Behind The Scenes
My First Nikon
When I was young, I photographed with film and did so just for fun, for memories - not with artistic intent. But even so, I remember having to chose which ISO film to buy and load for the next 24 shots based only on a rough guess of what lighting the day would bring. And those 24 exposures would - each one of them - be saved on that role and developed at a cost - so I always made that click carefully!
By the time I really started photographing seriously, film photography had become obsolete with the exception of the few purists who shoot and develop B&W film. Today, I can’t imagine framing a composition without a viewfinder, without instantly and effortlessly changing ISO, without a histogram to guide my exposure, and without the ability to capture as many images as I’d like with no concern for wasting film. And to be able to combine and edit my images digitally the very day I took them… it’s a huge head start!
My first digital camera was the Nikon D7200 - a traditional DSLR with an APS-C sensor. This sensor is smaller than the traditional full frame sensor used by most professional photographers, but the lenses and the body are far less expensive, so it seemed like a good place to start. I used this camera for about three years and discovered that I really enjoyed photography. I also really loved the ergonomics of the camera body and the great selection of Nikon lenses. Once I knew I wanted to continue taking photos, and decided it was time to started thinking about a full frame camera. My initial plan was to purchased a full frame Nikon DSLR, but several things changed over the next few years.
New Directions
As I continued to take pictures, I increasingly started combining my passion for photography with my ongoing interest in long distance cycling and running. Being able to run or ride many miles to spectacular and remote locations opened up great opportunities to capture a whole new range of compositions. So I set up a system of bike bags to carry the Nikon along a selection of lenses and a tripod while rode - that worked OK, but it was bulky. I even tried to run with that same set of equipment in a backpack, but it was, uh, difficult at best. So the hunt for smaller camera system was on.
During this time, the industry was transitioning to electronic view finders which allow for much smaller camera bodies, amongst other advantages. Initially, the transition was controversial with many photographers insisting they would continue to use the DLSR and Nikon was the last of the main camera companies to make the transition to electronic viewfinders - were they just a fad, would the purists and the professionals ultimately decide that DLSR was the superior technology? Nope.
As electronic review did in fact become the standard, there was increasing concerned that Nikon might be left behind and could even go out business. This all seems laughable now that Nikon has released several well rated electronic camera bodies, but at the time I was reluctant to invest in a potentially dead end system.
My interest in a smaller camera system and my concerns about Nikon, led me to look at the Fujifim XT series which uses essentially the same sensor size as my Nikon but with much smaller camera bodies and lenses - all of which translates to lighter tripod, smaller camera bag, etc. My second camera, which is the one I continue to use with running, cycling, and anywhere I want a small easy to carry camera, is the Fujifilm XT-30. I now used my XT-30 exclusively for photography on the run (or ride), and I also enjoy using it as a small carry around camera for urban photography and hiking.
Big Brother
I still wanted a full frame camera for the times when I would drive or hike to a photo shoot and be all in with my ‘best’ gear. By this time Nikon had come out with the Z-7, a will reviewed camera with a electronic view finder, but again things changed. As I continued to become more comfortable with the Fujifilm XT-30, Fuji released their new GFX series of medium format sensors. Larger than a full frame sensor (but smaller than some medium format sensors), the Fujifilm GFX has excellent low light performance, and has terrific dynamic range (rarely do I need to focus stack). It also a high pixel count so I can crop images if needed or print large versions while maintaining detail and clarity. Also, the Fujifilm medium format sensor has a 5x4 aspect ratio that I prefer to the traditional 3x2 ratio of a traditional full frame sensor (which I find far to rectangular, especially in portrait orientation). So, my second (and hopefully my last) camera is a Fujifim GFX-100s. This is not a great camera for fast action photography, and the camera body plus its lenses and the tripod to support it all add up to some real heft - definitely for the shorter journeys.
The Others
I have three ‘other’ cameras - two that I use regularly, and one that I’m just getting started with.
The first is a DJI Air 2s drone. Drone photography obviously opens up whole new horizons (bad pun), though the cameras are more limited. I’m still new to drone photography, and I still haven’t captured an image I like enough to post here; but hopefully soon.
The second is an iPhone 12. The iPhone is my camera of last resort: the best possible camera is the one you have with you when you see a great composition! The iPhone is also my test camera - often I use it on scouting trips to capture and later evaluate potential compositions that I might return to later with my one of my other cameras under better lighting conditions.
The third is a RICOH RICOHFLEX TLR #114 medium format Film Camera (shown here to the left) that I purchased from a a camera store in Japan. The 120mm film it uses today is still available today. It looks beautiful on the shelf and I plan to take it out soon for some traditional film photography shoots.
Wanderlust
Landscape photography gets me out the door - out to beautiful and places at beautiful times. The 3am alarm clock is not always met with joy, but once I’m out there and the first light of sunrise is starting to reveal the possibilities of new compositions, it all comes together! Most of my core photography happens in the Pacific Northwest portion of the United States where we are fortunate to have thousands of square miles of public lands (Bureau of Land Management) and great natural beauty in our national parks, costal ranges, etc…
I do most of my wandering in a converted van named Vincent (as in Vincent van Goh) - shown below alongside a ‘road’ out in the Lakeview BLM tract in southeast Oregon. Being able to go out to an area like this and just spend time there watching the light and clouds change for several days allows me to get a much better feel for the landscape and continuously ‘re-see’ my surroundings in new ways that lead to compositions I never would have initially considered.
The Digital Dark Room & My Philosophy of Photo Editing
Digital sensors produce a faded but data rich ‘RAW’ format image that needs to be ‘developed’ using computer programs such as Lightroom and or Photoshop. The degree to which this processing restores vs. enhances vs. entirely changes the light, content and feeling of the composition is a subject of endless controversy. Somewhat like the driver who sees anyone faster as reckless, and anyone slower as inept - photographers all have their own sense of how much editing is the ‘right’ amount.
In my approach to finding the ‘right’ about of editing for a given RAW image, I’ve been most inspired by Mads Peter Iverson’s approach of editing a photo to a point that allows it to fulfill its purpose.
For me, this means that I will clean up small distracting elements and emphasize certain areas of an image, but I don’t substitute a new sky if I feel the actual sky was “inadequate,” and I don’t add elements like a moon or a reflection that weren’t actually there. I certainly find no joy in using artificial intelligence to create or transform images. For me, the magic is not just creating a piece of digital art, but making an artistic impression of an actual time and place that was special to me. That is what gets me out of bed at 3am and creates the type of meaningful images I enjoy sharing with others.
