Badger situation

14. February, 2012conservation, News, science, uk2 comments

Hi all.

There, as a lot of you may know, is a huge amount of contraversy surrounding the culling of Badgers here in the UK.

Now I am not qualified to render in depth analysis of the situation, for that I will direct you to the people who really do and deal with these issues on a daily basis and can put forward the arguments from a truly valid viewpoint. I will however offer up some information and provide you with resources to form your own opinions. I have, in the past had my opinions dismissed as those of someone who want’s to save Badger “simply because they are cute“. Now of course they are cute, but this really has nothing to do with the core issues here.

Firstly, as it stands the government/Defra as well as the Farmer’s Unions are intent on going ahead with the culls. Their reasoning is that the blight of Bovine TB is effecting Farmer’s stock. However, the arguments for the culling of Badgers as an effective measure to curb the spread of TB to cattle is questionable. For example the RSPCA on their blog say…

“We were devastated that, following years of contentious debate, the government confirmed that it will go ahead with a pilot badger cull in two areas of England in 2012.”

Now no one is suggesting that TB isn’t a major concern that need addressing. It most definitely does. However simple slaughtering Badgers has yet to be proven to be a fully effective cure to the problem, in fact the opposite. Farmers needs certainly need addressing and to dismiss them is just as wrong as the opposing view. However a balanced, open discussion on the subject needs to take place without old values being trodden into the ground over and over again.

The two areas in question in England are West Somerset/Taunton Deane and in the Forest of Dean/Tewkesbury area. If you live in or near either of these areas the RSPCA is in need of you help and you can get in touch on campaigns@rspca.org.uk

You can (and please do) find out more at the following links. These people are working tirelessly so please give them a little of your time and if you are in a position to help get in touch with them

• http://pembrokeshireagainstthecull.org.uk/
• Pembrookshire Against The Cull  is a group of  landowners, farmers and residents living in the proposed badger cull area.
• 38 Degrees petition
• Sign up to this to voice your opposition
• RSPCA Badger Campain facts
• And of course the Badger Trust

The Nikon D800

13. February, 2012gear, News, Uncategorized2 comments

Well, well, well…

In as many weeks we have another flagship release from Nikon, the long awaited D800. A couple of weeks back I posted some initial thoughts on the D4 camera. It was stongly rumoured that the D800 was to be announced… and it was!

So what does this machine offer, how is it different from what has come before and the D4?

Again, I will leave the spec junkies to battle it out in the forums as usual (we already have the usual “what were Nikon thinking”, “Canon are out of business, I’m switching” crowd shouting in the usual haunts as always), I will simply overview what is initially relevant to me and my style of shooting.

So, what do we have?

NEW GUBBINS – THE HIGHLIGHTS

• An all new, 36 megapixel sensor has been thrown in here. Yes, that is 36 megapixels, the highest of any DSLR to date I believe.
• An “E” option that removed the anti aliasing filter (called the D800E)
• A host of goodies from the D4 more on these below
• Smaller body (just) than the d700

Well the headline feature certainly is the sensor. Weighing in at 36 megapixels this certainly is a significant difference than the D3(s) 12 megapixels and even the D4′s 16. In true Nikon style (unlike another brand I won’t mention) they have put full resolution samples up right from the announcement, they are proud of this camera and want to show off what it can do. You can view them on the official Nikon site here. The amount of detail is staggering, truly in medium format territory. So what does this mean for me, a field-craft wildlife photographer?

Well of course if I can have more resolution I will take it, but the question is at what cost? Now I have not had my hands on the camera yet (I am attending a Nikon NPS event later this month where I will have my grubby mits on the camera) and will report back. Firstly this camera is significantly slower in some areas than the speed cameras (D3 and D4). We are limited to 4 frames per second (6 with the optional grip I believe). I say limited, even as a Wildlife Photographer, 8/10 situations I find myself  in don’t call for machine gun action. Blasting away means filling buffers, more computer time sifting through them and more noise to alert the subject to my presence. What does interest me is the built in teleconvertor this (effectively) gives you. Cropping from the centre down to 12 megapixels will give me a good (effective, not actual) zoom boost, albeit at the expense of pixels. But I am delivering 12 megapixels to my clients at the moment anyway so the 15 megapixels you get in DX mode is actually a step up and more than acceptable.

