Quick Review of the Hakuba PSTC-200 Tripod Case

I bought this Hakuba PSTC-200 Tripod Case based on the reviews on Adorama's page, and after receiving it on 7/2/2015, I agree with and echo all of the positive comments. 

Hakuba PSTC-200 Tripod Case

This Hakuba Large / PSTC-200 bag is great. The zipper looks like a YKK grade on both the bag and the side pouch. The padding is nice and thick, maybe 1/2" or more. As mentioned, it also includes another pouch inside the bag with a Velcro closure. It also has a transparent pouch for a business card or other identification card on the outside, opposite the large pouch.

I got this case to replace a cheap VidPro bag I'd got from Amazon (which also had a number of positive reviews) that cost about $15.00. That bag had just enough padding to claim it was padded but the zipper failed me after about 18 months (I bought the VidPro on 1/22/2014, the zipper no longer functioned by June 2015). The VidPro has a very cheap sort of coiled plastic zipper that easily pulls apart and eventually wouldn't zip together at all. I really wanted a new bag with a working zipper (otherwise why have it?).

I really did not want the Manfrotto or other manufacturer bags because of the advertising. 

The only thing better in my opinion would be a hard case.

This case easily fits my Manfrotto 055XPROB with 468MGRC5 ball head attached. I can fit my other cheaper tripod in there too if desired.

I wish I'd got this bag at the start - it's under $45 and will provide a lot of protection for a few hundred dollars of tripod and ball head.

I don't plan to use it to carry the tripod on a trail but it does come with a shoulder strap. (I have the Manfrotto strap that goes on the tripod itself to carry it in the field).

My first Milky Way Picture

The Plan

On Saturday, 6/20/2015, a fellow photographer invited me to try shooting the Milky Way from the Superstition Mountains which is about 40 miles east of Phoenix, by Apache Junction. He had seen a great picture on Facebook and wanted to try it too. I always like going to the Superstitions so it was a man date! (He had his wife along so it wasn't quite that weird.)

We decided to meet at the gate to the Lost Dutchman State Park which is at the north-west end of the Superstition Mountain range at around 8:00 PM.

I decided to look online for additional information about shooting the Milky Way so I'd hopefully be more prepared. I found a number of images such as this one on Flickr by Beth Myers. I noted that she used a Nikon D610 (YAY) with apparently the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. She shot hers at 3:02 AM on 5/3/2014. She used f/2.8 at 30s and ISO 1600 with a 14mm focal length. Since the full size image is 6016 x 4016 pixels (the size of the full images) I think she was fairly close to the mountain.

Stellarium Screen Shot from the Stellarium Website

Next I wanted to see what time the Milky Way would be visible. I found out about Stellarium, a really slick and FREE (for desktop use) application that not only shows the stars from the location you enter, but it has a real time simulator that you can control the speed of to see how the moon, planets, and stars and constellation move across the sky. 

Using the information from this application you can find out what time the Milky Way will appear vertical, for instance. It roughly shows the location, displaying the major compass coordinates on the screen. It's really slick - I also paid for a version to install on my Kindle Fire HD, which I took with me to help visualize where the Milky Way should appear.

Mice and Men

We met at the park gate as planned, or there about. I got there early and had wandered into the park and took some pics while waiting. Spoiler alert - I liked these earlier pics as much as or more than the Milky way pic. Here's one of them:

Dusk over the Usery Mountains

I really like the gold of this picture with some subtle green. This is pretty much Straight Out Of the Camera (SOOC) with the saturation bumped, some burning, etc.

When it got dark enough we started taking some pictures. They just weren't very inspiring. We could see the Milky Way in the pictures a bit, but one thing I'd read was that you really should be able to see it with your naked eye (or eyes) in order to capture it well. And we couldn't. 

I believe the issue was that it was pretty hazy. Normally I can see the Superstitions from Phoenix itself. On the drive out I could not see them from Phoenix but had to get closer, maybe to where I was within 15 miles or so, to see the mountains through the haze. I think that caused two issues: 1) it reduced visibility of the Milky Way, and 2) it captured "light pollution" in the atmosphere which also reduces the contrast of the Milky Way to the dark, empty space.

Here's my best picture, and this was edited quite a bit at this point:

Milky Way over the Superstitions #1

Post Processing

I found a good, succinct tutorial video that I watched (I really don't like videos much because I have to turn on a lot of other gear that I use for my recording studio in order to play audio from my PC). I watched it because the guy also offers some FREE presets for Adobe Lightroom specifically for processing night / sky / Milky Way images. The guy's name is David Kingham and his tutorial / presets page is http://www.davidkingham.com/night-photography-lightroom-presets. I used his advice and presets to get the picture above to the point it's at.

