More PMA Announcements -- Nikon jumped into the pre-PMA announcement frenzy with a raft of items, one of my favorites being the new Nikon Coolpix P4. It's more sophisticated than your average point and shoot with additional controls such as Aperture Priority and a speedy continuous shooting mode of 1.8 fps (for a compact). The 3.5X optical zoom comes with image stabilization, and there's a 2.5" LCD monitor on the back. This svelt package will run less than $400. For an extra $50, you can get the P3 with similar specs, but includes 802.11 WiFi connectivity.

Aperture Training Redux -- If you're serious about your digital photography, then you may be wondering if Apple's Aperture is software you should consider. That was on the minds of many people who attended the Aperture Power Tools workshop at the recent Macworld in San Francisco. If you missed that training, Scott Bourne and I are teaming up again for an Introduction to Aperture 2-Day Lecture/Demo Course at Pixel Corps in San Francisco on March 17 and 18. This two full days of immersion into Aperture is only $249. And the facilities at Pixel Corps are terrific.

Ultra Clamp Assembly -- I spoke last night at the North Coast Mac User Group meeting and was showing off some of my "dumb photography tricks." One of the favorite gadgets was the Ultra Clamp Assembly, and I promised to list the url where folks could buy one.

Technorati Tags: digital photography, equipment

Canon has announced an update to its popular midlevel DSLR line -- the EOS 30D. Even though this model sports a larger 2.5-inch, 230,000 pixel LCD monitor and a shutter rated up to 100,000 cycles, the price remains $1,399 USD for this 8.2 megapixel body. The other notable upgrade over the 20D is a new spot meter covering 3.5 percent of the viewfinder. This will be welcomed by serious shooters who were often frustrated by Canon's "partial metering" mode which had a much broader 9 percent coverage.

Two new lenses were announced too: the EF-S 17-55mm f-2.8 IS USM with internal stabilization ($1,149) and the EF 85mm f-1.2L II USM ($2,099).

Technorati Tags: digital photography, equipment

Backing up your photos and music is vitally important. Even though I use optical media too, the ease of backing up to redundant hard drives has made this my favorite and most-used option. And as we all know, the easier it is, the more often we'll do it.

My current favorite drive is the LaCie 300GB d2 External Hard Drive With Triple Interface ($225). It combines 3 interfaces (FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and USB 2.0), fast spin speed (7200 RPM), decent buffer (8MBs), excellent reliability, and good looking design. I've been using d2 drives for years now (have five in two locations), and I've been very satisfied with their performance.

These drives work equally well with both Macs and PCs. If you have a newer Mac, I recommend using the FireWire 800 connection for maximum throughput. By doing so, you also have your other ports (FireWire 400 and USB) for connecting other drives (such as an iPod) for copying from one device to another. LaCie provides you with the necessary cables.

Even though styling shouldn't necessarily be at the top of the list when considering a new hard drive, I have to say, I really like the look and feel of these units. The attractive metal case with cobalt blue light looks great on your desk, shelf, or wherever your store your drives.

You can daisy-chain these devices too so that they are all accessible at once. This makes it easy to search across all the units or copy data from one to the other. LaCie even makes a handy desk rack ($49) if your want to stack up to four units horizontally.

Indeed, there are plenty of hard drive options out there. And the most important consideration is that you pick one of them and start backing up today. But if you'd like an attractive combination of style and performance, include the 300GB LaCie d2 on your list of options.

Technorati Tags: digital photography, product review

I've been shooting with the newish Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM for a couple months now and feel comfortable reporting on its performance in the field.

The 24-105 lens (18 elements in 13 groups) has a constant aperture of f-4 throughout the entire zooming range. The image stabilizer is Canon's latest generation, and it really does enable you to shoot at shutter speeds that are 2-3 stops longer than without the stabilizer. Since I prefer to shoot "existing light" style when working in bright interiors, the IS comes in very handy. For example, I'm normally apprehensive about hand held speeds that dip below 1/30th of a second. With this lens I've captured good shots at 1/8th of a second with no visible camera shake. Coupled with the fact that the lens performs well wide open at f-4, you can actually use this zoom for low light photography.

Additionally, all of this performance is squeezed into a package that is remarkably compact (3.3 in. x 4.2 in., 23.6 oz. / 83.5mm x 107mm, 670g). This lens feels much lighter and more balanced than the 24-70mm f-2.8 L lens (3.3" x 4.9", 2.1 lbs. / 83.2mm x 123.5mm, 950g). The mechanics and zooming feel solid (5-group helical zoom), as you'd expect with a Canon L lens. And the package includes both a lens hood and a soft leather-like pouch.

The front filter ring is 77mm. I recommend that you use the "thin" filters so you don't incur any vignetting at the wider focal lengths. Since the front glass element is large, you should probably factor in the price of a protective Sky 1A or filter of your choice to leave on at all times.

The USM zooming motor (inner focusing system with focusing cam) is ultra quiet and very responsive. I think Canon L lens are the quietest of any autofocus lenses I've tried.

