cameras

On Photo Safari: Moving Objects

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On photo safari probably the most exciting part is to photograph moving objects, like a leopard jumping in a tree or lion cubs playing in the sun. As long as the lion cubs are playing in the sun everything is nice and easy. The light is great and the images will look lovely.

But as soon as the leopard moves around in the tree and with every step he makes the light changes, it becomes a photographer’s challenge. A leopard moves fast and light changes fast too. That means fast changing settings back and forward, keeping the focus point constantly on the leopard where you want it to be, checking ISO and exposure, not forgetting what you all changed now that he walks into bright light and so on. It is exhausting and wildlife photography course attendees all agree that this is a very challenging task.

But photographing moving objects is also great fun and it often results in stunning arty images, like half blurred horses in the last light of the day or a herd of buffalo like an abstract painting in the first light of the day. Movement is great and often lives its own life in our photographs, surprising us with its mind blowing results and let forget the trouble we went through to get them.

Inspired? Enjoy the fun!


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

How Your Camera is Your Grounding

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It might sound a bit spiritual when talking about grounding, but well photography is something that takes you to high spirits and in order to not get lost up there, grounding is very important.

Do you know of these moments of frustration when you tried to photograph something and your camera didn’t do what you thought it should do? In those moments unfortunately very often not the camera is the problem, but the photographer. Your camera only brings you back into reality and tells you that it needs light to see and focus, just as your eyes, but you had just forgotten, because it looked so great.

Your camera gear makes sure you stay in touch with the reality of the environment you are shooting in. It tells you through the images what’s going on and even includes advise what to do to make it work. One just got to see and listen. Well that sounds easy, but it is not. You got to know your camera to understand what it’s telling you. So a photography course with the basics can do no harm. Better to learn how to operate your camera at home than missing great shots while traveling or when being on photographic safaris. Imagine a lion kill and you don’t get it right.

Ground yourself in photography and learn about your camera. A good grounding is the solid base for soring in photographic heights.

Happy snapping!


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

Carl Zeiss Lenses - A Treasure Passed On

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Carl Zeiss Jena, this magical company of incredible camera lenses in the middle of Germany, surrounded by beautiful forests and touched by the arty spirit of Weimar, where Geothe, Schiller, Liszt and Bauhaus had their home. Their lenses must be magic.

And they are. One of the very famous camera lenses made by Carl Zeiss is the famous Planar 50mm f/0.7, used by Stanley Kubrick in Barry Lyndon, designed by Dr. Erhard Glatzel. Dr. Glatzel passed away and his grandson inherited his camera bag, with a content no camera bag in the world has and with a big surprise.

There where suddenly two lenses that nobody knew about, the Distagon 25mm f/1.4 and the Distagon 18mm f/2.8. They are prototypes and never went into production. Example images can be seen on the original forum post and images of more lenses are available via PetaPixel.

Well, the lenses are not very practical on photo safari, but it would be just amazing to work with them during
photography courses to see their magnificent qualities in the challenging light of the bush. Maybe one day the grandson will take them there to give it a try, who knows.

Anyway, its great that there are still surprises in camera gear and special lenses evolve from somewhere.

Keep enjoying photography and maybe have a look into old boxes on the attic, a surprise could be waiting there for you.

Happy snapping!



Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

Photography: Camera Gear's Worth Life

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What are you? An early adapter or rather waiting and see what happens? It is easy to be carried away on the hype over a new camera model or fantastic new gadgets of camera gear. Photography offers so many opportunities to play and one just wants to have the thing everybody is raving about. But does that make sense? Or rather doesn’t that hurt your wallet?

Have a look on what Roger Cicala has put into a graph about the worth of camera gear during its lifetime:

“For several years now, my occupation has been to basically read everything written about new equipment
. In order to help everyone save time, and to save the Internet millions of electrons, I have developed a concise method to summarize all such discussions for all newly introduced imaging equipment.
I modestly call this Roger’s Law of New Product Introduction and have summarized it in the graph above
. You will notice there are two possible paths a new product may follow. To date, these two paths accurately describe every introduced product. It is possible, depending upon which forums you visit, that a product follows both paths simultaneously – for example a new Canon camera will often follow path A on a Canon board, while following path B on a Nikon board. I suggest we refer to this as The Fanboy Uncertainty Principle.” (via PetaPixel)

So, maybe next time something exciting new comes out we wait a bit. It will give a better idea what the new camera can do and will be friendlier for our wallet. And if you are desperate to take it with you to the next photography course or on photographic safari, check if you can rent one and decide later.

