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We've just had the chance to put a production Sony a9 III through our studio scene. The question we most wanted to answer was: is there any image quality cost to adopting a global shutter sensor? The short answer is: yes.

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Global shutter sensors have been available and used in industrial settings for some time now, but haven't made their way across to photography because the more complex design meant their image quality wasn't a match for the best progressive-scan CMOS designs. Sony said the a9 III's Stacked CMOS design overcame any compromise in ISO or dynamic range. This doesn't appear to be the case.

Buy Now:

$5998 at Amazon $5998 at B&H $5998 at Adorama

However, in the context of a professional sports photography, the compromises that have been made may well make sense, in return for the sheer speed of capture the a9 III is capable of, both in terms of burst rate and its fast, distortion-free shutter.

$(document).ready(function() { ImageComparisonWidget({"containerId":"reviewImageComparisonWidget-27854775","widgetId":898,"initialStateId":5837}) })

The most immediate difference in capability is that the a9 III has a base ISO of 250. This means that you can't give it as much light as its peers with base ISOs of 100 or lower. This is not necessarily an issue for sports photography, where maintaining a high shutter speed is much more important than the need to optimize image quality by staying at a low ISO.

Has the studio scene changed?

The a9 III is one of the first cameras we've shot since setting up our studio scene at our new location. Our a7CR images raised concerns about how consistent the results are between the new installation and our previous setup. In response to these concerns, we re-shot the Sony a7R V (whose higher resolution viewfinder makes it much easier to fine-focus than the a7CR) and checked the Raw values against the photos taken in the old studio.

With some slight adjustment of the lights, we reduced the existing 0.08EV discrepancy down to 0.02EV difference for the grey patches we use for noise assessment. We wanted to make sure that both we and our audience could have complete faith in the consistency of the test scene before testing the a9 III.

The files shot on Jan 2nd 2024 and the original versions, as featured in the comparison tool, shot on Nov 11 2022, can be downloaded here.

What might be of more concern to sports shooters is that the high ISO performance appears to be as much as one stop noisier$(document).ready(function() { $("#icl-5838-917692873").click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(5838); }); }) than its full-frame rivals, especially as you reach its highest ISO settings$(document).ready(function() { $("#icl-5839-2086734876").click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(5839); }); }). There's a noticeable softness to the 'grain' pattern in the a9 III's images too, which we suspect is the result of noise reduction being applied in the Raws.

This is in line with what we expected. Essentially the a9 III's sensor works by having two photodiodes at each pixel: one to capture the light, initially, and the second to act as a holding buffer, that allows all the pixels to be read-out simultaneously. This design effectively halves each pixel's capacity for light, which explains the elevated base ISO and the decreased noise performance, which brings it closer into line with the performance of APS-C cameras. In addition, the complexity of the design means we don't get the dual conversion gain circuitry that helps improve high ISO performance on other recent cameras.

How does the a9 III's dynamic range compare?

Just as staying at low ISOs is rarely critical for sports, nor is maximizing dynamic range for a discipline that generally shoots JPEGs for immediate delivery, with no time to exploit extra DR during careful processing as, for instance, landscape shooters might.

The sensor's reduced capacity for light has an impact on dynamic range, since the entire image becomes noisier, but we should be careful not to double-count this by interpreting it as a separate dynamic range cost. At its launch, Sony told us the a9 III has dynamic range comparable with previous models, and our measurements show that it is comparable with cameras when operating at ISO 250. Notably most other cameras can operate at lower ISOs than this, and hence have a higher maximum dynamic range than the a9 III.

When compared, the Sony a9 II, if anything, shows more noise if shot at its ISO 200 setting when brightened, than the a9 III. The a9 III's smaller photodiodes mean there's more photon shot noise in the ISO 6400 shots (simply because the Mk III captured less light), but if you try brightening the low ISO files there doesn't appear to be an additional (electronic) read noise cost. It's the same story if you try to reduce exposure at base ISO and brighten: the a9 III is a little behind the a9 II because its base ISO is higher, but there's not a big difference in additional noise if you compare similar exposures (where photon shot noise would be similar so differences caused by read noise would become apparent).

