|
Cory Photography with Tom and Pat Cory |
|
Humpback Whales, 2009 |
|
Newsletter, August 2009 |
|
Cory Photography Newsletter 37 August 7, 2009
In this edition you will find:
New Zoom Lenses Reminder about Focal Lengths Great Tutorial Website Photographing in the Rain Odds and Ends
Hello!
This seems to be turning into a quarterly newsletter. We have 2 new Mac computers, a desktop and a laptop. Maybe once I get used to the Mac world instead of the PC, things will get back to normal. Learning all new hardware and software and getting the files and pictures all transferred over has not been easy or intuitive or transparent. In fact if you see some weird characters in this email, please excuse us. I am not sure where they are coming from although I suspect that aol is the culprit. I correct one strange character and then another one pops up. Tom likes his laptop and is happily using Lightroom to review and work on his new images although I still have a lot of work to get everything else working in the new world. I must say that I do love the 24 inch screen on the iMac.
We recently got back from our Newfoundland trip. We had some pretty incredible experiences with whales and puffins and terrific weather. Newfoundland is a cross between New England and Ireland. It’s still very undiscovered by tourists and would be a wonderful addition to your “I want to go there sometime” list. The only downside is flying there. From our experience of going there 4 times it’s good to allow an extra day to get there. If you have problems with a flight connection it’s hard to get in the same day. We’ve always made it the same day, but that’s not been true for several of our clients.
We only have one more trip this fall—the Eastern Sierra in October. This one is almost filled although we could take one or two more folks. We also have a one-day workshop at the Tennessee Aquarium scheduled for September 26. This workshop combines instruction with photography time in the aquarium. Our first one of this format was last January and was a big hit. We also still have openings in our Chattanooga weekend workshop in early November. This one also includes instruction and time to photograph in some of the interesting pl aces in Chattanooga. Chattanooga was just featured in the July/August National Geographic Traveler as a great weekend getaway destination.
We have a good start on our 2010 schedule which you will find below. We’re looking forward to returning to the Smokies and Iceland and we have added Morocco as a new location. We hope that you will be able to join us.
Enjoy your late summer photography!
Pat and Tom
New Zoom Lenses We are finding more photographers are getting tired of lugging a lot of equipment around. Some of the new zoom lenses are very tempting and make great travel lenses because of their wide zoom range and light weight. If you are a photographer in this category you might like to check out the Sigma 18-250 or the Tamron 18-270. Both of these will focus to about 19 inches. However, there is a price to pay for some of these lenses, that being that while they tend to be good and sharp in the middle ranges, some of them are still acceptable but can be a bit soft at the widest and longest focal lengths. If you are considering one of them it would be good to check out the specs first to make sure they will meet your needs.
Reminder about Focal Lengths As a reminder, focal length specifications for lenses can be a bit confusing. With a 35mm (millimeter) film camera, when you buy a lens with a fixed focal length or several focal lengths (a zoom lens) a specific focal length will give you an image that basically looks the same no matter what 35mm camera you use. This is because the film is always the same size, 35mm. In the 35mm world, a lens somewhere around 50mm is considered a normal lens because it records an image which looks like the scene looked to your eye. A lens that is more than approximately 50mm, for example 100mm, is a telephoto lens and makes an image that is magnified, like looking through a telescope. A lens that is less than approximately 50mm, for example 28mm, is a wide angle lens and makes an image that looks further away than it looked to your eye. All that is pretty easy. And if you have a relatively expensive ‘full frame’ digital camera, the numbers are still the same. But many of us have digital cameras with sensors that are smaller than 35mm film is so enter what is called the ‘magnification factor’. The magnification factor simply means that a 50mm lens now becomes magnified a bit compared to the way it looked before. The amount it is magnified de |