Happy snapping!


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

On Photo Safari: Auto Display

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Have there ever been moments that you were annoyed by the display of your camera, because you couldn’t see anything, especially when it’ sunny?

After photographing we like to look at the display of the camera to see what we did. Well, we know from our photography courses that the display is not the best quality to see the image, but still it should give a good impression of the result.

On one of the
photographic safaris one of the guests had a Nikon D800E and he was very angry that he couldn’t see what he did, because the display looked just useless. After playing around in the menu we found that the camera was not to blame, it had an Auto Display feature, meaning that it adjusts the brightness of the screen to the light situation automatically. It turned out that this feature is very useful and works perfectly. The Auto Display feature turned an angry photographer into a very happy photographer.

Check first what your camera can do for you before you get angry at it!


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

Camera Oscura - Old Masters and Photographers

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“The camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen.” (via Wikipedia)
It is thought that old masters like the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer used it to create their paintings. British artist and art historian David Hockney did intensive research on the subject and concludes that the great masterpieces were created with the help of optics and lenses. (read the article on
PetaPixel)

Knowing this doesn’t make their work less amazing. One can use optics and lenses and still doesn’t know anything about composition and light. One needs to be able to see first and that explains even more why a photographer can learn composition from looking at their masterpieces. They used
photography tools the same way photographers are creating their compositions nowadays. So, going to a museum and looking at the old masters is a great photography lesson. Do the Louvre and you have a whole photography course, add a photographic safari and an intensive course in natural light will finish it up. And as a result your photographs are paintings with light, maybe even masterpieces of light and composition. You actually learned from old masters.

Surprising? Check it out. You can also visit the Louvre online. Here the link:
Louvre.


Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com

How NOT to Clean Your Camera Lenses

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Isn’t it sometimes tempting just to breathe on your camera lenses and wipe it with a tissue to get some disturbing stains off? Done that? Don’t do that anymore.

Nikon’s support website answers the question “How do I clean the camera lens?” that way:

“The best way to clean a lens is to use a piece of lint free lens cleaning tissue and a small amount of Lens Cleaning solution. Do not use anything containing abrasives or solvents, only use Lens Cleaning Solution.
First we recommend taking a small blower brush to blow off or brush away loose dust or debris.
Next, place a drop or two of cleaner on the tissue (never directly onto the lens) and then wipe the lens in a circular motion, beginning in the center and working your way outward, removing any marks or smear.
If the above supplies are not available a clean, dry, soft, lint free cloth can be used to clean the lens. Do not breathe on the lens to fog it for cleaning. There are harmful acids in breath that can damage lens coatings. Just use the blower bulb, then brush, and wipe the lens in a circular spiral from the center outward.”

I remember hearing that advice from
photographers of the old days and admit that I didn’t take it very serious, but obviously they were right. Maybe they didn’t know about the acid, but in essence it was valuable advice.

Wisdom seems always to come in combination with the word “old” and it does no harm to listen. And sometimes wisdom has the name Nikon

Happy snapping!


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

Featured: Canon 6D

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It is about 10% smaller and between 10 % and 20 % lighter than its brand siblings, does that make the Canon 6D a good alternative?

The photo above shows a lineup of the Canon 5D Mark III, the Canon 6D and the Canon 5D Mark II. See the larger image on the original
PetaPixel post here.

But there is more. The new Canon photo printers can print directly from the camera, the Canon 6D. Read more in PetaPixels review here.

Interested? There will be more reviews coming from the actual use of the new camera, but it seems that it is an interesting devise for several reasons. So far also from comments of Nikon D800 users,
photographers seem to enjoy that the camera is light, not so much to carry around when being on holidays or struggling with luggage allowances on safari flights.


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

Popular Camera Settings 2012 & Their Meaning(lessness)

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Reuters made a list of what they think the best photographs taken in 2012 with a whole range of information including camera settings.

