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LOOKING TO EXTEND THE REACH OF YOUR FULL FRAME OR APS SENSOR SIZED SLR, GET QUALITY IMAGES AND REASONABLE PRICE? CONSIDER THE TAMRON 200-500 ZOOM 
I would love to own at 300mm, 400, and maybe even a 500mm or 600mm lens, but I just can't justify the price for the amount of long tele work I do. I have heard this at so many workshops and seminars and lots of us are in the same situation. This past weekend I had an opportunity to try out the Tamron 200-500 zoom lens and must say that I was pleasantly surprised. While it is not a 300mm 2.8 or 500mm 4.0 from Nikon or Canon or any prime camera manufacturer, it is a ex excellent performer and provides a long piece of glass in a very nice price range. Go to your local dealer and try one on for size. click the link. _______________________________________________________________________________________
THERE ARE LOTS OF GREAT TRIPODS AND TRIPOD HEADS AND FOR OUR BALL HEADS WE USE THE ARCA SWISS MOUNTING SYSTEM - WHY? BECAUSE THEY ARE THE BEST Over the years, the Arca Swiss mounting system has become the most universal for serious photographers around the world. Of course it was originally designed for Arca Swiss ball heads, but it did not take long for other companies such as Wimberley, Acratech, Really Right Stuff, and others to recognize and manufacture their own Arca Swiss gear. As you most of you have read articles here before, my choice for lens plates, camera plates, gimble heads, and side kick type heads, has always been Wimberely. The primary reason for this is the on going quality of the products they put into the market place. The simplicity of their designs as well as the companies behavior towards their customers both pro and amerture alike says a lot about the kind of people they are. The other reason, is that they are a local company, based in Winchester Virginia and I am a firm believer when ever possible to support local companies just like I support local camera stores. Wimberley products are available from Penn Camera, and Wimberley, or Direct from Wimberely. Remember to ask them about the plamp for macro and closeup photography. We recently updated a bunch of our Wimberley equipment and now have available at the workshops, Gimble and Sidekick heads for loan, as well as plates for your cameras and lenses. We also have several brands of Ball heads using the arcaswiss mount system and we have tripods to put them on. We also have the ability to convert a head at the workshop to use the different plates. I have switched all of our camera plates to the universal P-5 plates that Wimberley makes, because they are strong, thin, and have a special rubber compound that just won't shift on the camera. The nice thing about this plate is that it will fit on pretty much any camera. (Check the Wimberley site for information on their recommendations.) While other manufacturers make lens plates and body plates the quality of the Wimberley products has proven itself over and over again and THEY COST LESS. Wimberley has other products on their site so don't forget to click above. Also, check out both Manfrotto and Induro tripods, heads, and QUICK RELEASE SYSTEMS. They are also very popular in their own rights. __________________________________________________________________________________ THE SMITH AND HAWKEN' ARTICLE IN OUR LAST NEWS LETTER One of our steady readers, read the article last month on pads to lean on from Smith & Hawken' and was kind enough to let me know that there is a Smith and Hawken' store in McClean Va. - if you click HERE, you will be taken to a map location. They also have a store HERE in the Washington DC area And let's not forget Maryland, by clicking HERE __________________________________________________________________________________ MACRO NEEDS - a modified updated article about what you need to capture Spring and its awakening beauty 
Macro and close-up photography is one of my favorite types. It opens up so many different ways to explore the photographic image and provides unlimited subjects. It places new demands on your expertise but allows you to explore and experiment in ways you may not have done shooting with conventional optics or accessories.
