2024 Week 1 Photo Journal - Photos From Big Bend
Happy New Year! I’m starting the new year off with a new online photography journal. I’ll be posting my images here and writing brief posts about them.
This week’s images are from my family’s trip to Big Bend National Park. This year we were joined by the Green family for our trip across the breadth of the best state in the union.
Big Bend National Park is an amazing place. It is without a doubt the most beautiful and savage place I’ve been thus far. It’s a tough place to do justice, either with words or with images, you just have to visit it yourself.
2023 week 48 Photo Journal
This is the first of my series of photo blogs. I hope you enjoy them.
Don’t Be A Douche - Photography Manners
I took my kids to a State park for a little last minute camping this weekend. It was actually my son’s idea. When I asked him what he wanted to do with the Weekend, he said, “Camping”. I laughed, told him I loved him, and then checked the weather. Free and clear. My wife just had knee surgery, so it would be good to get the kids out of get hair. The kind of wild animal I encountered will shock and amaze you….well….maybe not, but it’s still a decent story.
The World’s Most Versitile Tiny Photo Office
A while ago, I saw a blog post on a photography website regarding the world’s smallest photography office. It was basically an iPhone, a portable keyboard, and a camera with WiFi. I really liked the idea of this. Something that’s small and powerful and can be ultra portable and unobtrusive. I decided to try it.
Nikon D300 in 2018: Two Days On The Colorado River With A Wet 10 Year Old Camera
I recently faced a conundrum that I'm sure other photographers have faced at one time or another: I had planned a backcountry trip with friends but I didn't know what camera gear to bring. Specifically, I'd be kayak-camping on the Colorado River. The conditions would be sandy and wet with the possibility of a full blown dunk in the water. I'd need something simultaneously cheap (in case I dunked it), rugged (in case I dunked it), and good (because I wanted to take good pictures). What I chose was the ancient (by camera standards anyways) Nikon D300.
Review: Vivitar Series 1 100mm-500mm Lens
I’ve already written about the benefits of vintage lenses with modern cameras. It can help you discover which lenses you really want to buy, or it can give you access to lenses you don’t really want to spend a lot of money acquiring. For example, the 100mm-400mm lens for my Fujifilm cameras is nearly $2,000. This is a tremendous amount of money for a lens I’ll only use a handful of times a year.
Canon FD 100mm f4 Macro - Close, but not too close
You may have already read my review of the 50mm f3.5 macro lens, also for the canon FD mount. I like that lens quite a bit, but as I continued to use it, I realized that I had to get very close to my subject in order to take a picture at the closest focus distance. I started wondering if maybe, I might need a macro lens with a bit more reach. That’s when I started looking at the Canon FD 100mm macro lens.
Canon 50mm f3.5 Macro Review
I love vintage manual focus lenses. I'm actually in the process of writing a three part article just about vintage lenses. They are cheap, they work excellently, and they're built better than their modern equivalents. In short, they are one of the best investments into photography gear you can make. My most recent purchase is a Canon 50mm f3.5 Macro lens for the old FD mount, and this is my review using it with Fujifilm cameras.
The Best Camera Bag That Isn't One: Filson Medium Field Bag
I HATE camera bags. Genuinely, I do. They are made of nylon or polyester sewn together in dark places in the world where people aren't treated very well. They also don't look very good and scream out to potential thieves that you're carrying around a lot of high end camera gear. They also have a tendancy to try to look futuristic or tactical, which isn't really my cup of tea to be honest.