Now the photography enthusiast and Reddit user
hallbuzz made a list of all the camera settings of the 95 images from the Reuters list including camera brand, lens type, shutter speed and f-stop. Then another Reddit user mathiasa turned all this information into charts. See the charts on petapixel.

When looking at the charts one could be tempted to think that in order to be one day on the list of the 95 greatest
photographs of the year, chosen by Reuters, one just can buy the equipment mostly used and the settings mostly applied. But is that so?

How often do you shoot a sports event like the Olympics? Are the best photographs shot with a Canon, rather than with a Nikon?

What are the charts tell? Photographers of press agencies get equipped by their employer and the employer chooses a camera brand of good quality he can get a good deal with. Same for the lenses, reflecting also in the f-stop stats. And from there it’s a bit of everything, depending on subject and location.

So, what does this example of stats of popular settings tell us? There is nothing like a popular setting one can just use, because others do. Camera settings always depend on the light and nothing else.

Happy snapping!


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

Sony A99: One of a Journey into Still Photography

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For some reason Sony seems to me rather the excellent video camera brand than a still photography brand, although more and more of my photo course safari guests have Sony cameras and I get to use them in order to help and explain. Somehow they don’t feel “ripe” yet and functionality, menu and displays seem influenced by video cameras. But maybe that is something one got to get used to, I don’t know.

Well, there is the new Sony A99 and when I read the review from
Phoblographer I get the impression that they had a bit the same feeling about it. Please read yourself and experience the camera yourself, if you can. They are doing great work and who knows, maybe one day they will overtake the Nikons and Canons.

Lets see how it goes.


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

Photo Gift Hunting made Easy: Xmas Last Minute Specials

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In case you don’t have all the Christmas presents yet and the cameras and electronic gadgets were just too expensive, then your time has come now.

You can purchase the Nikon D600 with 24-85mm lens now for under USD 2,000. Check it out on
Amazon, B&H Photo or Adorama.

And an event that is just right before Christmas visit the Amazon 48 hours
Overstock Event and get great deals.

Happy gift hunting!


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

Bringing Back the Magic and Finding the Awesome

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One might be tempted to say that photography has become hyped up as a technical spectacle of megapixels and Photoshop features, with little magic left. Technology enthusiasts might disagree and say that the technology is magical and fascinating, yet that is a car too. What is the magic of photography?

Imagine you are walking the path you walk everyday, the route to your work, to the bus, to the subway or to the mailbox and you thought you have seen all what is to see on that path. But one day you take your camera and you photograph while walking that so familiar path and suddenly you start seeing again. There might be little flowers in your neighbor’s garden, a broken wooden chair in a driveway creating interesting patterns on the tarmac or a cat spying on you every morning from behind the curtains.

Photography makes us seeing and appreciating the beauty in little things we usually pass unnoticed. Photographs are moments of awe that brighten up our days. Maybe the magic of photography is simply the “seeing” with little technology needed, although technology can add lots of fun.

Keep looking for the awesome and find magic.

Happy snapping!


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

A Photograph is what Your Subconscious Sees

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While reading an article by Roger Cicala on The Camera versus the Human Eye I realized that we humans seem to tend to see the products we once created as superior above nature’s creation. At least I got the idea when reading the article, like the eye gets compared with the camera and has to make up to the expectations in matching the camera specs.

Its rather interesting that we approach it like that and not the opposite way, that the camera is an attempt to copy the human eye. Nonetheless the article points out that the human eye has an incredible number of megapixel, 130 million, from which 6 million can see color, yet the article goes further into every comparable detail with a camera, weighing the pros and cons of “technical” specs.

I think comparing the two like that is like comparing apples with peers. The human eye evolved over millions of years with a functionality to serve survival. A camera was created with a different purpose. It is supposed to capture what we see and not so much in order to survive, but to show and share what we see with our subconscious.

And here it comes.

“Unlike the intermittent shutter clicks of a camera, the eye is sending the brain a constant feed video which is being processed into what we see. A subconscious part of the brain (the
lateral geniculate nucleus if you must know) compares the signals from both eyes, assembles the most important parts into 3-D images, and sends them on to the conscious part of the brain for image recognition and further processing.” Roger Cicala

The subconscious makes the choice what we see consciously and because the human eye is made to help us survive it will provide our conscious with images like face recognition and alike. But our subconscious receives all we see, also what is not essential to survival and the information sits there with the subconscious and it does not even create the 3-D images for us, it just keeps the information and although it’s subconscious, we know that there is more.

