This week Canon announced the Digital Rebel XSi/450D. The newest digital Rebel features several upgrades, including a 12 megapixel sensor. More information is here and here.

More here.

Deborah. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

Filmed with a simple two light set up, both lights bounced out of reflective umbrellas. The main light was above the dancer and to the left of her left arm (camera right). The softer fill light was to the dancer’s right (camera left).

Data: Canon EOS 5D with EF 24-105mm lens set at 55 mm. Shutter 1/100 second, Aperture: f/11, ISO 100. Two “Alien Bees” model B800 studio flash units with umbrellas.

Sunstar Over Turnagain Arm, Alaska. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

May the wonder and joy of the season be yours.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Canon EOS 1D Mark III

I hate to see a great company release a much anticipated, pro-level product with a major defect. That’s been the case with Canon’s EOS 1D Mark III. Early on, highly respected photographer, Rob Galbraith, wrote about significant autofocus problems with the 1D Mark III.

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It is the time of year that I get asked a lot of questions from people who are buying gifts for photographers, or from photographers wanting to drop hints. (In this post, “photographer” means anyone who likes to take pictures.) “What is the best book for . . . ?” “What are the best point and shoot cameras?” “Is there any really good image editing software for less than $100?” Many of those questions are answered in the posts that follow.

Photo equipment is pretty specialized. If you are buying photo equipment as a gift for the photographer in your life, ask for very specific hints (and send the photographer here).

Happy Gift Giving.

The Buyer’s Guide Series – Your guide to the best of all things photographic. There are over 60 articles in this series, making it one of the most comprehensive buyer’s guides on the Internet.

Buyer’s Guide Series: Recommendations For The Best Photography Equipment, Software, Books, Magazines, DVDs, Online Photo Labs and More

SHORT LIST (by camera name, sensor size in megapixels, and the zoom range of the lens):

Canon PowerShot A570 IS, 7.1 mp sensor, 4x zoom lens range
Canon PowerShot A640, 10 mp, 4x
Canon PowerShot A710 IS, 7.1 mp, 6x
Canon PowerShot G9, 12.1 mp, 6x
Fujifilm Finepix F31fd, 6.3 mp, 3x
Fujifilm Finepix F50fd, 12 mp, 3x
Fujifilm Finepix S6000fd / S6500fd , 6.3 mp, 10.7x
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8, 7.38 mp, 12x

HONORABLE MENTION:

Canon Powershot S5 IS, 8 mp sensor, 12x zoom lens range

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One of the best ways to improve your photography is to read some good instructional books and then go out and try what you just read about. My favorite landscape and nature photography books are here and here.

Some of these are out of print but they are still well worth finding on the used book market.

So you want to be a better photographer. Start here.

Some of these are out of print but they are still well worth finding on the used book market.

Short List: Arca-Swiss

The Arca-Swiss quick release system is arguably the best quick release system and certainly the most universal among professional photographers. The system is simple and you can start for less than $80 and use almost any tripod head you now own. . . .

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UPDATE DEC 11, 2008:  This article hs been rewritten and updated here.

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My recommendations for tripods heads haven’t changed for some time . . . . Continue reading →

Looking for a tripod? This is the place to find information, recommended models, and links to more information.

It is best to buy your tripod legs and tripod head separately. The best brands are interchangeable so you can match the legs you want with the tripod head that you want.
For years I have been recommending Bogen/Manfrotto and Gitzo tripods. . . .

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Short List:

SanDisk and Lexar

Memory cards are the “film” for your digital camera. You don’t want to have a card failure and lose your photos. A reliable brand is important.

to continue, click the page links to the right

Don’t lose your digital photos to disc rot or a hard drive crash. Choose the best archival options.

Short CD List:
MAM-A Gold Archive
Delkin eFilm Archival Gold
MAM-A Silver Archive
Verbatim DataLifePlus (with Super AZO dyes)
Taiyo Yuden

Short DVD List:
MAM-A Gold Archive
MAM-A Silver Archive
Taiyo Yuden

Short List of External Hard Drives:
Maxtor
Seagate
Buffalo

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Your photos will look their best if you optimize them with some good image editing software.

Short list:
Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac
Photoshop Elements 7 for PC
Adobe Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4

For editing your photos, it is hard to beat Photoshop Elements and Photoshop, both from Adobe. . . .

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Short List:

Christopher Grey, Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers

Jeff Smith, Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide

J. D. Wacker, Master Posing Guide for Portrait Photographers

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Very short list:

Katrin Eismann and Wayne Palmer’s Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter).

If you know your way around Photoshop and are looking for an excellent book on retouching with Photoshop, this is it. . .

