Nature and Travel Photo Specialists

Quality Images and Digital Photo Safaris

 

Photo Tip: An Ode To Feet

Posted Thu, 02/04/2010 - 13:48 by David Cardinal

Okay, so you've remembered to plan out your background, the light is right and your hoped for bird has just landed right in front of you. You wait until the right instant as it glanced at you and the light shines into its eye. Click and you're done. Right? Well not quite. There's something not quite right when you look at the image. You forgot the feet. Sure, it's happened to all of us countless times. And sometimes you can't work around it. But we'll share a few tips that will help... Read more »

Sigma 24-70, Another "Pro Value" Champ from Sigma

Posted Thu, 01/28/2010 - 12:45 by David Cardinal

Sigma continues to impress me with their updated versions of pro and semi-pro lense for D-SLRs. They provide excellent value with pricing below the Nikon and Canon versions while not sacrificing image quality. Their new 24-70mm f/2.8 full frame HSM (same as USM or AF-S) is no exception...

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Nikon Updates Software with Windows 7 Versions, Bug Fixes

Posted Wed, 01/27/2010 - 08:49 by admin

Nikon released minor updates for many of its software packages today, including: View NX 1.5.3, Nikon Transfer 1.5.3 (Windows) / 1.5.2 ( Macintosh), WT-4 Setup Utility   1.1.4, Thumbnail Selector  1.1.4, WT-4 Camera Control Utility for 64-bit OS (v.1.1.4 Windows only). View NX and Nikon Transfer primarily add support for both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6.x), but there have also been several bug fixes, and a few added features as well... Read more »

A Sad Day for Photography?

Posted Tue, 01/26/2010 - 09:53 by David Cardinal

Today Nikon gave away $125,000 in prizes to two lucky contest winners. Awesome, right? The grand prize of $100,000 is one of the largest prizes for a single winner I've every heard of. Long live photography. Except that the winning entries weren't photographs... Read more »

How Lucky Are You?

Posted Thu, 01/21/2010 - 12:47 by David Cardinal

We all know that wildlife photography relies heavily on luck. No matter how much skill we put into "making our own luck" by being in the right place with the right gear and being ready the wildlife has to cooperate. That's what makes it so exciting and makes the results so special. Tragically the winner of this year's BBC Wildlife photographer of the year contest--perhaps the world's most prestigious--made too much of his own luck, apparently using a hired 'model' wolf, Ossian, to create his winning image... Read more »

My Day with Moose & Joe

Posted Wed, 01/13/2010 - 11:04 by David Cardinal

One of the downsides of being a nature photographer is limited opportunities to socialize. There's no water cooler at the office. So it's always fun when I get a chance to shoot with some of my friends. I was fortunate today to spend the day with Moose Peterson and Joe McNally while they co-lead their landscape workshop in San Francisco with Laurie Excell and Kevin Dobler. Their DLWS series has become immensely popular. I was fortunate to co-teach the very first one with Moose in Moab many years ago but now there is quite a large team at each one and the events are longer and better than ever... Read more »

Get a Head Start on A New Lens for the New Year

Posted Fri, 01/08/2010 - 14:01 by David Cardinal

With the new year I know many of you have new cameras and are thinking about new lenses. Some of the best advice I can give is to rent or borrow any expensive lens before shelling out a lot of money for it. If you have a local camera store sometimes they will credit rentals against an eventual purpose. Otherwise the best pricing and service for online rentals (and local if you're in the San Francisco area) is from borrowlenses. Read more »

Restore High ISO Color with a Single Click

Posted Fri, 01/08/2010 - 11:03 by David Cardinal

There is plenty of excitement about low light photography made possible by the high-ISO settings and increasingly good noise reduction in the newest cameras. But lost in the shuffle is that color is also lost as we increase the ISO. High ISO images tend to be typified by a 'washed out' look that seriously detracts from the Wow of your image. The good news is that correcting much of that problem is much easier than most people think... Read more »

Nikon Updates Pro D-SLR Firmware with fixes, large CF card support & new Goodies

Posted Wed, 01/06/2010 - 08:23 by David Cardinal

Nikon has just rolled out a very useful firmware update for most of their Pro D-SLR line (except the D3S which presumably already has these improvemnts). The new firmware includes support for CF cards up to 64GB, improved Auto White Balance, some focus options and my favorite which sets the time from a GPS clock. You can download it from the Nikon USA site. For more details... Read more »

Deluxe African Photo Safari May, 2011

Posted Tue, 01/05/2010 - 12:07 by David Cardinal
Dates: 
May 08, 2011 - May 22, 2011

Deluxe Modular Digital Photo Safari to Botswana, May, 2011

[Maximum 10 photographers, 7 spots available, main trip May 8-21, extension May 21-27]

 

 

Female Leopard (Legadima) scouting for Prey
Okavango Delta, May 2008 Photo Safari

I'm very excited to be going back to Southern Africa after the great trips we've had in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and our just completed 2009 trip. Our next scheduled trip--May, 2011--features a uniquely modular design so you can go on all or just some parts of it to accomodate your time and budget.

