Equipment
and Methods
I try not to get overly involved in the equipment that is used to
make an image, because I do not think that it is central to the image making
process. However, the equipment remains a part of the process, and the final
image would not exist without it. I originally started this as a list of
equipment, but I could not restrain myself to simply that, as the when and how
I used the equipment is as (rather, more) important than the equipment itself.
I will therefore describe my approaches and equipment as it evolved
through time, in the hopes that this will better capture the process and
thinking that went into images during a particular period.
I started photography when I was about 8 with my dad's Pentax
Instamatic camera and a couple of lenses that he had with it. The light seals
had been ruined when it was dropped in a minnow pail, which required the back
to be taped shut (with intermittent success) with electrical tape. This worked
at the time when I was learning more about f-stops and exposure, but eventually
I began eyeing his new Nikon F3. When I was in my early teens, he began to
trust me with his new camera, which I used largely for astrophotography. When I
was in college, I scraped together enough cash to buy my FM2n and the
105mm f/2.5 manual focus lens, and used only that for quite a while. I believe
that it was a very fruitful time for me, as the limitations of only having one
manual focus prime lens made me learn to see photographically in a way that
would have not been possible otherwise.
More important than my camera choice was my film choice, however. It was in
college that I first tried slide film (Velvia,
specifically), and absolutely fell in love with it. Previously, I had used
print film because it had typically higher speed and relatively fine grain,
which was useful for the astrophotography that I was doing at the time. As I
transitioned from astrophotography into daylight scenes, I found I was
disappointed with the quality of the images, and while I could compose an
image, I was unable to get the "punch" that I saw in photography
books and magazines. I will never forget looking at my first roll of Velvia on a light table for the first time. It was a
defining moment. Some of the images you see on this site were from that very
first roll of Velvia.
Later in college, I bought a 4x5 monorail camera. This was also a fruitful time
as the elements of composition and color started to come together on the ground
glass. Camera movements opened doors that were not possible with a fixed-lens
system. Seeing my first 4x5 transparency on a light table was a similarly
defining moment as the first 35mm slide. I initially had a 210mm G-Claron, which gave very good images. I later followed that
with a 135mm Caltar-II lens and a 90mm Caltar II.
For several years, my camera setup consisted of my 4x5 monorail
and FM2. I got a cheap zoom lens (which actually gave surprisingly fair images
when sufficiently stopped down), but focused more on learning to see
photographically and technique than gear acquisition. The financial situation
of an undergraduate also assisted in that focus. I would use the built in
meter in the FM2 to meter the scene for the 4x5, taking a few shots with each
camera along the way. I still have a
good catalog of 4x5 images that have not been scanned as I do not yet have a
scanner capable of scanning them. That will come someday.
As my catalog of slides grew, I decided to get a slide scanner so that I could
get what I considered the best of both worlds with film capture and digital
processing. This was a good choice, and it led to an innovation that became an
important part of my photography to come - panoramas. I had a habit of
occasionally doing multiple-image panoramas on 35mm, but had no way to stitch
them together. I thought that I would stitch them together at some point later,
and was able to do that with panorama-stitching software. This was a major
development for me as it allowed relatively large prints from 35mm film.
Digital was a rising force in photography during this period, and I admit that
I was initially skeptical. The first pre-DSLR cameras left a lot to be desired
in terms of image quality, but with the advent of DSLR's
and their improvement, I began to see that there was serious competition in the
35mm field. I was a die-hard film user, I had decided (being able to say I was
a 4x5 shooter also helped with that), and I had many arguments for the
supremacy of film over digital. That took a blow when a friend of mine got a
20D, and produced images that I would have really struggled for with my film
setup.
Just before Christmas 2005, I made the (at the time what I considered
frivolous) purchase of a used D70. Upon comparing the images with my 35mm, I
realized that the image quality edge I was so certain 35mm film had was not the
case. The D70 produced images that were equal, and in some ways better than the
35mm film. There were some applications and situations where I still used film,
but more and more found I was using the D70 for most shots. I struggled to get
the color qualities that I was getting with Velvia,
but there were times when Velvia was too much for a
particular scene and the D70's rendering was superior. I used a 50mm AF-D for a
lot of the photography with that camera, as it was a superior lens to the zoom
I was using at the time. I continued using mosaicking
to create panoramas and to increase the effective resolution of typical shots.
Even stitching three or four images together greatly increases the possible
print size and quality.
After much thought and investigation, I decided to step up in the world of DSLR's and decided to change to a 5D. This necessitated new
lenses as well as the new camera, but I was impressed with many of the
qualities of the Canon products, and simply tired of waiting for Nikon to
produce a full-frame sensor. I have been very happy with my 5D, and it has been
a productive period for me, as you can see from the relative percentage of
shots that are with that camera.
And that brings us to the present. I have been experimenting recently with
macro photography, and am considering faster, wider lenses to assist with auroral photography. I would like to get a scanner someday
that would allow me to display and more easily print my collection of 4x5
images.
This has been a very brief overview of my gear and how I use it. I hope people
enjoy the images on the site, and that maybe they spark an idea for someone
else's photography. If you have questions, I would be glad to try to answer
them. Just send me an email.
Total list (some items are no longer in regular use):
Cameras
Pentax
Instamatic 35mm, assorted lenses
Nikon
Nikon FM2n
Nikon 8008s
Nikon D70
Nikon Coolpix 990 (IR modified)
Canon
Canon 5D
Busch-Pressman
4x5 field camera
Toyo-Omega
45D monorail 4x5
Lenses
Nikon
105mm f/2.5 AI-s
50mm f/1.8 AF-D
Canon
EF 24-105mm f/4 L
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Zenitar 16mm f/2.8 fisheye
4x5
Schneider 210mm G-Claron
Caltar II-n 135mm
Caltar II-n 90mm
Film
Fuji Velvia 50, 100F
Fuji Provia 100F
Kodak TMAX 100