Photographic Memory!

I have just discovered why it may be advantageous to procure a more advance memory card. In other words I need faster SD cards!

As you may know if you follow me on Google+, Flickr, Facebook or Instagram (search Bob Cartledge Photography. I’m just sayin’), I have been photographing a lot of birds in flight. I am starting to get the hang of tracking the birds, framing the image; I can even place my focus point on the eye in some circumstances! Now I am starting to look for the perfect moment. And missing it! Today I realised why.

When I’m tracking a bird in flight, I start out with my 70-300mm at 70mm so I can get the bird in frame and find focus. Then I start tracking the bird while I zoom in. Once I have zoomed all the way in I start shooting in 2-3 frame bursts. As the bird comes closer the length of each burst increases until, when the bird is racing past me, I am motor driving through my buffer space, grabbing shot after shot. Then the buffer fills. I shoot a D7000 in uncompressed RAW (14 bit), so my buffer is good for around ten shots of spray-and-pray.

And this is where the problem starts.

You see, I have noticed that the perfect shot comes just after the buffer has filled or just before it has emptied, i.e. it comes just when I can’t quite get it. 

 I mean, check out the shot below. Yeah, its not clear or sharp or in focus or good, but it was the last one before the buffer filled. Just after this the gull banked hard and flew straight toward me. it was only for a second, but the whole thing looked fantastic! And look what I got...

Yes, yes cosmic irony, the universe will have its little joke, Murphy’s law, etc, but really? F#%* off you @#$*&*$ universe! I just want the shot!

But let’s be balanced, shall we? According to the folk at Imaging Resource the D7000 buffer, when filled with ten 14 bit RAW files, will take around 9 seconds to clear when using a SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/sec 8GB SDHC card (see the full report/review at - http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/D7000/D7000A6.HTM ); which isn’t terrible. It’s not exactly fast, but it’s not bad. I figure that means that my Sandisk Ultra 80MB/sec 16GB SDHC card will do it in around... (...carry the one... times 2...). Tell ya what – be back in a sec!

......

...

Okay, after detailed scientific testing (I pinned the shutter button open, shot till the buffer filled and then, finger still on the button, I timed the buffer clearance rate) I can tell you that it averages out (I did the ‘test’ twice) to around 6.3 seconds to clear the buffer using a Sandisk Ultra 80MB/sec 16GB SDHC card. Faster than the Imaging-Resource test (Duh, Bob! Faster card!) but I am still missing the shot because Murphy and the universe!

This to me suggests that, until such time as I can buy a D500 and/or D850 (yes, I am a greedy gear whore, but have you seen the specs on those two monsters?!), I figure the next best option is faster cards. But what to buy?

This is how I’m thinking:

Question 1: What am I going to be using the cards for? Well, at the moment I don’t do any video shooting and when I eventually start I expect to be using drones and action cameras, all of which use micro SD. So my DSLR memory will be for stills only, meaning I probably don’t need huge capacity cards. I’ll probably stick with the 16GB; that’s a couple of thousand shots of storage and I haven’t shot that many images in one shoot yet!

Question 2: How fast do I want the cards to be? Bloody fast! As fast as possible! Why? Upgrading to either the D500 or D850 comes with what, in my personal honest opinion, is a bloody daft idea. Both of these cameras have the same problem - one SD card slot (all good so far) and one XQD card slot (oh dear!). I seriously do not get the thinking here. Why different formats? Seriously, why? Two SD cards? Fine. Two XQD cards? Hell yeah! One of each? No. Just no, Nikon...

Anyway, I like to shoot redundant where possible, which means with a D500 or D850 the SD card slot would be the back-up because XQD is lightning fast, so it should be the primary. But then you get the speed disparity. You have a 440MB/sec average speed for XQD and, from my research here in Oz, a maximum 300MB/sec speed for SDXC. And that SDXC card comes in at damn-near double the price of the XQD! And I can’t justify that kind of cash for an SD anything card at this stage (but that’s just me. Everyone has their own views). So, for me, a 150MB/sec card should be quick enough for back-up in the D500/D850 and super quick for the D7000.

