Bill Hatcher Photography

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

New lens from Nikon the NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR

Nikon has introduce some more new lenses today. The one that I am excited about is the NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR you can read more about it at Nikon USA (here). The older version of this lens first introduced in 2003 made Ken Rockwell's list of Nikon's ten worst lenses because it was so unsharp. I had an old 24-120 3.5-5.6 and I didn't think it was as bad as Ken made it to be. I liked the lens because it was compact, worked on my full frame D-700 FX cameras and had a very useful zoom range on the cropped sensor of the DX camera ( it's about a 35-180 zoom).  I used my old 24-120 on many expeditions and got what I thought were some great photos that were acceptably sharp, but with it's variable aperture the lens was not perfect. 

If the new 24-120 f4 is anything near as sharp as the Nikon 16-24 f4 (Ken claims this is sharpest best handling ultrawide-zoom ever made and I agree) and If it is anywhere near as robust as some of Nikons newer pro lenses (Nikon says the new 24-120 f4 is weather sealed and the optics are nano coated) then this lens will be a must have lens for any adventure photographer. I look forward to getting my hands on one soon.

Geo tagging

 

I saw an article in the New York Times today (here) about the dangers of geo tagging photos. Like any technology you have to know how it can be used as well as misused.

I wonder in the future if "photo thieves" will one day be extracting geotag info from photos to duplicate the same shot right down to the same month, day and minute the photo was taken. I took the photo above a few years ago of hikers on Jasper Ridge located in the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park. I have recorded the day and the time I took the photo, but if anyone wanted to return to

Tiger Snake Canyon canyoning

This past weekend I was invited to go canyoneering in the Blue Mountains. This canyonering trip was organized by the outdoor club from the  University of Sydney. Our destination was Tiger Snake Canyon. I was told this is a dry canyon meaning there would be no swimming. But on the first rope drop my camera was tucked into my dry bag because we had to jump from a ledge into a shallow pool. What dry really means when canyoning in New South Wales is there was still plenty of water in the canyon just no swimming or extended time spent in the water. 

 

What follows is a series of photos from the days trip. I decided to improved the miserable light in the canyon by using a collaspable soft box. The softbox was a curious thing to squeeze through the passages.

Compact Adventure Camera: Nikon D-300s

 

Any talented person can create a great photo from any camera handed to them, but for adventure photography you have to haul all your gear with you so you need to keep things light. I usually shoot my assignments with a Nikon D-3s or Nikon D-700. Those are big heavy do everything cameras and usually more camera than I need or want to carry on some of my adventure shoots. So I began looking for a compact camera that gave me the professional performance of an SLR. After a brief search I decided if you want SLR performance you need to get a SLR. I just got myself a Nikon D-300s.  I was in the Blue Mountains this weekend and these are the first images from the camera.

Benefits of living in a big city

The first thing I did when I arrived in Sydney was to check out the services available to photographers. Moving to Sydney I was excited for the first time in my life to be living someplace big enough that I would have access to not just a couple of photo stores and labs, but would have the choice of dozens of the biggest photography outlets in the country.

 I was happy to discover that Nikon has their Australia offices just south of me in Lidcome near the Sydney Olympic Park.  I am also pleased to see that Nikon Professional Services or NPS and the Nikon service centre is located in the same facility. NPS Australia is similar to the U.S. NPS and offers fast camera servicing, a camera loan program as well as other support for professional photographers.

 I plan to visit the Nikon facility this week as they will certainly play an important part in keeping my cameras in their best working order and Nikon's location  will save me a bundle in overnight shipping cost.