MACRO LENSES FOR 1:1 LIFE SIZE REPRODUCTION There are so many excellent optics out here today that at times it becomes difficult to make the right choices. Quite often the simplest thing to do is go with the camera manufacturers macro offerings, and you more than likely will not go wrong. But there are other lens manufacturers that provide excellent to beyond excellent macro optics and usually at a price benefit to the purchaser. Tamron offers a 90mm macro and a 180mm macro. And just announced this month is a brand new macro of APS sized sensors like Nikon D300 or Canon 50d. This lens is a 60mm 2.0 lens from Tamron and you can read the information about it right here. CLICK The 180mm and the 90mm Tamron are excellent lenses and I feel certain that this new 60mm will live up to Tamrons Macro reputation. The Tamron 90mm lens has long been rated as one of the finest macros made. Sigma also has some exceptional macro lenses. The 150mm and the 70mm are excellent lenses. I know you cannot go wrong with any of these choices. Some of the newest technology however comes from Nikon through the use of silent wave motors and nano crystal coating (anti reflective coatings). The new Nikon 105mm macro and 60mm macro have silent wave motors for faster a quieter focus, as well as nano crystal coatings. The 105mm also has Vibration Reduction (Vr). Your best bet is to go to your local dealer and handle the lenses and possibly shoot test images. To determine which macro would be best for your needs, it would probably be a good idea to first determine what sort of macro photography you want to do. I personally carry a 60mm, 105mm and 180mm macro depending on the subject matter. There are some subjects that I can get real close to with the 60mm, but quite often the situation may demand that I keep my distance and that is when the longer focal length comes in handy. AS A GENERAL RULE YOU COULD NOT GO WRONG IN THE 90MM TO 105MM RANGE. Remember that the new Tamron 60mm 2.0 is 90mm on your APS Digital Slr. TELEPHOTO LENSES FOR CLOSE UP PHOTOGRAPHY Telephoto prime lenses as well as telephoto zoom lenses can provide you with wonderful frame filling CLOSE-UPS. This is not 1:1 reproduction, but you still are going to produce very dramatic quality results. I have had situations where I have used either a 70-200mm zoom, or straight 200mm or 300mm prime lens for an extreme close up of a flower or insect not to mention a whole variety of other subjects. There are also 28-300, 70-300, 200-500mm lenses that could also prove to extremely versatile close up and telephoto lenses. CLOSE-UP LENSES I carry the Canon 500D/double element close up lens and the series of Nikon Close-up lenses. (The Nikon Closeup lenses may or may not be available) If you are carrying medium telephoto lenses or 70-300 or 70-200mm zoom in your bag and you want to have an opportunity to take an extreme close-up, then this is a very handy accessory. While it is not as good as a prime macro lens, it will produce very good results. EXTENSION TUBES This type of accessory allows you to move the lens further from the imager or film in your camera and allows for extreme close-ups. They normally come in sets of three tubes each providing a different level of magnification, and can be used in combination. Check them out. FOR CANON or FOR NIKON MACRO RAILS This accessory allows you to get a more finite point of focus and composition. There are several models in the market place in varied quality, but they all do the same thing. Depending on how critical you are going to be with your macro photography, you can buy expensive or inexpensive macro rails, and you should check them out at your favorite local camera store. There are some very expensive rails out there from a few manufacturers, and I own a set of them but have found that the inexpensive ones work just fine for most things. Look at the rails from
Manfrotto. You can buy one or two depending what kind of work you want to do. THERE IS A PICTURE ABOVE. Whatever lenses you decide upon, and what accessories you want to add to your arsenal of macro equipment, make sure you try before you buy. Try the extension tubes and close up lenses, and be sure they are going to help you obtain the image results you are looking for. No matter what you decide upon, please support your local dealer ______________________________________________________________________________________ WHAT ARE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC GOALS AND HOW DO YOU PLAN TO ATTAIN THOSE GOALS? MOVE FORWARD AND CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW Photography is a wonderful means of looking back at the past, recording today, and preserving those things that we deem important in our current world, so they can be remembered for future generations. For many of us it is our form of artistic expression that enables us to create images with our unique