I wasn't very happy with it, though, compared to the Beth Myers image mentioned above, or others I'd seen. So I decided to try playing with it some more. Basically I took a copy of the above image (easy to do in Lightroom with a [CTRL][']) and tried to mainly bump up the exposure so that it wasn't so dark. Well, that lightened up everything too much so I used some filters to darken the sky above and below the Milky Way. I'd also used David Kingham's "star de-focus" preset on the upper and right stars but I thought it blurred the stars too much so removed most of that effect. Here's the final version which I like better:

Milky Way over the Superstitions #2

This was with my Nikon D610 and Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 lens. Exposure is 25 seconds at f/4, ISO 1600, and focal length at 16mm.

The Reason behind Photography (for me)

Fishing on the Bill Williams River
National Wildlife Refuge

I'm sure I mentioned in one of my first posts to this blog that one of the main reasons I took up photography was to give me a reason to be outdoors like I had been years ago when I used to fish. This last weekend those two interests intersected for the first time since starting my photography hobby.

I was out along the Colorado River, south of Lake Havasu City, on the border between Arizona and California. I'd spent the night in Lake Havasu City and was heading back home in the somewhat early morning. At about 7:30 I made it to the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge. There's a bridge that spans the cattail filled river which, running from east to west, empties into the Colorado River at Lake Havasu, not too far north of Parker Dam.

It looks like it could be a wonderful place to take pictures of birds but there weren't any there. However, there was a nice fishing boat with a couple of guys taking advantage of the serene beauty. I knew what they must have gone through to get their boat to that point by that time in the morning, and I could feel the rod and reel in my hands, the line spooling off the reel, as I watched them cast. I wondered what species they were targeting. I wondered what type of bait or lure they were using and what I'd choose for that area and time of day.

I felt a twinge of a start of an urge to see if my rods and reels were still functional and to try hitting some water myself. But then I remembered how I just don't like the thought of actually puncturing the jaw of a fish with a metal hook simply for my pleasure. So the twinge faded as quick as it came.

But the enjoyment of being out on a not yet hot early morning, along side a body of water, with very little man-made noise (only an occasional car), was shared between me and the fisher dudes. It made me smile then as it does now. My photography not only got me there for that moment but when I look at this picture I'll always have that memory.







Being Picky

Over the last few weeks I have been out on the weekends with the intent to take some pictures. I have ensured my camera equipment is clean, batteries are charged, and campground reservations are in hand. I have gone to my chosen locations. But, my picture taking is very limited. I have lately been experiencing at least two impediments to my productivity.

First, and this one I don't know how to manage, is that lately I have been sleeping more regularly. I rarely wake up in the middle of the night now resulting in less night shots. I don't know what is causing this but I know from experience that it's likely to turn back to waking up naturally in the middle of the night again at some point. I'm torn about whether to set alarms for midnight or 1 AM, because I actually benefit during the work week when I get regular sleep. And, I normally go through these phases over a period of some weeks or possibly months and then I'll go back to waking up in the middle of the night. It's because of this experience, coupled with the fact that landscapes will always be there, that means I allow myself to sleep through the nights and to give up the night photography for now.

Because of the different sleep habits I'm also missing out on the golden- and blue-hour shots. This mainly leaves the "pool light" shots (paraphrasing Brian Peterson - the mid-day hours better spent by the swimming pool rather than shooting pictures). Due to this sleep "disorder" I don't take as many pictures as I was.

Second, I'm just getting picky about the pictures I want to take. This stems from a number of reasons:

1. Locality Saturation

I have been to most of my home state of Arizona a number of times for the purpose of taking pictures in the last couple of years. I feel there are three basic types of scenery in Arizona: a) Canyon / Hills / Cliffs - such as the Grand Canyon, Salt River Canyon, Sedona areas; b) Desert / Cactus - such as Saguaro, Organ Pipe National parks; and c) Pine Forests - such as on the Mogollon Rim, Flagstaff, Prescott areas. There are a few outliers, such as the desert lakes, Indian ruins, Tonto Natural Bridge, Kartchner Caverns, but those are short diversions. I'm just feeling the need to expand my horizons.

Because I feel like I've almost already shot all the pictures available in Arizona, I don't take as many pictures lately.