As for low light performance, the D4 is (or should be, as I have yet to play with one) the king for this, but downsizing images does in essence remove noise, and downsampling a 36 megapixel image to match a 16 megapixel size may give just as good a low light, noise free image as the D4. This will need some testing which I intend to do so as soon as possible. Dynamic range performance is all subject to guess work at the moment so I will leave any comment on that until I have seen both with my own eyes.

The body is mostly the same as the excellent one from the D700, albeit very slightly smaller. The D700 had great ergonomics (I personally prefer the larger D3 type bodies myself though). Weather sealed, tough (two very important factors for outdoor photographers), typical Nikon quality which is great!

So, will I be getting one?

I had great luck with the Migration crossings last year (pics coming soon after some rights issues expire!), but I really missed not being able to get some super tight shots of the action, I refuse to encroach on the crossing to get a closer view like some less ethical photographers/tourists sometimes do as this can have a negative impact on the crossings. I have a few remote plans this year, but wanted the d7000 for its DX format sensor which would allow for a longer (effectively) zoom from my lenses. Now the d800 would allow practically the same number of pixels on the centre lens area that the d7000 does, with the added benefit of the 36 megapixel options as well as all the new gubbins inside.

Another twist on this though is that I have the option of using a Nikon V1 with the accompanying FT-1 adapter (letting me use my large Nikon lenses on this compact camera). This would turn my 200-400 (a great lens!) into a monster 540-1080mm! I will be reviewing this combo shortly and weighing up its pros and cons. On paper the V1 is the choice for now, but I need to test this entirely new set-up in the field before committing to it. That said if a few commercial enquiries come off that are in the pipeline I will get both. Freelance photography is far from a certain business and I need to roll with the high and low times.

The D800′s price is very, very competitive ( £2399 over on Amazon ) and you get a whole of camera for your money. This makes it a much easier buy for most users than the D4, which clocking in over £4k is a real stretch, even more so if, like me, you are very happy with the D3.

Later this month I am testing out all of these options and will be doing a full write up here, sharing the results and my thoughts. Until then the D3 stays with me, after some quality time with the new cameras, who knows!!

Cheers as always!!

Richard.

Eagles slideshow

27. January, 2012News, SlideshowsNo comments

Hi all!

I have just put together a quick slideshow showing some of my work with Eagles, I hope you enjoy!

Richard.

iPhone/iPad users click here to see the slideshow on your device!

Leopards!

26. January, 2012News, Slideshows, UncategorizedNo comments

Morning all.

I have been itching to make a dent in the raw queue from Africa, and especially the Leopards! Well I have finally found a few moments over the last couple of evenings.

This has also offered me a good chance to give Lightroom 4′s new raw processing engine a workout and I must say I am liking the new shadow/highlight controls. Makes processing much quicker as I am not having to battle artifacts that can crop u even with minor shadow boosting. I always keep my processing to minor cropping and colour/contrast correction and anything that can speed this up further is great!

You can see the first few images out of the gate in the below slideshow, iPhone/iPad users click here for mobile viewing as the slideshow below will appear as a single image for you.

Thanks all, Rich.

The Nikon D4

24. January, 2012gear, News, TechNo comments

**note I have now had my hands on a D4 and D800, click here to know more**

Hi everyone!

I hope you are enjoying the new look website and have had a chance to search and browse through the image library? This now hooks directly into Lightroom and will enable a much quicker camera to library workflow. New images will be added each week and there is a new slideshow section coming shortly to showcase some of my best from the hundreds of different species/locations I have worked with. Sign up to the newsletter (form to the right —>) or follow us on facebook to stay up to speed!