perspectives and allows us to hopefully convey an emotional and insightful look as to who we are, where we are, and when. It really does not matter what kind of camera gear you use. What does matter, is how you use it and how you continue to grow your skills through education and practice. This is what our workshops and classes provide you with. You get a chance to to capture unique opportunities with a small group of new friends of similar interests and work directly with your instructors to move you towards attaining your goals. Why not join us at a 1/2 day, full day or 3 day workshop, that can move you to the next level. Why not take a class like Lightroom or Nikon Capture NX2 and learn the benefits of processing your images in some of easiest and finest software available. Take a look at our web site for complete information about everything we have to offer you. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ARE YOU SHOOTING OR PLANNING TO SHOOT A NEW HIGH MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL SLR CAMERA - ARE YOUR LENSES UP TO THE TASK OF GETTING THE BEST OUT OF THESE NEW HIGH RESOLUTION SENSORS? It used to be, in the ultimate battle back then, whether or not digital sensors were anywhere as good as recording the images that film used to give us. I was firmly entrenched in that battle, because I worked for Nikon for many years and was involved in Nikon' digital products right from the beginning or almost from the beginning. At that time, Nikon was producing cameras like the D1 and D100 and every year or so new models were coming to market with either better sensors or enhanced features over previous models. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON THEIR RENTAL DEPARTMENTS ALSO FOR QUICKER SERVICE CALL JERRY SMITH AT 703-893-7366, PENN TYSONS RENTAL DEPARTMENT. _______________________________________________________________________________________
DOUBLE CHECK THOSE SETTINGS - WHEN YOU START AND WHEN YOU FINISH AND OF COURSE RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES I would love to be able to tell you that I never mess up the setting on my camera, but like most people I know, I am guilty of not always checking my setting before I go out to shoot. Sometimes, after a day out, getting back to my base where ever that might be is pretty important because I am tired, I want to get cleaned up, I want to look at the images and back them up and I might actually want to go to sleep. Oh yeah! And eat. Not necessarily in that order. So what happens? I have allowed myself to get busy with all of these things, and then the next day of shooting is upon me and guess what I have not done. I have not adjusted my exposure compensation, white balance, iso, or any of the other multitudes of setting my camera has. So my first few minutes of shooting are suddenly frustrating because I did not take care of business when I got back from the shoot and I did not double check before I started again. ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK YOUR CAMERA SETTINGS. NOT JUST BEFORE OR AFTER A SHOOT, BUT ALSO DURING THE DAY, JUST TO BE SURE. Today’s cameras have so many setting that can be changed that will effect how your image looks that it is almost impossible to remember them all. The upside to that is those controls allow for more creative shooting. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
MY MEMORY CARDS ARE NOT WORKING. MY CAMERA IS GIVING ME AN ERROR MESSAGE. WHEN DID YOU LAST FORMAT YOUR CARDS? DID YOU EVER FORMAT YOUR CARDS IN CAMERA It is very possible that you may have been extremely lucky. Lucky that you have not had a memory card fail when you needed it most. I say lucky because it just may be that you have never formatted your memory cards but simply deleted pictures off of them. If that is the case then you have a calamity waiting in the wings. Formatting cards, even the brand new one you just purchased or are about to purchase is just to important for the health of the cards you use. I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT DOING THIS ON A COMPUTER. I am talking about doing this in your camera. Every digital camera has format setting in either the menus, or on the body, or both. It just depends upon your camera. When you first put a card in the camera for the first time, format it. When you are done shooting for the day, just don't go through the images and delete them. Save them to either your computer or a hand held storage device. Once you know they are saved, then FORMAT the card in the camera, NOT THE COMPUTER. This way you are theoretically wiping the card clean, and starting fresh. If over a period of time you do not use this important process, you will leave bits and bits and bits of data floating around that card, and one day when you least expect it the card will be corrupted and useless, just when you need it to be perfect and pristine.
