Bill Hatcher Photography

Nikon's D-800: The ultimate adventure camera?

This morning I read the specs on Nikon's new D-800 camera and went ahead and pre-ordered the camera. I have never bought a camera sight unseen, but after reading the video specs on the D-800 it looks like the camera will work perfectly for me. For the magazine work I do I have little need for a 36 mp camera, but the D-800 will work double duty as a back up to my Nikon D-3s and as my main SLR video camera.

Looking at the specs my only complaint is the D-800 has a slow 4 frames per second frame rate (my

Gear failure on assignment

 I was back in Western Australia this week on assignment for Australia Geographic magazine and I had a gear failure incident. The odd thing is is the gear was what I would consider a solid piece of equipment, my firewire 800 cable. I guess I just take simple things like computer cords for granted when I connect

On Assignment: A look inside My Mountain Biking Photo Bag

I am packing now for a job next week in Western Australia. I am excited about this trip because it will be my first time in that country. Deciding what photo gear to bring for this shoot is tricky because the assignment includes a week of pedaling 400 km off pavement on trails with no support vehicle. Will I ever I do a photo assignment that was actually easy? The big challenge on this assignment is I will have to carry all my own gear. My solution is

Window to the world

I have heard that the eye is the window to the world, but I know it's often a camera that enables those sights to be shared. One of the things I enjoy most as a photographer is being witness to some incredible places. 

Storm building in the Trango Towers, Northern Pakistan

After the high water on the lower Franklin River, Tasmania, Australia.

The wind in the Eastern Sierra Mountains, California.

Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, Canada.                            South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

The Headwall West Buttress, Denali, Alaska

The Maze, Canyonlands, Utah

West Coast, South Island, New Zealand.

Granite boulders of Catavina, Mexico.

Rain storm in the New Zealand Alps.

 

Photo Stitch

I am reviewing some different techniques that I might employ for an upcoming shoot. One technique is the photo merge in Photoshop CS5. This program is often use to stitch photo together for panoramics. I've used this technique before, but never for any work I have published.

Below are some snap shots I took near my house using photo merge. Both photos use about 10-20 photos to produce the one shot.  Photo merge is a really fast way to work together a collage of many photos. A more finished product would be trimmed so you wouldn't see the irregular edge. In the shot of the pipe I like how I was able to get a nice shallow depth of field with a 35 mm lens at f 1.8 on a Nikon D-300s (50mm equivalent) to produce a wide angle view. To capture this, standing where I was, with just one shot would need the coverage of a 24 mm lens and I would have had much less depth of field. I don't know if I'll use photo merge to produce photos for the shoot, but it's always fun to explore the possibilities.

 

    

Weather Channel: Peter Lik

As we all know landscape and wildlife photography is normally a quiet and solitary past time and you wouldn't think a landscape photographer and his work would have have the glitz and dynamics to attact a big TV audience. But this month the U.S. TV network the Weather Channel announced they plan to unveil their first ever regular TV series called "From the Edge" and it stars Australian landscape photographer Peter Lik. Peter now lives in Las Vegas. On the video link below he is in Red Rocks, Nevada on the outskirts of Vegas to  introduce his show.

If the name of Lik's show sounds familiar wildlife photographer Art Wolfe did a similarly named photography show "Travels to the Edge" that aired for two seasons on PBS. Art Wolfe, however, is not an entertainer and the big draw of his show is it's great footage of incredible wild places around the world with just a dose of how-to photo tips.

The folks at the Weather Channel must have figured that if you mix a larger than life character such as the classic Australian persona (think Crocodile Dundee), with photography and casual conversation about the weather you might just have the ingredients for an entertaining show. I figure Lik is the perfect person for this show; with his Australian accent and the touch of the wild man photographer he will no doubt charm the American audiences.

I expect on my next visit to photograph in Wyoming to see all the serious photographers lineup at the Yellowstone River overlook sporting the new photography fashion of straw hats, ripped shirts and jeans. 

Celebrating small cameras

People often ask me what kind of camera I use. I name off a few brands and they walk away happy knowing that I am using the right stuff. But really the best camera is the one that happens be be in your hands when a photo needs to be taken. 

