climate change activist and science communicator; event photographer; amateur mapmaker — advocate for a stable global climate, reduced nuclear weapon risks, and safe human-AI interaction
Equipment, examples, history – all matters photographic
A friend of mine recently drew my attention to the climate related photography of Robert Van Waarden. The work is beautiful, and makes illustrates some compelling scientific and political points.
One especially nice post is: Best of 2009 – 20 Images of Climate Change Activism.
The world needs more climate change art.
At Ottawa’s 2010 Capital Pride festivities, I found myself thinking back to my Oxford days when I would generally only take a couple of hundred photos a month on my 3.2 megapixel digital camera.
By contrast, I took around 400 shots during the course of the parade and the party that followed. Initially, that struck me as a bit excessive and made me nervous. Then it occurred to me that a 4 terabyte external hard drive sells for about $400 these days, meaning that the cost of storing one gigabyte worth of photos is around 20¢ – ten for the external drive, and ten for the internal one it is backing up. The biggest constraint I face is the cost of replacing the 750GB hard drive in my iMac, given that the things really have to be stripped apart for that to be accomplished.
The cost per shot of digital is pretty amazing, compared with film. Of course, there is a new danger that accompanies that. With big memory cards and high speed internet connections, you risk putting more photos online than your friends or readers would ever wish to see.
Through Flying Penguin, I came across the remarkable photos of the New York Subway system in the 1970s and 80s. It certainly looks threatening.
For the most part, my photography just depicts pretty or interesting things that happen to be close to me. That said, I recognize that photography is a medium that has a capacity to go beyond documenting events and producing pleasure, to make meaningful artistic or political statements.
In the next while, I will try to dream up some more conceptual photo projects. Ideas would be welcome.
A number of my friends are fairly serious amateur photographers: people who have built up a repertoire of knowledge, various sorts of gear, and who display photography publicly online. Photography is certainly an excellent pastime. It satisfies geeky cravings for toys to play with, while serving as a creative outlet. It also lets you document and share what is going on in your life, with a group of friends who are increasingly likely to be far-flung (as we stay in touch with friends from former schools and employers, all over the world).
In addition to those appealing elements, photography has an interesting role within group dynamics. Everyone wants flattering photos of themselves, so being able to provide them makes you valuable to others. There is also competition between people who take photos. It takes place on the basis of quality of output, creativity, photographing interesting things, and gear. Indeed, photo gear is an increasingly appropriate way of demonstrating wealth. Whereas in some social circumstances, automobiles are probably the premier form of wealth expression, that isn’t well matched to a lifestyle where people move around often and relatively rarely see their friends in person. Photography is useful, visible, and a way of demonstrating capability, access, and wealth.
[Aside] On a somewhat related note, OKCupid has some data on what makes an attractive photo. Specifically, a non-flash shot taken with an SLR or 4:3 system camera at f/1.2 or f/1.8. The average 30 year old iPhone user has also had significantly more sexual partners than the average BlackBerry and (especially) Android user.
I have been using the Canon 5D Mark II for about a month now, and decided to take advantage of lower American prices for photo accessories and pick up the vertical grip when I was in the US recently.
Why use a vertical grip?
There are two major reasons for doing so: battery management, and changing the physical character of the camera.
Battery management
With the BG-E6, you can operate the 5D Mk II with two rechargeable batteries. It seems to alternate between drawing power from one and the other, keeping both at a similar level of charge. I have found that the 5D Mk II goes through its battery much more quickly than my Rebel XS did, especially if you have the LCD screen all the time. Even a single day of intensive shooting risks depleting a single battery, making a backup rather useful for day-to-day use, and pretty essential for travel. Of course, you can buy three batteries or so for the cost of the grip, which may be a superior option for people who don’t care for the ergonomic changes it produces.
The BG-E6 can also be loaded with 6 AA batteries, using an included insert, which could be useful in an emergency or in remote areas.
Ergonomics
The BG-E6 certainly improves the handling of the 5D Mk II when it comes to vertical shooting. It provides a useful handhold, a second shutter button, and controls for exposure and focus point selection. Because your hands are in a less awkward position when shooting vertically, it is more comfortable to compose shots. I also think you can push the shutter speed a bit lower without generating unacceptable camera shake. The grip also balances out the weight of heavy lenses a bit, making it feel like you are carrying around one big balanced block of photographic hardware, rather than a body with a heavy lens torquing it downwards.
Like using a lens hood, using the vertical grip also makes your camera system look a bit more professional, which could be useful or problematic depending on the circumstances. It might draw a bit more positive attention from potential clients and exhibitionistic subjects, but it will also draw attention from meddling security guards and muggers.
Is the grip worth the weight and the money? That really depends on your needs and preferences. I prefer the feel of the camera with the grip, and find that I take more and better vertical pictures while using it. At the same time, it makes the camera awkwardly large for storing in a camera bag, and does add a significant amount of weight to a body that can be quite an anchor when using a lens like the 24-70 f/2.8 or the 70-200 f/4.