Summary

Examining the a9 III's images shows everything that you'd expect from it having a reduced capacity for light. The higher base ISO isn't inherently a problem for sports shooters, so it's simply a question of whether the noise penalty is worthwhile for all the things that super-fast 120fps shooting and global shutter bring. That's something we'll consider in more depth in our final review.

But what does this trade-off mean beyond the pro sports market? Our tests show that this sensor's performance comes with an image quality hit that might make less sense for general photography. Furthermore, this cost of up to a stop of image quality in return for added performance is likely to make global shutter less appealing in the smaller APS-C and Four Thirds formats, which don't have the luxury of so much IQ to give up.

Overall, the a9 III still looks promising, for its intended purpose, but it shouldn't be assumed to herald the future of cameras as a whole.

Buy Now:

$5998 at Amazon $5998 at B&H $5998 at Adorama

We've just had the chance to put a production Sony a9 III through our studio scene. The question we most wanted to answer was: is there any image quality cost to adopting a global shutter sensor? The short answer is: yes.

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Global shutter sensors have been available and used in industrial settings for some time now, but haven't made their way across to photography because the more complex design meant their image quality wasn't a match for the best progressive-scan CMOS designs. Sony said the a9 III's Stacked CMOS design overcame any compromise in ISO or dynamic range. This doesn't appear to be the case.

Buy Now:

$5998 at Amazon $5998 at B&H $5998 at Adorama

However, in the context of a professional sports photography, the compromises that have been made may well make sense, in return for the sheer speed of capture the a9 III is capable of, both in terms of burst rate and its fast, distortion-free shutter.

$(document).ready(function() { ImageComparisonWidget({"containerId":"reviewImageComparisonWidget-41675446","widgetId":898,"initialStateId":5837}) })

The most immediate difference in capability is that the a9 III has a base ISO of 250. This means that you can't give it as much light as its peers with base ISOs of 100 or lower. This is not necessarily an issue for sports photography, where maintaining a high shutter speed is much more important than the need to optimize image quality by staying at a low ISO.

Has the studio scene changed?

The a9 III is one of the first cameras we've shot since setting up our studio scene at our new location. Our a7CR images raised concerns about how consistent the results are between the new installation and our previous setup. In response to these concerns, we re-shot the Sony a7R V (whose higher resolution viewfinder makes it much easier to fine-focus than the a7CR) and checked the Raw values against the photos taken in the old studio.

With some slight adjustment of the lights, we reduced the existing 0.08EV discrepancy down to 0.02EV difference for the grey patches we use for noise assessment. We wanted to make sure that both we and our audience could have complete faith in the consistency of the test scene before testing the a9 III.

The files shot on Jan 2nd 2024 and the original versions, as featured in the comparison tool, shot on Nov 11 2022, can be downloaded here.

What might be of more concern to sports shooters is that the high ISO performance appears to be as much as one stop noisier$(document).ready(function() { $("#icl-5838-917692873").click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(5838); }); }) than its full-frame rivals, especially as you reach its highest ISO settings$(document).ready(function() { $("#icl-5839-2086734876").click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(5839); }); }). There's a noticeable softness to the 'grain' pattern in the a9 III's images too, which we suspect is the result of noise reduction being applied in the Raws.

This is in line with what we expected. Essentially the a9 III's sensor works by having two photodiodes at each pixel: one to capture the light, initially, and the second to act as a holding buffer, that allows all the pixels to be read-out simultaneously. This design effectively halves each pixel's capacity for light, which explains the elevated base ISO and the decreased noise performance, which brings it closer into line with the performance of APS-C cameras. In addition, the complexity of the design means we don't get the dual conversion gain circuitry that helps improve high ISO performance on other recent cameras.

How does the a9 III's dynamic range compare?

Just as staying at low ISOs is rarely critical for sports, nor is maximizing dynamic range for a discipline that generally shoots JPEGs for immediate delivery, with no time to exploit extra DR during careful processing as, for instance, landscape shooters might.