2. Creatively Stifled

When I look at my pictures I tend to just see travel photographs and not very much "art". I'd rather be shooting "art", whatever that means. For me, it means being able to eliminated the number of subjects in my pictures but I struggle to find or compose pictures that I can create the way I want. I believe it's my inability to find the subject of a picture and then my technical proficiency to isolate or contrast the subject with a very limited set of objects in the same picture.

This has been my fight for a year or so, especially after reading the David duChemin books. But I've also been admiring a number of photos posted on 500px.com, especially under the "Fine Art" group. There are a lot of photographers creating landscape or scenery images like I'd like to produce. I'm just not one of them yet.

Unless I see something that is striking to me in the view finder I don't take many pictures.

3. Post Processing

A result of items 2 and 3 above is that I no longer want to spend much time post processing images that I really don't care for. Consequently I avoid taking as many pictures in order to reduce my post processing activities (including uploading to the computer, reviewing and/or rating, and actual image post processing).

Next Steps

I need to overcome these mindsets somehow. I still enjoy the picture taking process, but have grown to where I don't care for the results as often. I do enjoy the "snapshot" quality pics that I do take and minimally process - they remind me of times and places I've experienced. Usually I can instantly remember the temperature of a place (of some significance here in Arizona), the solitude, the level of noise, etc. I remember certain things my dog might have done or at least how he sits in the seat next to me on the road and stares at me for hours. Those things are valuable.

The difference is that I want to create some art. For me that means better perspectives on better subjects with better isolation and better lighting. I hope that is something I can achieve and that it is not something that has to be innate rather than something that can be worked on and learned.

Initial Impressions of the Thom Hogan D600 Guide

I finally got the Thom Hogan Guide to the Nikon D600 "eBook". I have wanted it but I have the D610 and even though there really aren't any big differences, especially regarding using the D610 vs. the D600, I have procrastinated purchasing his book. I wish I hadn't waited.

If you aren't aware of Thom Hogan, he's an old school photographer who has also had an interesting career in a number of fields which give him a good, thorough background in technology. You can visit one of his websites at http://bythom.com/ (which is where you can pick up his books). 

Thom did photography work with Galen Rowell. If you're not aware of Galen Rowell, he was a significant landscape photographer (and more), worthy of researching as well. You can check out his website at http://www.mountainlight.com/. Thom's background makes him eminently qualified to offer a book on a camera.

In the last week or so, Thom updated the book to include information specific to the D610. That was enough for me to buy the book. I will say, however, that the version I received is still the first edition which does NOT have the D610 material. I emailed Thom and he replied in about an hour, stating he was working out some issues with the PDF formatting. So, I'm still waiting for the D610 version...

I am not all of the way through the book yet. It's over 800 printed pages. I'm on about page 150. The book, up to this point, is providing a detailed overview of how the sensor works. And I mean detailed. But, well explained - if you're the type to want his book you should be able to understand what he's saying. I have read about sensors before, but Thom mentions the material that the AA filter is made out of and how it's constructed and where it sits with respect to the actual photosites. Then he goes on to show how it affects resolution and why and what you should be aware of when shooting images that may be impacted adversely. I thought I already had enough to think about when taking a picture - Thom just increased that requirement and made me start worrying again. He kicked me out of my comfort zone and I'm only about 18% through the book!

Sidebar Thom mentions in a number of the articles on his website that if you're reading his information you're likely to be the type of photographer that is looking to derive the highest quality possible out of your equipment. Consequently he makes assumptions about certain things, such as that you have at least a basic understanding of what ISO is and how it is involved in taking a photograph. I like that about his information. When I was first getting involved in photography I needed to stick to the sites that explained over and over what an f-stop was. Now I don't want to hear the basics any longer. I want to dig deeper and Thom provides that.

Thom continues by giving a great explanation of the EXPEED3 processing system, the camera power system (you want to read the info about how to care for your batteries), storage cards, image formats (get ready for details about the NEF format and how the data is compressed to JPEG). I haven't finished this section yet (what he calls "D600 Basics") and I already know I need to re-read portions before I'll completely understand them.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book, and at this point I'm really interested in how to fine tune my lenses. I also know that he has great info about getting the best sharpness possible out of an image and want to get that info as well.

I know I haven't fully read the book yet, but I have two other D610 books and of the three, this has the most detail, background information, and in my opinion, insight regarding the camera. If I had this book I probably would NOT have purchase the other two even though they aren't bad. They're just not enough for me. (The other two books are: "Mastering the Nikon D610" by Darrel Young, and "Nikon D610 Experience - The Still Photography Guide to Operation and Image Creation with the Nikon D610" by Douglas Klosterman.) Based on my experience with these three books, as well as a LOT of online reading, I can't recommend Thom's books enough.