Ottawa has never been my favourite city. While I have certainly met some people here who I like a great deal, and while there are certainly interesting kinds of work to be done here, I miss the beauty and familiarity of Vancouver. I also miss the options and excitement associated with larger places like Montreal and Vancouver, as well as the unique intellectual atmosphere of Oxford.
Lately, I have also felt as though it would be a good idea to spend a big chunk of time seeing more of the world than I have so far (though there are ethical issues that surround emissions from voluntary travel).
One thing that interferes with all of these plans is my rented apartment and the few thousand dollars worth of low-cost IKEA furniture and miscellaneous materials it contains. Finding it took quite a lot of effort, as good places in Ottawa seem to get snapped up almost instantly. That and sheer force of momentum make me hesitant to give it up, especially since that would mean finding a place to store my miscellaneous possessions, as well as a mechanism for moving them to the storage location.
It is odd how incapacitating it can be to own more things than you can carry yourself. The situation certainly suggests to me that it is wise to continue renting. My present situation already renders me immobile to an extent I find somewhat regrettable. A mortgage, property taxes, repair obligations, and the additional stuff that would inevitably accompany any kind of home ownership would be even more stifling.
I am not as badly off as I could have been. I am still using the same cheap IKEA furniture I bought straight after moving to Ottawa, even though an increasing proportion of it is held together with gaffer tape and screws I installed myself. Most of the surplus income that has accompanied full time work has likewise gone into paying off student debts, building up a cushion of savings, and buying photo gear. Photo gear may be the least anchor-like kind of possession, for me at least. For one thing, it packs a lot of dollar value into a small amount of space and weight. For another, every time I use it I want to go somewhere scenic or novel or important, so as to be able to put it to better use.
Photographing and re-photographing the same few neighbourhoods is not the more enriching experience.
Photographic lenses are expensive things, especially professional grade ones. For example, Canon’s 24-70 f/2.8L costs $1600. Their 70-200 f/4L costs $1480, with image stabilization.
And yet, the 24-70 can be rented for a weekend for just $25, and the 70-200 is $30. Renting makes even more sense with esoteric lenses which are useful for certain projects or for producing a novel effect, but which it doesn’t make that much sense to buy. A good example is the 14 f/2.8L, which costs $50 to rent for a weekend but $2790 to buy. There aren’t a lot of people out there who will shoot more than 56 weekends worth of fisheye shots.
Located at 499 Bank Street, Vistek rents all of these lenses, as well as lighting equipment and other photo gear. My experiences with them have been very good, and they charge the same amount for a long weekend lens rental as for an ordinary weekend. They also have stores in Toronto, Mississauga, Calgary, and Edmonton.
I have already tried renting the 10-22 3.5-4.5 for some day and night photos of Montreal. Some other lenses I want to rent are the 50 1.2L, the 24 3.5L tilt-shift, the 100 2.8L macro, the 100-400 4.5-5.6L, and maybe the 14 2.8L.
My photos from yesterday’s blogging event are on Picasa:
I think I managed to get a shot of everyone who read, with a few of the crowd thrown in. Some more photos are in a Facebook album. I also have photos from last year’s event.
My thanks go out to David Scrimshaw, who had the cleverness and boldness to point a couple of the ceiling-mounted house lights at the microphone, greatly facilitating the photography of all present. Indeed, there were very few annoying flashes.
If anybody wants full resolution files, they can contact me. Keep in mind, the original files are about 10 megabytes a piece, at 5616 x 3744 pixels. Also, my internet connection is in terrible shape. Getting these on Picasa took hours, and many false starts.
They were pretty much all shot between 6,400 ISO and 25,600 ISO. I was expecting the venue to be a bit brighter, so I brought my 70-200 f/4 lens, whereas my 50mm f/1.8 might have been a better choice.
The 5D Mark II is a great camera, and I have really enjoyed using it so far. The low-light capabilities are excellent. Even shots taken at 6400 ISO are not excessively noisy, and shots taken at 800 ISO look essentially perfect. That is useful for shooting at smaller apertures in situations without all that much light.
One very minor flaw, which is nonetheless annoying, is that the indicator for the number of shots left before your memory card is full tops out at 999. Even at full resolution, my 8GB compact flash card can store well over 1,000. People with 16GB or 32GB cards must be even more annoyed. You can argue that you only need to start worrying about how many shots you have left once that number falls between 1,000, but it still strikes me as bad design. For instance, if you were on a multi-month expedition somewhere far from computers, it would be useful to know how much space you have left each day.
If they are hell-bent on keeping the display to three characters, I would recommend expressing it as a percentage. Seeing ‘80%’ or ‘60%’ is a lot more useful than having ‘999’ flashing at you all the time.
Mark III designers, are you listening? If so, I would be very happy to serve as a tester for any prototypes…