The sensor's reduced capacity for light has an impact on dynamic range, since the entire image becomes noisier, but we should be careful not to double-count this by interpreting it as a separate dynamic range cost. At its launch, Sony told us the a9 III has dynamic range comparable with previous models, and our measurements show that it is comparable with cameras when operating at ISO 250. Notably most other cameras can operate at lower ISOs than this, and hence have a higher maximum dynamic range than the a9 III.

When compared, the Sony a9 II, if anything, shows more noise if shot at its ISO 200 setting when brightened, than the a9 III. The a9 III's smaller photodiodes mean there's more photon shot noise in the ISO 6400 shots (simply because the Mk III captured less light), but if you try brightening the low ISO files there doesn't appear to be an additional (electronic) read noise cost. It's the same story if you try to reduce exposure at base ISO and brighten: the a9 III is a little behind the a9 II because its base ISO is higher, but there's not a big difference in additional noise if you compare similar exposures (where photon shot noise would be similar so differences caused by read noise would become apparent).

Summary

Examining the a9 III's images shows everything that you'd expect from it having a reduced capacity for light. The higher base ISO isn't inherently a problem for sports shooters, so it's simply a question of whether the noise penalty is worthwhile for all the things that super-fast 120fps shooting and global shutter bring. That's something we'll consider in more depth in our final review.

But what does this trade-off mean beyond the pro sports market? Our tests show that this sensor's performance comes with an image quality hit that might make less sense for general photography. Furthermore, this cost of up to a stop of image quality in return for added performance is likely to make global shutter less appealing in the smaller APS-C and Four Thirds formats, which don't have the luxury of so much IQ to give up.

Overall, the a9 III still looks promising, for its intended purpose, but it shouldn't be assumed to herald the future of cameras as a whole.

Buy Now:

$5998 at Amazon $5998 at B&H $5998 at Adorama

Our year in cameras

The major manufacturers released 21 new cameras in 2023, three more than the previous year. Perhaps this is an early indicator that the slowdown in manufacturing and chips we saw during the pandemic may be coming to an end.

We've compiled a list of every major camera released last year. There are certainly some new cameras we expect to be favorites for years to come, as well as some headscratchers. When we break it down by manufacturer, some were definitely more busy than others.

It's pure speculation what any of this means for 2024: will the trend of increased new releases continue? Will others who were quiet in 2023 ramp up this year? Will a new leader emerge? Time will tell.

A quick note: this list isn't meant to be an all-inclusive rundown. For instance, you won't find instant cameras, action cameras, smartphones or outliers like the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses in this recap. You also won't see the Sony a9 III on this list because it was only announced in 2023 and not released.

Canon

Canon released four cameras between February and May 2023.

The EOS R8 was a more-than-capable entry-level full-frame mirrorless camera that earned a place in our end-of-year buying guide. At under $1500, we gave it high marks for packing Canon's latest AF capabilities and attractive video in a compact, ergonomic body with twin dials.

Around the same time, the EOS R50 also was announced. A compact mirrorless built around a 24 MP APS-C sensor, it was aimed at entry-level smartphone users seeking something a little more out of a camera.

Later in the year, the EOS R100 and PowerShot V10 arrived. The R100 was a parts bin of camera parts, cobbled together with previous generation tech and less sophisticated autofocus, and the V10 was a vlogging camera with a mic array and social media-friendly filters.

Fujifilm

Fujifilm released two cameras last year, and both cameras were head-turners.

In May 2023 the X-S20 arrived, and it was a lot of camera for its price point. We gave it a slot in our best cameras under $1500 buying guide. It improves on the X-S10 meaningfully by improving the video, but we did note that it still lags behind competitors in AF tracking.

The GFX 100 II feels like a camera with big ambitions. Fujifilm's latest medium format sees improvements to the sensor, IS and AF. It also captures 8K video and has tools like waveform and vectorscope display.

Leica

Leica released three cameras in 2023, two of which were variations on the M11.

First there was the M11 Monochrom in April, which removed the color filter array from the M11's 61MP BSI CMOS sensor. That difference gives the camera a base ISO that's one stop higher than that of the color version (without filters absorbing the light, the sensor doesn't need as much exposure to saturate).