As for the images the lens produces -- sharp, contrasty, and saturated throughout the zooming range. This is a lens that performs well on the Canon 5D, and if you don't mind the 1.6X magnification factor, is a good choice for the APS sensor cameras too such as the Digital Rebel XT. The only real optical tradeoff I've noticed is that the 24-105 can only close-focus to 1.48 feet (.45mm). So this is not a lens you would use for your close-up photography.

Is it worth the hefty $1,250 price tag? That depends. If you like having an all-around zoom that you can trust to cover most shooting situations, including some existing light, I think so. I like the IS functionality, constant aperture, and relatively light weight compared to other "L" zooms. I recommend this lens for serious shootings looking for an all purpose zoom.

Technorati Tags: digital photography, equipment, lens, product review

I had finished a morning's worth of exploration in Mazatlan and found I had wandered all the way to the beach. As I looked around, I noticed that a restaurant called the Shrimp Bucket was just a few hundred yards away. I had been told about this place, but doubted that I would ever find it. It was a good omen that I did.

I sat out in the patio that faced the shore. About half way through my first Pacifico, a couple whom I had met on the cruise ship entered the patio and invited me to their table. He was on the Geek Cruise faculty too, teaching Final Cut Pro. We had a great lunch and I was telling them about some of the sites they may want to go photograph. They said they might take a look, but I knew they were going to head back to the ship. Our restaurant was quite a distance from port.

At first I was going to head back too. But then I decided that I was going to "see what was just around the next corner." I was fairly sure it would be just more beach, but I wanted to see anyway. After just a few minutes of walking, I discovered some of these amazing rock structures. I spent the next two hours exploring the beach and photographing all sorts of interesting subjects.

I got back to the ship much later than I had planned. That night, while hanging out in the library, I saw the same couple with whom I had shared lunch. They asked to see my pictures and seemed to enjoy looking at the day's shoot. The woman asked my where I found this shot (and the others related to it). I said that they were just around the corner from where we had eaten. Funny how often that's true.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography, technique, tips

Puerto Vallarta was a quiet port town in the center of Banderas Bay, that is, until 1962 when director John Huston chose a piece of property on the southern end of town as the set for his Night of the Iguana. Thanks in part to Richard Burton and Liz Taylor having a torrid affair during this time, Puerto Vallarta suddenly became the center of Hollywood attention and regarded as a steamy tropical paradise destination.

I ventured out to where the movie was filmed with fellow photographer Ben Long. It's now an abandoned property that overlooks the bay. Apparently there were attempts to convert this location into a restaurant and resort. But, by the looks of the deteriorating buildings, those attempts failed.

This image is from a series I took while spending the morning there with Ben. We had the entire area to ourselves, which enabled me to quietly focus on shapes, color, lighting, and abstract compositions. We left the property on foot and walked through a few small villages before finding a resort hotel that had cabs back to town.

Technorati Tags: digital photography

While I was hanging around in the Old Town Plaza in Mazatlan, I enjoyed watching this conversation among friends. The gentleman on the left launched into a long story that I'm certain the other two had heard more than once. The expressions say it all.

I've been using the Digital Rebel XT with only two lenses for my street shooting in Mexico: 17-40mm L and the 75-300 IS EF. So far I've been able to cover everything I need with this duo. This picture was recorded with the 17-40mm, wide open at f-4 at ISO 100. I'm shooting everything Raw on this trip and processing the images in Aperture.

Technorati Tags: candid, digital photography

Just like any tourist destination, if you walk a bit farther than most people are willing to venture, you'll discover new and interesting things to photograph. I found this street sign after an hour or so of wandering about the outskirts of Cabo San Lucas. Much to my delight, I also found a great place to eat minutes later. Both the food and the sign were authentic.

Technorati Tags: digital photography

Thanks to the wonders of satellite Internet, I can post tonight from somewhere off the shores of Mexico.

I spent all day today (Sunday) on the Geek Cruise working with Deke McClelland teaching Photoshop technique. If you're not familiar with Deke's work, he's in the Photoshop Hall of Fame and a very knowledgeable writer and speaker.

During the workshop I had a good reminder. We were spending lots of time correcting photos that had a variety of exposure, sharpness, and compositional problems. Eight hours, in fact, we were at it. And I realized that the teaching that I do here on TDS can help people avoid lots of this Photoshop pain.

The fact of the matter is, if you learn good camera technique and practice it, you can save yourself hours of computer work in post production. I'm not against Photoshop. In fact, I really like it. But I want to spend the bulk of my time wandering the streets of Cabo taking pictures, not on the boat correcting them.

Just a thought that crossed my mind out here in the middle of the ocean...

Technorati Tags: digital photography, technique

I'm off to San Diego this morning to board the Photoshop Fling Geek Cruise to the Mexican Riviera. During the week I will have Internet connectivity and will post the usual array of goodies on The Digital Story. I'll also post pictures from Cabo San Lucas, Mazaltlan, and Puerto Vallarta.

This week's podcast (published on Tuesday) will focus on "Life Beyond Program Mode," where I'll discuss situations where Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual modes are better choices (and how to use them). While I'm on the ship, however, I'll also be gathering material for the following podcast on why photographers like (or don't like) photo vacations. I hope to have interviews and location spots for that one. So stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: digital photography