ALWAYS AND ONLY FORMAT YOUR MEMORY CARDS IN YOUR CAMERA. _______________________________________________________________________________________ NIK SOFTWARE UPGRADES SILVEREFEX PRO FOR LIGHTROOM PLUG-IN REVIEW FOR TOKINA 12-24. SOUNDS LIKE A WINNER ENTER PHOTOS WITH NATURES BEST MAGAZINE TAMRON ANNOUNCES 60MM MACRO FOR APS SENSOR FORMAT HERE'S A PROGRAM WORTH LOOKING ATP PENTAX FIRMWARE UPGRADE FOR THE K20D CAMERA. IMPROVES SHAKE REDUCTION NIKON FIRMWARE UPGRADE FOR D40 AND D40X _________________________________________________________________________________________________
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHAT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS ARE AS A PHOTOGRAPHER - THIS WEBSITE AND PUBLICATIONS HAVE COME HIGHLY RECOMMENDED For some of you this may be the best click on you have ever gone to. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ You simply have to look at this.....Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 - DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND CLICK ON THE LINK AND WATCH THE WHOLE THING This video from a popular show in Britain really made my day and I hope it does the same for you. - Really do not watch it at work UNLESS you are told it is ok because it may stir your emotions. I Noticed on the news 4/14 that they too were showing clips of this but not in its entirety which this is. Even if you don't like any of this type of talent show, get over it and watch this. _______________________________________________________________________________________ RAW VS. JPEG - AN ARTICLE BY STEVE UZZELL JPEG vs. RAW - Which one do I shoot? By Steve Uzzell Which file format is the best for you? Once you understand some basic tenets of digital capture, the short answer is to always shoot RAW. For me, the only exception to that rule is if I have to IMMEDIATELY post the file or use the file directly after capture with absolutely NO time for digital processing. In the 8 years since I've gone digital, I've shot JPGs once! Perhaps the best way for you to make your own decision is to understand what each file type is and what that information means to you. Let's start with a JPG or JPEG, short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the gang who came up with the format in the first place. A JPG file, by definition, can only have a color bit depth of 8, or 2 to the 8th power. Very nice, but what does that means? In the digital world, when we look at the histogram on the back of our camera or at a file opened in Photoshop, the full dynamic range of light from complete darkness (black with no detail) to complete lightness (white with no detail) is typically broken into 256 tonal values (2 to the 8th power) per color channel. That means the red channel has 256 tonal values from dark, dark, dark red to light, light, light red, so does the green channel and so does the blue. When those values are equal, we get some tonality of neutral grey – for example, a RGB value of 50, 50, 50 yields a resultant "color" that is a darkish neutral gray, while an RGB value of 200, 200, 200 would yield a light grey. If the RGB values have a higher number in any of the channels then the resultant color takes on that hue, e.g., an RGB value of 200, 30, 40, respectively, the color produced would be a saturated red, and so on. A JPG file can ONLY have 256 of these tonal values per color channel. A RAW file (short for uncooked) on the other hand, can have MANY more tonal values per color channel. Most cameras shooting RAW will capture the data in a file with a bit depth of at least 12, or 2 to the 12th power. Is this better? In this case, a very definite yes! A 12 bit capture (2 to the 12th power) gives you 4096 tonal levels per color channel, a 14 bit capture leaves you with 16,384 tonal levels per channel, and a true 16 bit capture (of the very high end medium format backs) yields 16,536 tonal levels. While the much higher numbers seem impressive, what do these increased numbers of tonal levels mean to you? Simply stated, it means you have more wiggle room in your exposure and still have plenty of tonal levels to move around (in your RAW file processor, such as Adobe Camera Raw, or Capture One, or Nikon NX2, etc.) and get the image the way you want it. And be honest, life is much easier and a whole lot more fun with more wiggle room! Let's take a look at some additional numbers to see exactly why, in this case, more is better. Unlike film, the gamma (mid-tone contrast) of digital is linear. In the 8 bit world, this means the first stop of (highlight) exposure