In October, the M11-P variation came with the usual flourishes that come with 'P' models (no Leica red logo stamp on the front, a glass screen cover) and also added metadata recording abilities following standards from the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI). That latter addition also makes it the first camera on the market to use CAI systems.

In between these, the Q3 refreshed Leica's fixed-lens range-finder style camera line. It updated on its predecessor with a higher resolution 60MP full-frame sensor, improved burst rates and added the ability to shoot 8K/30p video.

Nikon

Nikon released two cameras last year, and they both earned high marks in our buying guides and our annual DPReview Awards.

The Z8 took everything great about the Nikon Z9 and trimmed it down into a smaller package for $1500 less. Wonderful image quality and AF are married with nice video performance and thoughtful ergonomics. We liked it enough to give it our award for Product of the Year 2023.

Another DPReview award winner, the Zf finally gave users the full-frame retro-inspired camera they'd long awaited. Combining modern tech with late 70s/early 80s design language, it brings forth a photo/video camera that is fun to use and be seen using.

OM Digital Solutions

It was a quiet year for OM Digital Solutions; the Tough TG-7 was its only camera released in 2023.

A rugged, waterproof compact with a 25-100mm equivalent zoom lens, it's fully waterproof down to a depth of 15m (50 ft). We recommend it as our best waterproof compact, in part because, unlike other rugged cameras, it lets you shoot Raw images, which can come in handy if you're shooting underwater and need to make adjustments.

Panasonic

Panasonic released three cameras last year. Well, two, really, as the DC-S5II and DC-S5IIX were announced at the same time, and the differences between them are primarily in video specs aimed at professionals and power users. The 'X' version adds the ability to output ProRes footage directly to an external SSD or Raw footage over HDMI. If you're only interested in stills, there's no need to pay more for the 'X' version. The result is a well-priced camera that offers both stills and video shooters a reason to look closely at the L-mount system.

On the other end of the spectrum from the feature-packed enthusiast-level full-frame cameras is the DC-G9 II, the company's first Micro Four Thirds camera with phase-detect autofocus. It's a high-end model aimed at still shooters, with a clean layout that places the most often used controls at your fingertips.

Ricoh / Pentax

Ricoh only had one camera release last year.

The Pentax K-3 Mark III Monochrome is a variant of its 25.7MP APS-C DSLR with no color filter array. The loss of the color filter array results in the usual benefits: gain a stop of light across all ISO settings, sharper images (no need to demosaic), no chroma noise, and more image detail overall. It was a big swing, and we were glad to see Pentax trying something different.

(Note: we're not counting the WG-90 as a 2023 camera since it won't hit store shelves until later this year.)

Sony

Sony, by far, released the most new cameras in 2023. It put out a whopping five new cameras, ranging from pocketable compacts to feature-packed 60MP full-frame cameras.

March saw the ZV-E1, a camera that asked, what if we took some of the tech from the Sony a7S III and Sony FX3 and jammed it into a camera aimed at vloggers? The result was a full-frame high-end camera that reframed what it meant to be a 'vlogging' camera.

A few months later, the ZV-1 Mark II arrived; it was an update with an enticing 18–50mm equivalent F1.8–4.0 lens. A stacked CMOS sensor aided video capture with great AF and a quick readout. The camera excelled at video, but we felt it came up short for stills.

July's a6700 added a new enthusiast-level APS-C mirrorless. It excelled in everything we threw at it and continued the a6000 series' reputation as a great bang-for-the-buck option for users willing to trade a larger sensor and some ergonomics in exchange for robust image quality, video and some of the industry's best AF.

Finally, we have the a7C II and a7CR, two cameras with similar body styling, button layout, AF systems and 10-bit video capture. The major difference lies in the sensor: 33MP for the a7C II and 61MP for the a7CR. Each represents an interesting option for shooters interested in specs and traveling light.

That's all folks

And that's the year. It's interesting to see the slight uptick in new bodies (both 2021 and 2022 saw 18 central camera releases each). It makes you think about what might be next.

