Mass Murder For Photographers - Is There An Alternative?

As I took pictures yesterday at the car show I was struck by several things. Prams, fat Englishmen, and delusional farmers from Dalwallinu. Photography in crowds can be like that, and the chief thing that it will put you in mind of is being caught in a stampede in a Brazilian football stadium.

I have tried to develop a scientific theory of crowd movement in hopes of devising some way to circumvent them. When I try to take a picture of a vehicle it is always best to have an unimpeded view - my readers don't want to see a family of five out for the day.

Public shows attract the public, however, and they move in packs  - slowly - from one exhibit to the next. It probably would not matter whether they were viewing Fabergé eggs in the Winter palace or dried fruit at the Royal Show - they would still move in a stately and disorganised manner and would block the view of anyone trying to photograph the exhibits. There is a rhythm to their wanderings - one group moves out of the way and another one moves in - it is almost as if they are doing a tag-team. They do not move quickly, but they do effectively prevent taking the picture.

The picture of the bus is a case in point. I am delighted with it, but I realise that it cost me over ten minutes of waiting and clearing my throat to achieve the empty space. I am glad that the camera was operating at 1/500 of a second as this was about the interval before the next kid with the ice cream piled into frame.

I think part of the problem is the fact that the Fujifilm X-100 outfit is so small and unobtrusive. Also I dress not to be noticed. So no one notices that I am trying to do a job there. In the old days of a medium format camera and a tripod and a bulb flash on a coiled cord you made more of a statement and people kept out of the way.

Perhaps it is time to put the X-100 on a tripod and the flash on a coiled cord. Plus wear a high-vis vest with Official Photographer on it. Or to be more accurate...Officious Photographer. Most of the crowd wouldn't know the difference.

Proof Of The Pudding

You'll recall that the last blog posting mentioned a new wide-angle converter for the Fujifilm X-100 series of cameras. It converts the 23mm lens that is fixed on the X-100 and X-100s to 19mm. You might think that 4 mm wider is not significant...but it really is.

Wide angle photography is a funny business. Leaving out panoramas and wide-format film cameras...and these are truly funny...we come to the way that standard digital cameras can be made to see a wide view of the world. Please keep in mind that wide also means high - when you drop the focal length by whatever means you effectively pack more into the frame vertically as well as horizontally. In other words you don't change the aspect ratio as you shoot.

Except, of course, when you do, Some cameras allow you to shoot in a 16:9 format to accommodate wide-screen television display. One client recently found that his camera has an external switch that does this, and when he inadvertently clicked it over he got image files that do not print out all that well on standard 2:3 inkjet paper. Now he knows.

For my part, I exercised the new converter on the X-100 at the Whiteman Park car show yesterday. There was a Nikon SB 700 helping to add sparkle and to cope with the shadows when the sun came out. It all worked splendidly.

As far as I can determine, the shots from this show are every bit as sharp as those taken with the companion camera - the Fujifilm X-E2 - taken at a previous show. In addition, the leaf shutter of the X-100 meant that I could run the shutter speed up and down for background effect without worrying about  getting the wrong flash synchronisation.

The focal length on the camera is now effectively 19mm and this approximates to 28mm on a full-frame camera. This is wide enough to allow a little closer shooting at a car show but avoids the looming corner effect of wider focal lengths - this is about as wide as you want to go to preserve some proportion in the result.

It must be noted, however, that if you need to go close-in, you need to unscrew the converter, turn off the powerful Nikon SB 700, and use the in-built flash on the camera. If you leave the converter in place you get a semi-circular shadow on the bottom of the image where the lens blocks the light.

Methinks the next stage of experimentation is to put a Fujifilm TTL flash on a coiled cord and see if it can overcome this handicap.

Will Wider be Wiser With Fujifilm?

Justin put me on to it. Or is that put me up to it...?

 He looked at my car pictures and recommended that I use my Fujifilm X 100 for daytime shots - better flash integration than a DSLR and a great deal lighter burden to haul about.

I needed a bit wider view than the fixed lens on the X100. It is 23mm and equates to the view that one would get with a 35mm lens on a film camera. I really wanted the view that one gets with a 24-28mm on a film camera but on the Fujifilm sensor.

Hey, presto, Fujifilm make just the thing. I ordered a WCL X100 converter lens. Mine is black to match the camera, but we also got in two more for stock - another black and a silver. That's what you see paired to the shop's Fujifilm X100s in the picture.

I've tried mine at home in the semi-gloom and it looks like it works - now to try it on Sunday at the car show at Whiteman Park. I shall show you the results so that you can compare them next week.

Note: the converter is actually small and light so it doesn't seriously affect the balance of the camera.

Canon - A Shining Light Into The Future

Canon Australia have come up with a very interesting proposition for users of their products - if they become become members of their photo-interest club, they can submit images of subjects that inspire them. The phrase being " Shine a light on..." as if we are spotlighting something.

The photographer is the one making the decision about what it is that is to be promoted. If they are ultimately successful in illustrating their passion with the Canon products they own - and that success is to be judged professionally by Canon and other photo experts - then Canon Australia will showcase their image and promote their interest through the Library of NSW, their own marketing, and a documentary to be made involving the photographer.

They have published full details of this contest on their Canon Australia website and we encourage people to go and have a look at it. Even if you are not competing, or do not win, you will be rewarded by looking at the entries. And you will get a unique insight into the psyche of the photographers...