Roger Cicala was wondering why he often likes more what he captures with the camera, although it’s not what he saw with his eye.

“But I guess my only real conclusion is this: a photograph is NOT exactly what my eye and brain saw at the scene. When I get a good shot, it’s something different and something better,…” Roger Cicala

No, a photograph is what your eye saw. The photograph captures the information that was sitting unprocessed to the brain with the subconscious. It creates the images of this unprocessed seeing or in other words, a photograph is what your subconscious sees and when taking it a step further, your subconscious was seeing for you all along. And that makes you connect with your photographs so deeply and liking them dearly.

Keep seeing, keep snapping!


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

Refreshed Nikon DSLR Range

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This year Nikon did quite a revolutionary refresh of its DSLR line with the release of the flagship camera D4 and the high-megapixel cameras D800 and D800E, leaving some professionals with the dilemma to choose between the two of them.

But it seems that they are not done yet.
Nikon Rumors reports that within a few weeks the new D5200 will be announced. This camera will replace the D5100 as a mid-range DSLR for consumers and enthusiasts.

In case its getting a bit confusing with all the different
cameras, here a chart with the Nikon DSLRs for a better orientation. (via PetaPixel).

nikon-d-series-range

Will this be the last announcement of a new camera for a while? Sometimes big companies breath in for a few years and then breath out also for a few years, meaning it takes a while to develop new products and then release them in a big wave.

Lets see what comes next, maybe a few new lenses?


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com




Retro and Stunning: The Lomography Belair

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We seem to be in love with retro!
Well, another beautiful new retro
camera has entered our lives, producing stunning retro looking images, the Lomography Belair in three great looks.
The Lomography Belair X 6-12 is the world’s first portable medium camera that shoots auto-exposed photographs.
“The Belair can expose in three different aspect ratios: standard 6×9, square 6×6, and panoramic 6×12. It comes with an interchangeable lens system that has two lenses in the lineup: a 90mm normal lens and a 58mm wide-angle.
Features include zone focusing, support for films with ISO from 50 to 1600, a standard hot-shoe mount, a max shutter speed of 1/125s, Bulb mode, and double exposure shooting.” (via
PetaPixel)
The design shown on the picture above is already sold out, but find more information on their website and rather pre-order your favorite Belair before they are all sold out.

Happy retro snapping!

Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

The Megapixel Race: Sony's 50 Megapixel Sensor

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We are all anxious to finally see what Canon is coming up with towards the end of this month and if it’s true that it will be a 46 Megapixel camera as rumors saying. But there is a new rumor and this time from Sony. sonyalpharumors writes that a 50 Megapixel sensor is in the make and will be released sometime between May and June 2013:

“The camera will be more “
photographer” oriented. There are currently a couple of different prototypes. One we heard of has a 36 Megapixel sensor (same as Nikon D800) and built-in vertical grip. Priced well above the current Sony A99. A second prototype has a new 50 Megapixel sensor which goal is to go as close as possible to a “medium format” quality.”

So first it was
Nikon with the D800 and 36 Megapixel, then probably the Canon with 46 Megapixel and now Sony with 50 Megapixel. Where is this going? What do they think to achieve with this Megapixel race?

All contemplation on this matter might be just as speculating as the megapixel numbers. Lets see what is actually really coming and what it adds to photography.

Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

121 Autofocus Points from Sony vs. High-MP from Canon

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The numbers get higher and we tend to thing that the higher the numbers the more we get for our money. And yes, we get more megapixels and more autofocus points, but does that also mean we really need it?

The Canon High-MP rumors persist and new information has just been posted on
Canon Rumors that says it would be the Canon EOS-1S with a price of about USD 9,000. A specific number of megapixel was not mentioned.

As said in earlier blog posts on this subject, a decision on purchasing the high megapixel Canon needs some contemplation. What are you doing in photography and how do you use your images? Do you want to crop a fly out of an image of a building or will your images be printed in billboard size? Do you need speed when photographing; are you photographing moving objects? Think about it and definitely when the expected price is right, a wrong decision can be painful.