How do you think the camera industry did in 2023? Where do you think it's going in 2024? What are you most excited about? What would you like to see next? Share your 'hot takes' in the comments, and let's meet in 12 months to do it again.

Have your say: Best gear of 2022

For the past few weeks, our readers have been voting on their favorite cameras and lenses released in 2023. Now that the first round of voting is over, it's time to reveal the winners. Notably, 2023 appears to be the first time a single brand came very close to a clean sweep across all the Reader's Choice award categories.

Remember, though, it isn't over just yet! It's now time to pick an overall winner. Don't miss your chance to cast your ballot – this one's for all the bragging rights.

Best prime lens Honorable Mention: Nikon Z 600mm F6.3 VR S

First up is the 2023 honorable mention for best prime lens, the Nikon Z 600mm F6.3 VR S, a super telephoto that's light enough for long periods of handheld use. It achieves this in part through the use of a size-reducing Phase Fresnel element, resulting in a lens that's 278mm (11") long and at 1,390g (3 lbs). It's compatible with Nikon's 1.4x and 2x teleconverters for even more reach.

In recent years, Nikon has done a great job designing compact prime lenses that put high-quality telephoto options within the budgetary reach of enthusiasts, and it looks like it's hit another home run with the 600mm F6.3 VR S.

Buy now:

$4897 at B&H $4897 at Adorama $4797 at Amazon Best prime lens Winner: Nikon Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena

The 2023 Reader's Choice Award for best prime lens goes to the Nikon Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena, a mid-telephoto portrait prime for its Z-series cameras. It's Nikon's second Z-mount lens to carry a unique moniker, joining 2019's 58mm F0.95 S Noct, and is designed for sharpness, edge-to-edge brightness and round bokeh with minimal cat's eye effect. We were mighty impressed with this lens when shooting our pre-production sample gallery, and apparently, you were, too, because it won this category by a healthy margin.

Buy now:

$2500 at B&H $2500 at Adorama Best zoom lens Honorable Mention: Sony FE 20-70mm F4 G

Receiving an honorable mention for best zoom lens is the Sony FE 20-70mm F4 G, an ultra-wide to normal, constant aperture zoom lens. On paper, it doesn't sound much wider than a standard 24-70mm zoom, but those extra four inches at the wide end make a world of difference. Optically, this lens is sharp wide open while providing pleasing bokeh.

It pairs particularly well with Sony's newest compact bodies, the A7C II and A7CR, providing a relatively compact yet versatile travel kit with a full-frame sensor. We're not surprised that readers selected this lens as one of their top picks of 2023.

Buy now:

$1098 at B&H $1098 at Adorama $1098 at Amazon Best zoom lens Winner: Nikon Z 180-600mm F5.6-6.3 VR

The winner of the 2023 Reader's Choice Award for best zoom lens goes to the Nikon Z 180-600mm F5.6-6.3 VR, the spiritual successor to Nikon's F-mount 200-500mm F5.6 lens, covering a versatile telephoto to super telephoto range in a single optic. At 1955g (4.3 lbs) without its tripod foot, it's not the lightest lens in Nikon's lineup, but thanks to 5.5 stops of vibration reduction and a short, 70-degree zoom ring throw to switch between extreme focal lengths, it is pretty usable even handheld.

Along with the 600mm F6.3 that won the honorable mention in the prime lens category, the 180-600mm F5.6-6.3 is the second Nikon telephoto lens to win a Reader's Choice award this year.

Buy now:

$1696 at B&H 1696 at Adorama Best camera Honorable Mention: Nikon Zf

The Nikon Zf ticks off almost all the essential boxes on an enthusiast camera spec sheet, but what makes this camera unique is its classic style, designed to mimic the look of the company's FM2 SLR from the early 1980s. The Zf isn't Nikon's first attempt at a retro camera, but it's the one many enthusiasts have been waiting many years to arrive, and with an MSRP at the $2000 price point, it's very price-competitive in its category.