The Ball O Light - Gary Fong In The Steampunk Era

I am glad that the neighbours can't see me in my little studio. They would ring the department, the men in the white coats would come, and that would be the end of it. As it is, I close the curtains and put on my Mad Doctor outfit and start experimenting...

The current line of research revolves around a steampunk event that will be run in May. I've decided to run a portrait set-up and have been assembling the equipment and the lighting. The get-up is no problem - I've been wearing steampunk outfits for the last twenty years at various events and it has stopped being costume long ago - it is clothing now, and old clothing at that...

The camera is the new Moriarty Portrait camera - supplied innocently by Justin Moriarty and the Fujifilm company. Not that they knew it at the time, mind, but I'm sure they will be charmed by the results in the end. Hey, any company that deliberately gives me a sepia setting in the menu of their digital camera ( the X-E2) must expect me to grab the idea and run with it. If they will kindly put a daguerreotype, ambrotype, and tintype setting in as well I will send them a bouquet of chrysanthemums.

Camera sorted, I have turned to lighting. As tempting as it is to devise a lighting system that incorporates a miniature steam engine ( Saito Mfg.. from Japan), a motorcycle generator, and antique light fittings, the work and oily mess involved would make photography impossible. So I have chickened out and  opted for electronic flash.

The Elinchrom Quadra system would do it on a professional basis - two light stands, two heads, battery controller, Skyport trigger and such, but I don't own one and I don't want to borrow one of the Rental Department's kits. The idea of steampunk is you think it up and make it yourself.

I do own some Nikon SB 700 speed lights so I turned to one of them and the Gary Fong collapsible Lightsphere. In the top the sphere I dropped one of the silver diffusers - up until now I have never been able to make this chrome accessory do anything. Now it is brilliant. It fires the light out into a flat annular pattern while still allowing some of it to exit the top of the Fong going toward the ceiling.

The result is absolutely even lighting and some degree of reverse fill in the shadows to the back of the portrait subject. No hot spot on the frontal planes of the face and no burn-out on bald heads. ( I have found my own pate useful for test purposes...)

I've got the light on a standard light stand and  have found that the legs of it can stand within the compass of my tripod legs - thus reducing the chances for people stumbling over them in the dark of a ballroom. I am thinking of decorating the legs of the tripod to further warn off the punters.

Next experiment will be to reduce the output from the Fong and do a hand-held SB 700 with a snoot or grip for spot lighting. Steam on!

Serving On The DEW Line

Easter in our family is traditionally spent serving on the DEW line.

No, not that chain of radar stations and weather * domes across Alaska and Canada - someone else can sit up there and freeze if they want to. No, I mean DEW all the things that have built up over summer before the rains make it impossible. This includes cleaning the arrows out of the gutters, hosing the lounge room, and burying the pets.

It is also wise to clean and oil the photographic equipment and change any parts that have broken. Dead pixels can be removed from sensors - not a job for people with shaky hands, I must say - and the computer screen can be collaborated. Or is that salivated? Well you do something to it and then it is ready for winter.

This year I tried all the lenses on all the bodies to reassure myself that the contacts still worked. One battery grip proved to be faulty but when I checked it here at work it came good. I put that down to the beneficent influence of our repair department. I am still waiting for the batteries in my Nikon cameras to give up the ghost but they are proving to be immortal.

Cleaning the sand out of the tripod legs has proved to be both a good and bad idea - I have a small beach on the floor of the computer room now. I used shotgun swab to clean the inside of the tubes and then oiled them with Ballistol. It might not be what the manufacturers use but it has proved to be perfect for every other use I have ever put it to and I can't see why this won't succeed. The smell is very comforting - Ballistol in the morning smells like victory...

The computer was not neglected. I blew through the circuits with a 24 v aircraft starter battery and everything seems freer now. I used fffg powder last year and it let quite a residue.

So we're all ready for winter. Hope you've been as busy yourselves.

* New Zealand also has a DEW line. It has wether domes...

I Missed A Call From This Number...

Well shame on you. There we went to all the trouble to look up your number and dial it with care and that's the way you treat us? Hah!

Today's phone technology is wonderful. And of course it is shared by the wonderful internet technology. And sometimes I am left wondering what new horrors will emerge...

Speed redial. If the number you call does not answer because the staff are all serving customers over the counter or trying to deal with other phone calls, just hang up and then press the redial button for as long as you want. You may still not get and answer because the staff are still busy, but at least you can have the satisfaction of knowing that you are making the chaos worse.

Missing a call is inconvenient. If it was the last gasp of your dying Auntie, it is sad. If it was your only chance at winning the $ 5,000,000 Lotto it is tragic. If it was just a call to tell you that your 3/8" wamblot has arrived, do not panic. We will ring again, after the fires have been put out and the dead heaved over the side.

Are you in a food hall? Are you currently operating a dragline digging coal out of an open-pit mine? Is your mobile phone held together with bandaids? If so, it might be easier for us to understand you if you send us a smoke signal or a message in a cleft stick. Or revert to Swahili click language. or Morse code. It'll sound the same.

" Who em I tokking to?" A good question, and one that we frequently get. A difficult one to answer, philosophically...I tend to retreat into " Camera Electronic Sales Department " because that is on my shirt and I can read it, albeit upside down.

You mustn't think I am entirely negative. The only part of me against the telephone is my ear, and as I have two of them I can vary the experience. One of them is deaf, and I am starting to think of it as a blessing...

Uncle Dick

PS: Excuse me, I'm just going out to find a shovel. I'm going to dig up Alexander Graham Bell and put him on the line.