Sony’s A99 SLT offers 19+102 autofocus points, in total 121 and at first sight that appeals more to me than the probably 46MP. Especially when capturing moving objects the high number of autofocus points is very helpful and every wildlife and sports photographer would love to have them, but unfortunately until now there is a downside to it. According to The Phoblographer you can use the feature so far only with 6 lenses, which hopefully will change soon. Yet it is a great feature and probably with more broad use than an extremely high number of megapixel.

Well, it’s always a personal decision depending on the photographic purpose one is pursuing and sometimes its just too tempting.


Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com


Review Time: Photokina's New Cameras

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All big camera brands announced their new models at the Photokina and now the first reviews are available.

The most interesting reviews might be the ones on the full-frame entry level Nikon D600 and Canon D6, just good to have them to compare the two “similar” new camera models of the two big brands. Check out PetaPixel’s Hands on with the
Nikon D600 and Hands on with the Canon 6D.

Of a different league is the Leica M. Also here a
Hands on with the Leica M by PetaPixel to get to know her better before making a decision to buy one.

Also available so far the PetaPixel hands on review of the
Fujifilm X-E1, the Fujifilm XF1 and the Samsung Galaxy Camera.

Surely there will be more reviews coming during the following weeks and if you think about getting one of the new camera models, try to test them at your camera store before buying one. The camera needs to suit you and no review can tell how the camera will feel for you. Only you know, if a camera works for you and what you want to do in photography.
The new camera models are definitely an inspiration and make one wondering how
cameras will be in the future. Until future arrives lets enjoy what the present offers.

Happy testing!

Ute Sonnenberg for
www.rohoyachui.com

How Many Photo Equipment does One Need on Safari

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Many people go ones in their life on a safari and want to make sure they come home with lovely images. That puts a lot of pressure on the one who is responsible for the photography and one can easily end up buying all equipment possibly necessary, just to make sure to have it in case they need it. There is an overwhelming amount of equipment available and its really hard to make the right choice, but you got to make a choice and if its only for the luggage allowance on the flights.
If you are an entry-level hobby photographer, the best you can do is having a bridge type of digital camera with you with a good zoom and a relatively good speed. The biggest problem of the point and shoot cameras is their speed. They are often to slow to capture the moment and the animal is gone. Bringing that good bridge model to start with is a good choice for the less ambitious hobby photographer. No further photo equipment needed.

The more ambitious photographer with an entry level DSLR and interchangeable lenses gets already confronted with more choices. There are flowers and small animals that make great subjects, there are landscapes and there are the elephants on the water whole. For all three different situations are different lenses and the best thing to do would be to bring a macro, a wide angle and a zoom lens. But in reality one ends up not really using the macro lens when focusing on wildlife, unless macro is a specialty of the photographer and he/she will focus on small animals and objects. So, in general the wide angle and the zoom lens will be enough to bring. This lens choice can also apply to the more advanced and ambitious photographer. The next question is the tripod. A tripod is great for low light situations or night photography, but not essential for wildlife photography. A beanbag is the better choice. There is limited space in the vehicle, one needs to be flexible for the always-moving objects and night photography is not really happening. Get a
beanbag.

The photographers with the more advanced cameras and lenses have a difficult task in making a decision. The beautiful fixed 400mm/500mm/600mm lenses are great, but they are also heavy, not flexible, need a tripod or monopod to be handled and require space. Already the transport on the international flight and definitely on the safari flight is challenging. But the main concern is their flexibility. In many places the animals are very close to the vehicles and the big lens cannot be used. So, one needs at least two cameras to have a more flexible lens on the other body to capture also these moments. If you want to bring all this great equipment, be prepared to have a private vehicle in order to manage it while being on safari. Also special arrangements for the transfers and flights might be necessary.

Whatever your choice will be, keep in mind to have a fast camera with a fast processing memory card, a minimum 400 mm zoom lens when shooting full frame and a beanbag. These essentials will serve you well when going out to shoot great photos of wildlife, yet having a relaxed safari and easy transportation.

Enjoy preparing for a great trip!

Ute Sonnenberg, www.rohoyachui.com