We were impressed enough with this camera to give it the Best Enthusiast Camera award in our 2023 Annual Awards, and it looks like you agree that it's one of the best products of 2023.

Buy now:

$1997 at B&H Photo $1997 kit at Adorama $1997 at Amazon Best camera Winner: Nikon Z8

The 2023 Reader's Choice Award winner for best camera goes to the Nikon Z8. We're not surprised to see this topping your list as 2023's best camera: it features the same 45MP stacked sensor and processor as its big brother, the Nikon Z9, but in a smaller body and much more approachable price point. In some ways, it's the mirrorless successor to the Nikon D850, one of the best DSLRs ever made, and we think it's an apt comparison.

In our 2023 Annual Awards, the Nikon Z8 walked away with two trophies: Best High-End Camera and 2023's Product of the Year. It looks like it may be trying to make a clean sweep of the Reader's Choice Awards as well.

Buy now:

$3997 at B&H Photo $3997 at Adorama $3997 at Amazon Have your say - vote for Product of the Year!

You helped determine the winners in these individual categories, so now's the time to cast your vote in one last poll! Choose your favorite product from this list of winners and runners-up between now and Monday, January 8th. Watch for an announcement of the winning products shortly after the poll closes.

As always, thanks for casting your votes and being a part of our community throughout the year.

. Have your say$(document).ready(function() { Poll({"pollId":"2390005152","openForVoting":true,"mainElementId":"poll0","slot":null,"isSingleChoicePoll":true,"minNumberOfChoices":1,"maxNumberOfChoices":1}); })Have your say: 2023 Product of the YearNikon Z 135mm F1.8 S PlenaNikon Z 180-600mm F5.6-6.3 VRNikon Z 600mm F6.3 VR SNikon Z8Nikon ZfSony FE 20-70mm F4 GYou need to login to vote

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Photo: Shaminder Dulai

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The White River winds its way through the Uinta Basin in northeast Utah. Fracking sites, the Deseret Power Plant and the Uinta Mountains in the background.

Photo: Russel Albert Daniels

Russel Albert Daniels' aerial landscapes of the Uinta Basin are stunning, but if you spend a bit of time with the photographs, you will realize they reveal a much darker reality. His project, Mother Wound, takes a bird's eye view of the environmental damage that the fossil fuel industry has caused to the region – an area that includes the White River, which is a crucial watershed for the Colorado River.

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Daniels has spent the last two years working with nonprofit publications like Mother Jones, ProPublica and High Country News to capture the work. “Flying in a plane is not cheap, so none of this would have happened without all these nonprofit organizations,” he says.

Here, he talks with us about the challenges and benefits of shooting from the sky, and how this particular perspective is valuable for environmental stories.

Why was an aerial perspective an important journalistic tool for this particular story?

I think a lot of people have a romanticized image of what the West is—it's a pretty landscape that’s unharmed. But a lot of the environmental degradation is happening in areas you just can't see, and it's large-scale. Having aerial access allows you to see the full picture. You don't really get to see it when you're on the ground sitting at that pump jack, you still really can't see how many acres, hundreds of square miles of public land are being leased out to oil and gas companies.

I'm definitely not the first person to go on a plane and take photos of similar circumstances, so I knew the power of the photograph from the air. I wanted the work to draw people in by its beauty, but then, as they sat and looked at the photo, to start realizing what’s going on here – and it’s kind of a shocker. What’s hidden underneath the beauty is the reality of mineral extraction.

Fracking wastewater evaporation pools above the White River in the Uinta Basin in northeast Utah.

Photo: Russel Albert Daniels

What are the benefits of shooting from the Cessna rather than using a drone?

A drone is an incredible tool for journalism – it's affordable and pretty easy to use, but it has limitations. You can only fly to a particular height, it has a wide-angle perspective, and you usually see the horizon line. With the plane, we’re typically 1500 feet above ground, and as the photographer, it gives me the ability to use wide-angle lenses and telephoto lenses to zoom in and reveal more details.

I made a decision not to become a drone pilot. It’s a whole other class of photography that I'm not interested in getting into at this point. I feel like my talents and my skills are still photography. Another advantage of flying in a plane is that you can simply cover hundreds of miles within a few hours.