However the D500/D850 consideration does mean I have to rethink question 1. Considering that 32GB seems to be the smallest XQD card available nowadays, I want to match that with the SD cards I buy if I’m using them as back-ups. I guess that means I’ll be going to 32GB SD cards!

So I want a 32GB SD card that runs at 150MB/sec. That’ll be the Lexar Professional 32GB 1000x SDHC then. For now, at least. Maybe Santa will bring me a winning lotto ticket and I can go the 300MB/sec route.

When it comes to memory, the choices are diverse and plentiful. You are only restricted by price, requirement and, of course, what fits in your camera. Also, when it comes to memory, I am not the most knowledgeable. If anyone out there has thoughts on memory for cameras, has experience with any of the hardware (memory or cameras) I’ve mentioned, or has an alternate view, please comment! And please, please, please let me know if the conclusions I’ve come to are wrong (and why they’re wrong, of course)! I could really use some advice here, my friends!

Time to Start a Photo Story!

You may remember a few posts ago I told you about shooting in Queenstown. I went to Q-West Gallery and had a look around, took some photos... remember? Good! Now, do you remember I said I wasn’t done with the gallery and I would be going back?

Well, I had a chat with my super-secret contact at the gallery, during which we discussed the possibility of my doing a photo story about the gallery, its art and its artists. He said the members would possibly be amenable, so I sent down a proposal for the members to peruse and I waited.

It only took a couple of days to an answer. And that answer was? Put it this way; this weekend, I’m going back to Q-West Gallery to start work on a new project! Woohoo!

“What’s the project?” I hear you ask? Well, in broad strokes, the project is an exploration of Q-West Gallery; its life, its personalities, what it means to the members and what it means to the artists in the region.

Blog-wise this means you will be getting updates on the progress of my project as when there is actually progress. I can’t tell you how often I’ll be doing this, or even promise you any kind of regularity, because progress will depend not only on my schedule, but also the schedule of the gallery and the artists. And for a project like this, trying to coordinate a comparatively large group of people over a period of weeks or months is, I can assure you, akin to the herding of domestic felines. But there will be posts, I promise!

How about I start the ball rolling by telling you what the plan is for this weekend?

I sat down to think about exactly that today and the first thing that occurred to me is that every story has a setting. Be it a house or a space ship or a desert island, there must be a location in which the story can occur. So part of this weekend will be dedicated to establishing the location for this story. First I’ll get a nice wide shot encompassing Queenstown, the town in which the gallery resides, and the valley it rests in. Then I want to show where the gallery sits in relation to the town centre. From there I want to show an exterior view of the gallery, then go inside and tour around the gallery floor, following the path a gallery visitor may take. My thinking is that, by taking the audience on the journey to, and through, the gallery I will be taking the audience into the story with me. I’m also thinking about maybe getting a couple of images of the actual journey from my place in Somerset to Queenstown, but I’m not sure. What do you think? Please comment below or email me at bobcartledgephoto@gmail.com if you have any thoughts.

Anyway... Where was I? Oh, yes, I was in Queenstown at Q-West Gallery. And this weekend is a great time to be there; for me and for anyone in the in the west, northwest, north, east or south of Tasmania at the time! Why? Because this weekend is the opening of an exhibition of pottery and ceramic art by artists of the region.

I have been invited to the opening Gala on the 28^th of October, at which I have been given permission to photograph the evening. This will give me the opportunity to document one of the essential ways Q-West Gallery, and indeed all galleries, interact with the community. I’m hoping I will be able to get some interesting images of guests engaging with the art pieces and with the artists who created them so as to give a sense of the dynamism of the gallery. I prefer to record dynamic images where possible. I don’t mean images that make the audience go “Wow!”, I mean images that give the audience a sense life or motion or something that says, “This is a moment in time – a small part of a greater whole. There is more going on that what you see here.” Does this make any sense? Hopefully you will get the idea when the images from this shoot are finally published.

(Of course, you could always go to https://bobcartledgephotography.myportfolio.com/ to see the sort of images I like. There are links to my Google+, Facebook, Flickr and Instagram on the site. Hint, hint!)