goes from a tonal value of 256 (white with no detail) to 128 (mid-tones). The second stop of your capture goes from tonal value 128 to 64 (darker tones), the third from 64 to 32 (darker still), the 4th from 32 to 16 (very dark), and the 5th from 16 to 8 (very close to black). Most capture chips in the cameras used by Blue Ridge Workshoppers today (students and instructors alike) will yield approximately a 5-stop dynamic range, some a little more, some a little less. When translated to English, this means you better get your highlight exposure correct! If you want tonality in a highlight area and you over expose it in the JPG format, it is gone forever. In the RAW format, there is some wiggle room to recapture some of the tonality in highlight areas, even when you don't get the exposure spot on. And if, at the same time, you also would like to open your shadows up a but, you have many more tonal levels to move around without fear of having so few to move they produce a visible banding when there is no more room to make a smooth transition between tones. There is one last consideration for those who choose to shoot JPGs. JPGs files take up less space on your cards and your hard drives because there is compression applied to the file to make it smaller. Ultimately, the way this compression works to make the file smaller is to throw out data! HOWEVER... you don't get to choose the data that gets thrown out! And, to add insult to injury, every time you open and close a JPG file you will lose additional data, so even if you STILL choose to shoot JPGs, you will not archive your images in that format, you will opt for TIFF or PSDs, or better yet, convert your archived images to DNG (the Digital NeGative format from Adobe– an open source file format that will be readable 100 years from now.
As Paul Harvey always said, "Now you know the rest of the story." Choose your format wisely. __________________________________________________________________________________________________
NIKON D5000 DSLR CAMERA ANNOUNCED APRIL 14TH AND IT IS PACKED WITH FEATURES. THIS REALLY SEEMS TO BE THE BRIDGE BETWEEN POINT AND SHOOT AND DSLR THAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR 
Today Nikon announced a brand new digital slr that falls between the popular Nikon D60 and D90 camera. To make it easier for you to get all the incredible details for this small, compact, cross between a digital dslr and point and shoot bridge camera, I am giving you to link below to read all the details and see images of the camera itself. IMAGES FROM DPREVIEW, CHECK OUT 3200 ISO SHOTS, CHECK THEM ALL NIKON ANNOUNCES 10-24 MM DX LENS READ THE REVIEW FROM DP REVIEW READ THE REVIEW FROM ROB GALBRAITH I HAVE JUST ORDERED MY NIKON D5000 FROM PENN CAMERA - A GREAT USE FOR MY TAX REFUND I just could not wait. I have pre-ordered my camera from Penn Tyson's (703-893-7366) but of couse you can order from any Penn Camera. It's coming in according to the web sites sometime this month. I cannot tell you how long I have been waiting for a digital slr with an articulating moniter. Just the thing I need for getting low without physically getting low for some hard to get macro shots.
THE PENN CAMERA ANNUAL TENT SHOW IS COMING UP FAST, MAY 2ND AND MAY 3RD. Every year this great event draws enormous numbers of photo enthusiasts and professionals to some of the greatest photography equipment deals around and get a chance to see all kinds of products in one place. Reps for the different manufacturers are on hand to go over the newest and greatest and to answer all your questions about what's new and what's that new. Join Penn Camera either again if you have been there before, or if you are looking for a great camera store that is presenting great service, with great sales people. Contact Penn Camera Tyson at 703-893-7366 for times and location.
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Welcome to the April, 2009 newsletter. In this Issue WORKSHOPS AND CLASSES FOR YOU TO LEARN ABOUT TO SIGN UP FOR-CLICK ON EACH BELOW A WORKSHOP ON THE EASTERN SHORE OF VIRGINIA-MAY 22, 2009 THROUGH MAY 24, 2009 2009 THE LILYPONS IN FULL BLOOM - 7/11/20 PRESENTING YOUR FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY - ISN'T IT TIME YOU TOOK THE NEXT STEP? Rappahannock-JUST YOU AND US ON LOTS OF ACRES OF PRIVATE LAND-July 18, 2009 FOR OTHER WORKSHOPS PLEASE CLICK HERE Share with a Friend Know anyone who might be interested in our newsletter? Click here to forward this email to up to 5 friends at once. |
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