Well… The D4. I still get a few kind emails regarding the practical review of the D3 (Read that review here), I did back when it came out in 2007 and changed the way I worked forever (it really did).

Four and some years later, here we are and Nikon have announced the new flagship of their line, the D4. I won’t run you though every single improvement or tech spec here as there are too many to list and it gets rather tiresome after 5 pages! However here are the improvements that are of note to me…

NEW IMAGE SENSOR

Upgraded from the D3(s) from 12 megapixels to 16 as well as image processing improvements.

There is a lot of forum chatter about this new sensor (most of it unsubstantiated brand clatter I might add). Some people were hoping for more pixels whilst other were hoping for higher performance whilst remaining at 12 megapixels. Nikon seem to have gone the route of maintaining or even slightly improving the same high ISO performance as was found on the D3(s) whilst pushing the megapixels up as far as is reasonable. Now the jump from 12 to 16 is not significant, indeed Nikon offer a 24 megapixel D3x for the detail junkies. However you can expect a visible improvement of rendered detail thanks to those extra pixels, although not a night and day difference and certainly not in most printing outputs other than very large format.

I am going to reserve judgement on the image quality until I have had one out in the field with me, many people are making claims both good and bad simply with guesswork or by looking at rushed test images sneaked out from presentation events. Now I am certain it will offer better image quality than the D3(s), but how much better is the question. Coming in at £4700 this is a real dent in the wallet, even after trading in my D3 bodies. It is for this reason I am breaking with tradition and holding off ordering one until I have tested it personally. My clients very, very rarely have a problem with the detail (quantity)  in my images, even at “only” 12 megapixels the D3 offers all I need for my (and my agent’s) business. More would certainly be welcome, but not at any price.

VIDEO OPTIONS

This is where the D4 is a must have upgrade for professionals. If you are making video content.

Nikon have really (really) beefed up the video offering on this model. This is the first model Nikon have produced where they appear to have taken video very seriously. Canon have had the edge on Nikon in this area since the 5DII, which proved a huge hit with the high end video market (to the point where an entire episode of “House” was shot with it).

The highlights of the video options are..

Uncompressed 4:2:2 output from the hdmi. This is a big deal for higher end productions as it means you bypass any compression the camera needs to do to save the video to the media card and get a very high quality output. You will need an external device to capture this video, but if you do need it, you can afford it. Canon deliberately cripple this option on their SLR cameras to protect their high end video camera sales. This move from Nikon is a clever (and well needed) one that may force canon to follow suit.

B-Frame h.264 compression and a whole host of other tech changes mean that if you are not using an external recorder you will get great quality video, with minimal rolling shutter.

Now I have mentioned the video options here as they are significant for this camera. However I am a stills shooter and don’t as of yet need to offer video content to my clients. If I did however, I would have put my order with NPS in the moment it was announced.

SPEED

This area however is of most interest to me second to image quality. Thanks to image readout and processing moving on a generation this camera is a speed demon. The buffer has been increased dramatically allowing 100 (estimated) shots in raw before petering out to the card. This is great for sports shooters or when I am following Cheetahs on a hunt for example.

Additional tweaks to the already great AF system means that initial AF acquisition is quicker and more reliable. This means that running/flight sequences will lock on quicker of the mark, the tracking however has remained the same apparently (once acquired). I have always been very pleased with the D3′s AF system. Similar to image quality I will need to asses just how much improved the system is before I would commit to purchase.

CARD STORAGE

Nikon have unfortunately decided to go for a mixed route on this occasion.

In my initial review of the D3, I applauded the fantastic setup of dual Compact Flash slots. This meant I had two matching slots to load up that would perform the same as each other and offer either seamless overflow or backup pending the users’ choice.

On the D4, Nikon have put in 1 Compact Flash slot and 1 XQD card socket. XQD is a brand new standard that will offer a more durable card (no pins to break) as well as faster speeds now and especially in the future. So why am I disapointed? Well now we have a situation where users will realistically have to (or will) get the new XQD cards anyway (otherwise they limit themselves to a single slot and reduced speed), but be forced to use older CF cards as well.