This project will be quite a challenge for me. You see, I haven’t really done much people photography. I have taken some candid shots, a couple of which I think turned out alright (my favourite is over there!) but I’ve never set out to really capture the human experience. It should be interesting to see how well I do. My prediction is that I will absolutely nail it, get excellent portraits and truly stun the photographic world with my skill and expertise. OR I’m gonna screw it up royally and never be allowed into Queenstown again. OR I’ll do alright for my first try, I’ll learn a lot about photography and portraiture, and my I will develop new skills.

I’m expecting it to be the last one.

That’s where I am at the moment, and where I’m heading. Where are you? What have you got planned? What have you just completed? Share your experiences with me; share your blog or your site with me – I’d love to see your work!

Workflow!

The learning curve was rather steep this week and I find myself time poor as a result.

So why am I time poor? I have been doing a lot of research and driving to locations to scout for shoots and the dog ate my homework and all the other lame excuses I can come up with for the simple fact that I have been slacking off. The result is that I have well over 500 images on my system that haven’t been processed, haven’t had keywords applied and haven’t been put into collections in Lightroom.

Now, my processing workflow is simple, easy, basic and other words meaning not hard. It is:

1.      Take photos

2.      Transfer images to computer using Lightroom

3.      Filter out the bad ones

a.       Pass 1 = Obviously messed up (out of focus, chopped up subject, etc)

b.      Pass 2 =             Shots that don’t grab me

c.       Pass 3 = Shots that don’t grab me after processing

4.      Keyword images

5.      Move images into relevant collections

6.      Process images

7.      Grab a snack!

And I have been fastidious about maintaining my workflow, completing the process every time I shoot. Then I decided it was time to get my photos online, to show folk what I was doing and see what the world thought of my stuff. Since then my processing has been step 1, step 2, step 3a, find a couple of shots to go online, surf the social media wave, grab a snack. So now I have all these photos on my system that have to be processed, collated, collected and blah blah blah... I am not enthused by the prospect.

But there is a positive to take away from this. I have learned something! Yay!

What I have learned is this; it is important to stay on top of your workflow, not matter what you do. Every time you go out to shoot, plan for your processing, allow time in your day to get the whole job done and don’t let yourself get distracted.

I mean, look at my workflow (keep in mind I am not making a living off my photography so I don’t get 1000 images on a shoot, but I also have other stuff to do with my day). When I’m in the zone I can get to the processing point in under an hour (confession time: the reason it takes so long is that I do the snack step early... and more than once). After pass 1 and pass 2 of the bad-photo-filtering I am down to about 50 or 60 images to process. Pass 3 happens during basic processing and then what is left over gets some tweaks, refinements, maybe a bit of cloning and content aware action in Photoshop. Job done!

Simple system, right? And quick if you stay on top of it! But I didn’t stay on top of it, did I? And now there’s a backlog to deal with, there are more images coming in every day and I can’t help but think I’ll never catch up!

Well, cry me a river, Bobby-boy! You do the job when the job is there or you deal with the consequences of your inaction. LESSON LEARNED!!

You know, I thought I was done with this post. It was going to be a little shorter than the others (and none of my posts have been huge) but that was fine. I got my message across and I could get on with my catch-ups! I stepped away from the keyboard, made myself a coffee and took some time out. I always do that so I can come back for a quick reread and edit before I post. But this time I came back and, while I was reading back over the post I came to a realisation; my workflow is remarkably inefficient!

Look at it:

               It starts out alright – take photos, transfer to computer, go through and ditch the crap and the ones I don’t like. Up to this point I am fast and efficient. But then I step out of culling mode and into administrative processes. I apply relevant keywords and make sure all the images are in the relevant collections. Then I start the processing, during which a large number of the images I have just spent a whole lot of time on get deleted because I don’t like the way they look after I tweak them. It’s like filling a bucket with a teaspoon then emptying the bucket into a cup; it’s a whole lot of work on a whole lot of stuff that you just won’t keep.