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Freedom from Want – Painting © Norman Rockwell

When I was growing up, we spent many a Thanksgiving and Christmas at grandpa’s house. Thanksgiving was a much anticipated and happy time. We would often leave Pueblo on Wednesday afternoon after dad got home from work. It was a long 7 hour drive to Haxtun in those pre-interstate highway days, so it would be really late by the time we arrived.

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Horses and Mt. Princeton, Colorado. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

This photo above was taken just a few miles south of Buena Vista, Colorado on U.S. 285. I have filmed this scene on several occasions. The fall colors on this trip were an added photographic bonus.

The drive down U.S. 285 from Denver to the San Luis Valley is one of my favorites. Highlights of the drive (from north to south) are Kenosha Pass about an hour south of Denver (with nice aspen in the fall), the drive down into and across the austere and barren beauty of South Park, the town of Fairplay (made famous by the South Park cartoons on TV), the Arkansas River Valley (where this photo was taken) with the Collegiate Peaks to the west (including Mt. Princeton), Poncha Pass and the drive down into the high desert plateau of the San Luis Valley with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east, and Great Sand Dunes National Park toward the southern end of the Sangre de Cristos.

Side trips include Guanella Pass (beginning near Grant and going north to Georgetown) and Marshall Pass (begining south of Poncha Springs and heading west to Sargents and U.S. 50). Both passes are beautiful fall color drives.

Forest Fire, Rocky Mountain National Park. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

This forest fire was a controlled burn to get rid of an excessive amount of underbrush. Exposure was based on the white smoke to make sure it was light without burning out.

Data: Canon 5D, EF 24-105mm lens at 50mm. Shutter: 1/200. Aperture: f/11. ISO: 100

Two Red Hat Ladies. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

A chance drive through Ferncliff Colorado led to a visit with these two delightful and colorful women. They needed someone to take their picture together in front of some colorful leaves (as if there isn’t enough color in the photo already). They were part of a group of 24 members of the “Red Hat Society” (which these two took delight in calling the “Shady Ladies”) that spent time earlier in the day in the Wild Basin Area of Rocky Mountain National Park.

One of them, now in her eighties, pointed out the cabin in Ferncliff (just across the road from where this picture was taken) that she stayed in when she was in her teens, over 60 years ago. Both of them talked about the mischief they got into when they were young. Somehow I got the impression that their mischief days aren’t over. These two are colorful in more ways than one.

You can learn more about the Red Hat Society at their web site.

Sunset over the Great Sand Dunes. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

Great Sand Dunes. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

Great Sand Dunes National Park has the tallest dunes in North American. The prevailing west winds blow the sand across the San Luis Valley where it collects at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The Park is in south central Colorado. From Denver you can take a scenic 5 hour drive via US 285 and CO-17. It is a great place to take pictures and I prefer to go in the fall and spring. The best light is early and late in the day when the sun throws dramatic shadows across the dunes. This photo was taken from the entrance road.

Info about the park is here.

Data: Canon 5D, EF 24-105mm lens at 105mm. Shutter: 1.40. Aperture: f/11. ISO: 100.

This week, Canon announced the latest in their series of mid-range digital SLR cameras. The 40D is a modest upgrade and a worthy successor to the 30D

Some of the upgrades include:

A larger sensor, 10 megapixels, up from 8 megapixels in the 30D.

Digic III image processor for improved image quality.

A larger 3.0 inch LCD viewing screen on the back.

Live preview on the LCD. Now you can preview the image on the LCD before clicking the shutter, just like on you favorite digital point-and-shoot.

Improved burst rate and higher capacity buffer. You can capture jpegs at 6.5 frames per second instead of 5 fps on the 30D. Canon claims you can capture 75 images at this rate versus 30 on the 30D.

Dust prevention and cleaning system, just like on the Canon Rebet XT and Canon 1Ds Mark III.

The specifications sound good. Will this new camera live up to expectations? Given Canon’s past history, probably, but that isn’t a guarantee (see the next paragraph). I will let you know when full reviews with complete tests are available.

As always, I advise you not to buy a camera until a few months after its release. That allows time for bugs to show up, and hopefully, be corrected. That way you won’t be burned like the photographers that bought the Canon 1D Mark III which has serious auto-focus problems that have NOT been resolved by the recent firmware update.

You can read more details on the Canon 40D in DP Review’s preview article and at Canon’s web site.

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If you just can’t wait (despite my advice to wait), you can pre-order the Canon 40D with or without a 28-135mm lens. Follow this amazon link and use the drop down menu to choose between the options.

You were planning on selling your car to buy a camera right? That’s about what it will take to buy the newly announced Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III when it becomes available.

It’s been a long wait. It’s predecessor, the EOS 1Ds Mark II was announced nearly 3 years ago.

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The annual mid-August Perseid Meteor shower is usually one of the year’s best as the Earth passes through debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle.

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