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Bibble Pro 5 Announced & Shipping: Faster Raw Processing

Posted Wed, 12/30/2009 - 17:54 by David Cardinal

Bibble Labs is shipping its updated flagship Bibble Pro 5. Faster than ever Bibble is the speed king of raw file processors. The newest version now has selective non-destructive editing added to its arsenal, clearly an attempt to broaden its capabilities to match up with Adobe Lightroom. It can be downloaded from Bibble Labs and is a free upgrade to recent Bibble licensees, or $99 for those with older licenses. A full version is $199. The full details follow... Read more »

Point & Click Photoshop made even Easier: nik Releases Viveza 2.0 Upgrade

Posted Mon, 12/28/2009 - 13:20 by David Cardinal

When I first saw Viveza I wasn't sure why I needed it. After a decade of using layers & layer masks for image enhancement learning how to use U-Points instead seemed un-necessary. But once I started using Smart Objects more often in Photoshop I wanted a Smart Filter plug-in to allow me to do image adjustments while retaining all the power of Smart Objects. Viveza fit the bill perfectly. And to my surprise I found that I got quite quick with U-Points and they worked out very well. So now nik has upgraded Viveza... Read more »

Gift Card Idea: Secure Your Online Self with an Ironkey

Posted Thu, 12/24/2009 - 06:14 by David Cardinal

When I first wrote about my Ironkey secure USB drive I didn't really expect to need its fancy self-destruct feature. But sure enough it got left at the Johannesburg security checkpoint and I didn't realize it until a day later. That one incident paid for the device. Because it is totally secure, both encrypted and physically designed to be impervious to cracking, I didn't have to worry about a thing. Simply get another one. But it does so much more than protecting your data that I wanted to update my review, especially since I'm sure many of you will wind up with Amazon gift cards burning a hole in your pocket after Christmas...

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PhotoAcute Studio 2.89 Update Released

Posted Tue, 12/22/2009 - 08:20 by David Cardinal

PhotoAcute has released PhotoAcute Studio 2.89 which includes better alignment of exposure bracketed images (like those used to create HDR images) with moving objects or varying illumination. It also features some new profiles (listed below) and some other fixes. It is a free download for current users. Read more »

Year End Discounts on Popular Nikon 70-300mm VR and 18-200mm VR II lenses

Posted Mon, 12/21/2009 - 09:56 by David Cardinal

Nikon has put in place an "instant savings" campaign for great values on two of their most popular new lenses, the "must have" 18-200mm VR II version--a great upgrade to the original whose only downside is the increased cost, and the new VR version of their small and very sharp 70-300mm lens. The catch is that you get the $200-$250 discount only when you purchase a new D-SLR...

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Insure Your Flight Shots by Following a Plan

Posted Thu, 12/17/2009 - 14:10 by David Cardinal

It's easy to get excited about great, close-up flight images. But not as easy to duplicate them. One mistake many photographers make is to zoom in as far as they can right away and desparately try to focus on the bird--often against a mottled background. They would probably be better off just taking a deep breath and making a plan to work their way into the shooting opportunity.

bi_afrskimmer_0058

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GearGuide: Digital Cameras for Bird Photographers

Posted Mon, 12/14/2009 - 08:23 by David Cardinal

More and more birders are becoming interested in photography. To go beyond the limitations of digiscoping (limited low light capability, tricky auto-focus, limited panning or ability to capture action, etc.) requires a fairly serious investment in a camera body and lenses. In this section of our exclusive GearGuide we'll cover tips for what to look for in a camera body...

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GearGuide: Camera Lenses for Bird Photography

Posted Sat, 12/12/2009 - 12:35 by David Cardinal

Even more important to excellent bird photography than having the right camera is having the right lens. There is no point in purchasing that dream camera body and crippling yourself with a cheap lens. In the 8 years I've been leading digital photo safaris I've had the chance to use or at least see used just about every likely lens made for Nikon and Canon camera bodies and have plenty of hopefully useful thoughts to share with you:

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Photodex Updates ProShow Producer to Include Facebook, Twitter Integration, Performance

Posted Fri, 12/11/2009 - 14:38 by David Cardinal

Photodex has released Producer 4.1 (free to current licensees of Producer) including built-in Facebook and Twitter integration (automatically upload your shows to Facebook and/or announce your uploads on Twitter. They've also improved performance, fixed a lot of bugs and improved the interface to slide styles. You can download it now, or read the full set of improvements... Read more »

Nikon Updates Excellent 300mm f/2.8 lens and TC-20E

Posted Thu, 12/10/2009 - 08:42 by David Cardinal

Nikon has updated the already excellent 300mm f/2.8 AF-S lens with VR II (enhanced VR) and a Nano Crystal coat for reduced glare, and the least favored sibling of the Nikon TC family the TC-20E III... Read more »