So I’m making some changes:

1.      Take photos

2.      Transfer images to computer using Lightroom (grab snack while waiting)

3.      Filter out the bad ones

a.       Pass 1 = Obviously messed up (out of focus, chopped up subject, etc)

b.      Pass 2 = Shots that don’t grab me

4.      Basic processing on images

a.       Pass 3 = Shots that don’t grab me after processing

5.      Keyword images

6.      Move images into relevant collections

7.      Grab a snack!

What do you think?

Is my new process more efficient? Is there anything you would do differently? And most importantly, did you get anything out of this? I’m hoping so. I’m hoping that my learning the lesson the hard way (as usual – it seems to be my thing!) means you won’t.

Let me know your thoughts, share your experiences and, for the love of whatever you believe in, don’t learn my way!

Oh, yeah! The photos had nothing to do with this post, I just like ‘em. Isn't my dog cute?

A Night with the Fairies!

Oops! It seems I’m a bit late on the whole ‘Weekly Post’ promise. I get so caught up in my research I just lose track of time. Sorry about that; hopefully today will make up for it.

Last night I went to the Little Penguin Observation Centre in Burnie, Tasmania, to photograph (you guessed it!) penguins.

From around September to the end of March just about every coast of Tasmania plays host to at least one colony of Eudyptula Minor, commonly known as Fairy Penguins or Little Penguins. After spending most the year at sea, these little guys and girls head to their colony’s traditional rookery or nesting site for mating season. During this period the males show off to the females to gain their attention and fight each other for the right to mate. It’s a bit like penguin high school.

Luckily I live on Tasmania’s Northwest Coast, which seems to play host to the largest concentration Fairy Penguin colonies in the state, so it was a simple thing to find the best place to take my camera gear to shoot – photograph! I mean photograph! – these fantastic birds.

Capturing images of Fairy Penguins in Tasmania is quite challenging because, as increasing pressure from human settlements threaten to cause the extinction of Tasmanian penguin populations, the Parks and Wildlife Service of Tasmania has introduced a number of stringent guidelines to protect the current colonies. Follow this Link for a complete list of the guidelines laid out by Parks and Wildlife for penguin watching (and if you decide to go penguin watching, follow the guidelines, yeah? They have the right to be safe, too).

After looking at this page myself I decided that, until I am better prepared to approach a colony alone, I would go to one of the sites where guides would be available to help make sure I didn’t do anything wrong. Hence my visit to Penguin Observation Centre in Burnie; a free observation experience run by volunteers who offer education and guidance to visitors, as well as helping to spot the penguins as they come out to play. It’s only five minutes’ walk from Burnie CBD (I walk kinda quick, though), so if you’re in town for the night over the spring/summer period, have a look!

Now, while the visit to the Burnie colony and its volunteers did take away many of the challenges a visitor might face, it didn’t take away the challenge a photographer will always face. Light and the absence thereof. Did I mention that our fairy friends only come out at night? More specifically, they start their onshore activities at around sunset and are snug in their burrows by the time the sun is fully up. And, according to the guidelines I was spruiking earlier, you are not permitted to take any light source to view the penguin colonies unless it is a red light source. Red cellophane over a torch is fine but, because the penguins are cautious little souls, if they see naked torchlight they will assume there is a threat nearby (and yeah, we humans are a threat, even if by accident) and they won’t come out of the water.

So, it was a dark, moonless night and the only light source available to me was red. The resultant photos looked like this:

 

Into Lightroom for a bit of post-processing, then. I pulled back the reds, then the oranges and finally those little hints of yellow, and I wound up with black and white images. A red torch will wash out any other colour in an image. Who knew?!

So I reset the images and set about giving them my usual black and white treatment. The end result looks a bit like this:

What do you think?

I like them myself. But I’m sure there is an element of bias informing my judgement. I had a fantastic experience, got within metres of wild penguins and got to witness nature doing what nature does. That has got to have coloured my assessment! That’s okay, though. If an experience leaves a positive impression, how can it be a bad thing?

I’d love to know what you think of my photos. Did I do alright? What would you have done differently? Do you know of a way to recover natural colour from a red-lit image?  Share your thoughts, gang, and help improve my togging life!

For more information on Tasmaina's penguin population check out Park & Wildlife Tasmania

And don't forget to have a look at Bob Cartledge Photography, it's where I keep my good stuff!