And, for full disclosure, I have no affiliation with Thom other than I have come to enjoy his insight and website more than any other single source. I have recommended his article on buying a tripod (http://bythom.com/support.htm) to a number of people.

The tripod article describes a philosophy that can be applied to any non-trivial equipment purchase, and one that I'm struggling with now regarding a GPS (I'd really like a more robust GPS. I'm on my second device in less than two years and I think it's going out again. I'd really like one that included the camera direction and the ability to use it as a shutter release (since it uses the shutter release connection on the camera).

So unless the rest of the pages in the book are blank, I think everyone, at least Nikon users, should own the Thom Hogan guide for their camera. It may not make you a better photographer but it will give you a lot of information on how to become a better photographer.

Nikon D610 Sensor - Cleaned

In my last post I discussed how it was time to get the sensor of my Nikon D610 cleaned and that I'd report on the outcome. Here it is, as promised...

I took Friday, 4/3/2015 off from work and headed north to stay in the Sedona, Arizona area. Usually you can get a campground spot by doing that as long as you get there about when the 3 National campgrounds open up along the Oak Creek Canyon, State Route 89A. This weekend was close. I don't know if I've never gone camping on Easter weekend, or if I've just never gone to the Sedona area.

When you get off of I-17 at Exit 298 to take State Route 179, you will pass through Village of Oak Creek seven miles before hitting Sedona. Seven miles. I think it took me about an hour to get from Village of Oak through Sedona before hitting State Route 89A. In other words, traffic moved an average of probably 7 to 10 miles per hour. To put it another way, it was not pleasant or fun.

The delay made me too late to get a spot at Manzanita, the southernmost campground. I kept going until I got to Cave Springs at about 12:30PM but they would only let me add my name to a list which would let me get access if I returned at 2:00 PM. And, I was on the second or third page of the list. I had the attendant add my name but wasn't sure if I'd go back.

I continued on to Pine Flats, the northernmost campground. They had one spot and would let me take it so I did. The spot was closely tucked in-between two other spots but it was level and the tent area had been freshly raked. I felt lucky to get it.

Our campsite at Pine Flats, Spot #10, 4/3/2010

I put up the tent and did a few other things although I was again travelling very light. I didn't have a stove or gear for a fire nor did I plan to make one. I had a cooler with 3 beers, some lunch meat, and some apples. I had a loaf of bread, granola, craisins, and jerky. Oh, and a couple of gallons of water. It doesn't take long to make or break camp. I headed back to Sedona thinking I could tolerate the traffic now that I had secured a camp site.

I wanted to scope some picture locations during the day with the intent of returning at dusk to shoot. I'd seen a promising location near the Sedona airport so I checked it out. From the junction of 179 and 89A, you head southwest on 89A towards Cottonwood, turning south on Airport Road at the light.

Since it was mid-day and the sky was mostly clear (and therefore uninteresting) I didn't end up taking any pictures but it looks like would be good at dusk and night. There should be a good amount of city lights below the rock formations and it's a good vantage point.

Red Rocks at Sedona, AZ

I continued along 89A towards Cottonwood and then drove the Red Rock Loop Road, turning south at Sedona Red rock High School. After a couple of turns I found a little turn off with a number of other cars parked there so decided to see what was over the rise. That's where I snapped one of two pictures that were worth spending time post processing.
 
It's still a mid-day shot but I think it's okay. Maybe I think that because I had to move the camera a number of times in order to get the foreground trees to hide the houses that are at the base of the hill. You can't see them in the shot but they're all along the base, ruining the shot unless you hide them. I'm not positive of the rocks but I believe its the formation that the Chapel of the Holy Cross is up against.

I completed the Red Rock Loop Road and it was a nice drive but other than a rabbit I didn't see much else to warrant returning - and the other reason to take the loop is to visit the Red Rock State Park but it was closed at 4:00 PM.

I decided I'd seen enough. The traffic other than Red Rock Loop Road was awful. I ended up driving back to the campground, got there a bit before dark, enough to feed my dog and myself, and we went to bed, giving up on the dusk shots. I was hoping I'd wake up early and get either midnight shots or dawn shots.

I woke up a number of times throughout the night and early morning but it was so cold that I couldn't bring myself to get out from under the sleeping bag. I hadn't really brought a warm jacket and it was about 40F.

