tiger parent was interrupted from a nice nap for a little loving from the youngster.

Detroit Zoo: Polar Bears


A Polar Bear and the Ice Chunk.

There's a little pool near the entrance to the viewing tunnel that still had chunks of ice floating. Unfortunately the path is below the level of the pool so its rather difficult to get good photos. There were some choice moments with this guy poking the ice chunk but alas the D100's buffer was always full or the shot was obstructed. At least I got a few -- this being the best.




A Polar Bear and his Stick.

While this isn't a great photo it was amusing. The Polar Bear was just taking the nice stick for a walk.




Polar Ground Lov'n.

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This was the most adorable moment -- the Polar Bear laid down and rubbed his face in the snow. It sure looks like he really like his snow :)

Detroit Zoo: Arctic Fox

Detroit Zoo: Arctic Fox

This cute little fellow didn't do much while Drie and I visited the
Detroit Zoo this past Sunday morning. He was such a cute little feller
though.

This is the first test of sending a photo to the PhotoBlog through
flickr's e-mail interface though.

It's all new

Forgive me for the first few posts -- this is all new and I'm still figuring out how to get all the parts to work together. I'm obviously running the blog itself through Blogger, but I'm using their recommended photo hosting service flickr also. So I need to post photos there before I can drop them into the blog. We'll so how this works and hope for the best though.