What challenges came with photographing from the window of the Cessna?

There are a few challenges. I’m working with nonprofit news organizations to do this work, and we reach out to nonprofit aviation services that often have funding to allow journalists to use their pilots and airplanes, often at no charge. The first challenge is having a good enough story that it's worthwhile for someone to use their resources and get us in the air. As a photographer, ideally, I want to go at particular times when the light is the best, but sometimes you are shooting in the overhead sun, which doesn't make for the most beautiful images.

Once you are on the plane you have to make the decision of where you want to sit. The passenger seat up front means you might be able to shoot out the window, but you really only have one or two angles to shoot from. You might get a plane with a seat in the back; if you sit there, you can shoot from either side, but shooting with my camera against the closed window can mean getting images with a lot of glare.

Russel Albert Daniels shooting from the window of a Cessna plane.

Photo: Bear Guerra

Is there particular gear that you like to bring along on these shoots?

There are these big rubber hoods that are real floppy, that go over your lens, and you just plop it up against the window. That eliminates a lot of the reflection and glare. Wearing all black really helps, too, since it’s the white objects on the plane’s interior that show up.

I like to have two camera bodies, one with a 24-70mm lens and a second with either an 80-200mm or an 80-110mm lens. I find that I like to zoom in and capture a tighter detail when shooting these images. I'm often eliminating the horizon line in some of these images, which almost automatically creates abstract images. When you remove the horizon, you lose that sense of reality. The abstraction allows for more of an impact when people finally get the bigger picture.

Fracking sites near the White River in the Uinta Basin in northeast Utah.

Photo: Russel Albert Daniels

How long are you typically up in the air?

These flights are often about three hours, and I’m definitely shooting for about 2-2.5 hours. My wrists are so tired by the end, but I’ve got to take advantage of the time. There's also just a lot of interesting things to see up there, so I'm going to get a shot, even if it's not particular to the story I'm working on.

Why is it important for you to keep going back and working all the angles of this particular story?

The climate crisis we're mitigating right now, it's evident, it's here and all the science has been pointing at it for a long time. It's a little slower than we were scared about it being. It didn’t come as fast or as some big apocalyptic nightmare. It's just a slow, ongoing dread that we are dealing with. The apocalypse is slow, and you still have to go to work.

I think it's important to show people the world and views of these landscapes that show the harm and the destruction that mineral extraction is doing because it's affecting us now. You can look at why that's happening and we can see that these oil and gas corporations and politicians are in bed together, and they are denying the wishes of many, many citizens to find other alternatives to this. We're going to continue to have problems no matter what, but this is obvious. Science has pointed this out. We're seeing the effects, and it's time to change it. If not, we're doomed.

Coal-powered Deseret Power Plant in Bonanza, Utah. The power plant was built in anticipation of the production of oil shale in the Uinta Basin.

Photo: Russel William Daniel

The photos are beautiful and abstract, but there’s an undeniable sadness in them. Do you find yourself needing time to reset and process after working on the project?

Yes, all the time. A lot of my work is done with the Native American territories and reservations that are suffering the most; it’s happening on their land or just adjacent to it in their ancestral territories. So I'm also dealing with that trauma that's just being passed through. It's not just the climate, it's people too. And it's not just native people, it's often just rural communities that happen to be next to these mineral extraction sites.

I don't always deal with it the best way. Sometimes I just try to forget about it. Having Native American ancestry, I do have tools to ceremony and different personal practices and community practices that I’m able to do that recenter me. Sometimes, having a beer helps in the short term. Talking about it with other people and friends helps too. The work is also healing in its own right. Showing what’s going on, showing my frustration with the world, and doing my part to help resolve it.

A photo zine of the Mother Wound work can be purchased through Russel Daniels website. Two of the images from the project were acquired by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts earlier this year and are included in its current exhibition Shaping Landscape: 150 Years of Photography in Utah. The work is also currently on view in downtown Salt Lake City, displayed publicly on the Temporary Museum of Permanent Change’s 14 placards.