This was the case last year when I was skiing in the backcountry in Northern Arizona and came across a mountain lion deer kill. The lions tracks were everywhere and the carcass had been stripped to the bone by the large cat. The camera I had with me was a little Canon G-11 and this is the camera I used to document this winter kill. I even used the G-11's tiny on camera flash for some of the photos.

This week, more than a year after I made the photos ( I have a bit of a backlog going now), I took a look at the photos and I found the digital files look great from that tiny point and shoot G-11. I am just happy I had a camera along.

 

 

Frame this

I usually don't like frames around prints and if I use frames I figure the simpler the better-white mat with a thin black frame. I got to thinking about photo frames while working on an order for framed prints. This led me to thinking of iconic Frames. Do you remember the Polaroid Land camera? It was a clever orange camera that snapped open and made instant photos. The photos were washed out, but the frame of the photo became an icon in itself.

I don't own a Polaroid Land camera, but my modern equivalent for making instant photos would have to be my iPhone.The photos below are some recent photos from my iPhone and if this blog background were not so white you could see the Polaroid frame better . If only making iconic photos could always be so easy.

                                                    

 

                                

 

 

Canyoning: How did he get that shot?

I don't often have another photographer along when I am shooting, but on a recent canyoning trip Rich Crowder a American photographer and climber made some photos of me making photos. You can look at my previous post about descending Juggler Canyon (Here) to see some of the photos I was taking when Rich took these photos of me shooting photos. Can you figure out comparing our photos where he shot his photos. You can actually see Rich in each photo. 

In this Rich Crowder photo he was looking down at me at the top of the rappel as I was shooting away perched on a slimy ledge above a deep pool of water. I was using a Lastolight ezybox with a Nikon SB-900 attached with a TTL cord to my Nikon D-300s the lighting was figured on manual and the camera settings were something like 1/50 at f5.6 at asa 1000. There was no way I could look through the view finder because I was leaning back to keep from falling off the ledge into the pool. 

Here's Rich's next photo of me setting up for a photo at the falls near the canyon exit.

Remember when you were just starting out in photography and to shoot a long time exposure or a self portrait you would place your camera on the ground and stack twigs and rocks under the lens so you could get the right angle for the photo?  And while trying to get the pebbles and sticks to stack correctly under the camera you were thinking, man one day I going to get one of those flashy tripods like the pros use. Well pros like me still have to resort to rocks and twigs every once in awhile. That's what I am doing here and the result seen in my previous post (here) shows that the camera was as rock steady as if locked onto my fancy heavy carbon fiber Gitzo tripod that I wisely left at home. The camera I am setting up using sticks and stones is the Nikon D-300s with a 16-35 f4 lens and a Moose warming polariser filter. Thanks Rich for sharing the photos.

 

Exploring Sydney with the Nikon D-300s

These are some photos from a recent day I spent in and around Sydney. Occasionally I have to remind myself that I am living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. What better place to catch up on the Nikon D-300s camera than photographing iconic scenes around Sydney.

You might remember a couple of months ago I was vacillating between several compact cameras. What I was looking for was something that could work as a small discreet street camera. I reviewed many point and shoot type cameras and I decided the Leica X1 was tops for resolution and will fit in your pocket as well. But the Leicas limitations including slow focus and a fixed lens had me looking again at SLR cameras. I finally decided on the Nikon D-300s. The Nikon-D-300s will not fit in even a large pocket, but you get so much more for the same money spent on the Leica X-1 (I paid about $2,000 USD for the Nikon with a 35mm 1.8 lens). 

Why an SLR? I have been using SLR cameras with a gazillion functions, plus auto focus and interchangeable lenses for years so I decided why should I accept the limitations of a fixed lens range finder or point & shoot camera. Simply put a great shot only comes along once in awhile and I knew the SLR camera gives me the best chance of capturing that image.  

 

The D-300s is not the D3s, but it's fast, compact and reliable and really the perfect SLR for street photography. I saw these Marilyn Monroe look-a-likes on George Street. Taken with the D-300s 35mm 1.8