Now, people who throw £4700 on a camera will probably also have the ability/need to load up on XQD cards as well. Yes it would be a little annoying to sell off all those old CF cards, but that’s the price of upgrading and technology moving on.  I would have much rather had either two XQD slots or two CF slots. A mix of the two is a compromise and in flagship cameras I don’t believe there is room for compromise. As I mentioned anyone who needs the D4 for it’s speed will not begrudge buying a new range of cards to get the most out of the camera. This seems like a move to keep peace with people who probably wouldn’t likely buy or benefit a camera like this anyway.

THE REST

There are some potentially fantastic wireless options with this camera. This could be a great boon for those that do remote camera work. This is one area where if I did more remote work (and I do have some upcoming plans in this area for next year) then would potentially be worth the upgrade. See the video below for a quick demonstration of what can be done..

Minor but helpful alterations to the body of the D3 have also been made, including an excellent moved additional joystick for AF point selection when in portrait mode.

ROUNDUP

Well, that’s a quick overview from my perspective on the camera. Please remember I have kept this brief as I have yet to use it, so this is all based simply on the information I have learned. Nikon NPS have a roadshow for their professional users in a week or two at which point I’ll report back more.

As it stands at the moment, I have far more pressing areas of the business to focus the money on, rather than upgrade a camera (the D3) I am immensely satisfied with. Remember if I (as with most working professionals) upgrade, I have to have two bodies, with one as a backup/lens flexibility option. Should, after some hands on time (and I will be doing a full review either way) I decide the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, I may well take the plunge. But until then I feel it is simply an evolutionary (for stills) upgrade that I will be keeping a close eye on. That said if Nikon need to sponsor someone, I am more than happy to take delivery of one or two of them!

When Nikon released the D3 back in 2007, it genuinely was (an I HATE this phrase now-days) a game changer. It took high iso photography to the next level and stomped a great big boot onto the megapixel race. I took delivery from the first UK batch and they still serves me very well to this day. The D4 steps this on further, how much further I am looking forward to seeing. For professional video users though, it is a must buy.

Cheers all!

Richard.

Email backlog

24. January, 2012NewsNo comments

Hi all!

Just to let you know, if you have got in touch with us over the last 48 hours, we do have your emails and will get back to you all shortly. The mail server needed to be backed up and restored which is all but finished now and normal service can then resume!

Computers eh…

Thanks for your patience!

Richard.

New site

21. January, 2012NewsNo comments

Hello all!

Just a quick note to say as you can see the new web site is up and running!

I will be adding the content and images over this weekend so please hold tight whilst we do this a kick the tyres! Normal service shall resume! There are a lot of great features coming so stay tuned! You can keep in touch on facebook and via the newsletter (sign up form to the right!)

Thanks all,

Richard.

Big Cats Of The Mara 2012 – Tour 02

16. January, 2012ToursNo comments

Due to fantastic demand we have put on a second Big Cat Safari trip for 2012!

THIS TRIP IS NOW FULL – CLICK FOR DETAILS OF OUR 2013 WORKSHOPS INCLUDING OUR NEW MIGRATION SAFARI!

PLEASE SIGN UP TO THE NEWSLETTER (Form to the right >>>) FOR DETAILS ON 2013!

• DATES: 13th to the 19th July 2012
• CAMP: Kicheche Bush Camp, same great service and accommodation with a slightly different location. We will however be relocating my hand picked (amazing) guides for this trip.
• This trip will be limited to 4 people!
• Cost:  £3335.00pp* (including flights!)

* Airline prices are currently fluctuating daily so this cost is based on the current rate which is pretty good at the moment! If you are interested in joining us it is likely to be cheaper to let us know earlier rather than later!

Please get in touch for more details!

Download the full brochure at this link (pdf file)

See a quick trip report from last year’s tour HERE

African Photo Safaris 2013

22. December, 2011sliderNo comments

Big Cats & Migration!

CLICK HERE