San Fransisco Peaks near Flagstaff, AZ

When we did get up, it was after the sun had been up and warmed up the place. We broke camp and headed north on 89A to Flagstaff in order to avoid the Sedona traffic. I drove up to Lowell Observatory but didn't go in because of my dog. I took this shot of the San Fransisco Peaks and their lack of snow pack. Then I headed back to Phoenix after a disappointing photography trip but which was still pleasant on other levels.

I have described the outing because there's not that much to report as far as the sensor cleaning other than I am very happy with the results. Before getting the sensor cleaned I normally had to get rid of maybe 50 or 75 different spots, depending on the aperture and how much sky was included in the shot (and whether or not there were clouds that might have hidden some spots).

Even using the Nikon Capture NX2 Dust Off functionality meant I still had to spend some time. Lightroom was about the same. I really disliked the amount of time required to get rid of the spots (on the other hand, I was very thankful the tools existed to do the clean up).

After the cleaning, when I post processed the pics I had a total of 4 or 5 dust spots per pic that I had to remove. The San Fransisco Peaks pic had 5 spots, all others only had 4. That was amazing and put a grin on my face! It took maybe 5 minutes in post processing per picture or less -mainly less since in Nikon Capture NX2 you can save the edits and then run them on additional pics as a batch. (I did go through that on additional pics but they were just more snapshot type pics of the campground.)

My conclusion is that Tempe Camera did a great job cleaning the sensor for $US65.00. It still had some spots but since I mounted the lenses in the field they could be new dust spots. They were in the center and upper right side of the image. It looks like they cleaned the entire camera and shrink-wrapped it for returning. It was clean inside and out. They returned my exact battery. They don't have you leave a SD card in it so there's no question about that. I recommend their service and will have it done again when I need it. Now I can change my lenses in the field without fear.

 



Spring Cleaning for the Nikon D610

I decided to try having my D610 cleaned. I've grown tired of trying to clean all of the dust spots off at post processing time. I often will use the feature in Nikon Capture NX2 software that automatically detects and corrects for dust spots (using a dust off reference image) but it doesn't always do the job satisfactorily. It does pretty good but I think it may be lens dependent if not aperture dependent.

Capture NX2 often times will partially correct a dust spot but not completely, meaning I still have to manually correct those. I think it does take care of a lot of them and I think if you're using a larger aperture the dust spots are less noticeable anyway and I think that's when Capture NX2 can really save some time.

Note: I refer to larger apertures where the opening size is larger, such as f/4, compared to smaller apertures where the opening is smaller such as f/20. I know a lot of people think of a bigger aperture when they see a bigger "number", but apertures are ratios or fractions defined as the focal length (f) divided by a number. Any number divided by 4 is a bigger result than the same number divided by 20. 1/4 is bigger than 1/20.

In Lightroom I can clean one image and then copy and past the cleaning to other images, which also saves some time but still I have to go through and at least look at the images where I've pasted the corrections. Sometimes they don't do a great job, other times there are additional spots showing up that need to be cleaned, and sometimes there are corrections I don't want such as on a hill side (where the original image had sky and showed the dust spot more clearly.

My time spent cleaning dust spots has gotten to the point that it bothers me enough to try to do something about it. I contacted one of our main camera stores in the Phoenix area, Tempe Camera, and they said to make sure that having it cleaned would NOT violate the warranty. So, since this is a refurbished camera and I got an aftermarket New Leaf warranty from Adorama, I contacted New Leaf and they said that they consider the cleaning to be maintenance and any issues would be covered. I hope they still feel that way when I get the camera back if there are any issues!

Home from the Cleaners

I picked up the camera from Tempe Camera on 4/2/2015. I talked to the person that actually cleaned the camera - he said there was one really good (and by that, he meant bad) spot on the sensor. He said it was like a bug on a windshield. We talked about how you can help prevent the sensor getting dirty by not changing lenses in dirty environments, and I told him I have a friend who avoids changing lenses as much as possible and really wants a single, do-it-all lens (like a 18-300mm) because he can avoid changing lenses.

I then told the technician that I'm kind of the other way. I bought a camera to take pictures. I bought different lenses to provide better quality at their focal lengths. I'll change from one lens to the other in order to use the lens that I think is the best for a given picture. Now that I know I can get the sensor cleaned for $US65, I can afford that once a year or more as necessary and I'll get to use my different lenses.

I received the camera with shrink wrap around it. I joked to myself that they'd wrapped it to keep the bad spots from infecting other cameras. When I unwrapped it, it looked like they also cleaned the exterior of the camera.

I haven't taken a picture with it yet, but when I do and if it is spot free, I'll be a happy camper!