Across the Southwest » Reviews

Rio Grande Gorge with the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II

Adam Schallau — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:25:29 +0000

When it comes to getting new toys, there’s nothing better than getting a new lens. Sure, a new camera body can be great but it doesn’t necessarily change the way you see the world like a new lens does.

I recently purchased a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II ultra-wide angle zoom lens to replace my EF 17-40mm f/4L lens. You might ask yourself, what’s the difference? Let me start by saying that the 17-40/4L is a great lens and is definitely the better deal of the two in terms of the cost-to-performance ratio. The 17-40/4L is half the price, takes a slightly smaller filter, and is both lighter and shorter than the 16-35/2.8L II. Wait, now I’m having second thoughts about selling my 17-40/4L and getting the 16-35/2.8L II. Should I have done it?

After one day out shooting with the 16-35/2.8L, I can say “yes”, it was the right move for me. The advantages of the 16-35/.8L II are a brighter viewfinder thanks to the f/2.8 maximum aperture which helps with manual focusing in low light and allows for faster shutter speeds when trying to stop motion. This lens is also capable of producing stunning sunstars which I hope to have sample to share soon.

On to the photo. One of the first places I usually visit to test a new lens is the Rio Grande gorge just west of Taos, New Mexico. For the shot shown above, I shot from the bridge with camera on a tripod and the lens set to its widest setting to include as much of the gorge as possible while not cutting-off the top of the clouds. One of the biggest problems with shooting from the bridge is the vibrations that rattle across it everytime a vehicle crosses the bridge. You have to hope that there will be very little traffic and you have to time your shot between the vehicles. I got lucky and was able to capture a few frames when there was absolutely no vibration from passing cars.

Grand Canyon Presentations ~ A recap and thanks

Adam Schallau — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:24:14 +0000

Those of you that know me, you know that I like to talk. I like to talk about photography with other photographers whether they are beginners or a seasoned pro. I also enjoy speaking to groups, and although I’m not exactly great at it (I get very nervous in-front of a crowd), I appreciate the feedback I receive and the interaction that takes place.

Participants in a presentation

During my time as Artist-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park, I had several opportunities to chat with other photographers and those that are interested in photography. Some of my best experiences came from the presentations I gave at the Verkamps’ Visitor Center and at the Grand Canyon School. I gave two separate presentations to park visitors at Verkamps that also included time spent working one-on-one sharing photography tips and ideas.

Working with the students at the Grand Canyon School was an extra special treat. It was incredibly rewarding to be surrounded by their enthusiasm and to watch them work because they see the world in a very different way than adults. Their creative process has not yet been influenced by the rules or defined styles of the art and as a result they will often create images that most adults would never consider or visualize.

Tristin working on his photos

The students were given a photographic “assignment” that had to be completed within a limited time frame. Thanks to the contributions of several other photographers and the readers of this site, each student had a camera to use and was able to participate without having to share cameras. Final images were presented to me for review and constructive feedback was provided. Their photography, to say the least, was impressive. One student did standout amongst his peers and that was Tristin. Tristin’s photos were excellent, but most importantly his passion for photography was obvious and it left me with a great feeling to know that there are still young people that are excited by art.

I’d like to thank everyone that made these opportunities available to me including the Grand Canyon National Park staff including Judy Bryan, Chief of Interpretation, who was my primary point-of-contact at the park. Amy McBroom, Art Instructor at the Grand Canyon School. Amy’s enthusiasm is intoxicating and I’m sure is huge reason why the student at the school are so fired-up over art. FYI, Amy was the 2008 teacher of the year in Arizona and she is a founding member of a committee that created Arts for our Park, a juried art show for students in the Grand Canyon Unified School District. Amy is very humble and a dedicated teacher who would never brag about herself, so I’ll do it for her.

Presenting a Slingshot 200AW to Tristin

I would also like to thank Lowepro who has supported me and my photographic endeavours through sponsorship. When I informed the team at Lowepro that I was to be the Artist-in-Residence, they graciously donated several Slingshot 200AW camera bags for me to award to one lucky participant in each of my presentations. The criteria for deciding who would get the bag included the questions they asked and who traveled the farthest to reach the Grand Canyon. I also presented a Slingshot 200AW to one deserving student, and that student was Tristin.

Thanks again to Judy, Amy and Lowepro!

A Winter Scene, Grand Canyon National Park

Adam Schallau — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:48:13 +0000

A snowy winter scene at the Grand Canyon

This past Saturday I awoke to discover that winter has not quite given up on the desert southwest just yet. We had a couple inches of snow fall in the canyon early in the morning, but by mid-day, most of it was gone.

I’d like to thank one of my sponsors, Vortex Media, their Storm Jacket kept my camera dry as the snow fell. It works as advertised, was simple to use, and didn’t get in the way.

Please click on the image for an expanded view.

Lowepro SlingShot 200 AW Giveaway

Adam Schallau — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:34:25 +0000

I am excited to announce that one of my sponsors, Lowepro, is giving away a SlingShot 200 AW bag to one lucky participant at each of my Artist-in-Residence presentations at Grand Canyon National Park this upcoming March.

The SlingShot 200 AW is a great bag and is one that I use when traveling and need quick and easy access to my camera. Here is more info from from Lowepro.com:

Perfect for photojournalists, the SlingShot 200 AW uses a unique sling design to go from “carry mode” to “ready mode” in just seconds. Carried comfortably on the back, it easily rotates to the front so you can get to your camera quickly. The SlingShot 200 AW holds an SLR with mid-range zoom lens attached 3-4 extra lenses, cables and accessories and has a full access lid to make loading it a snap. This feature-rich bag also includes a built-in memory card pouch, micro fiber LCD cloth and two generous organizer pockets.

So who wants a great camera bag for free? All you have to do is show up at one of my presentations at the Grand Canyon in March. I’ll be giving the bags away to who ever asks the most interesting question. In the unlikey event that there are no interesting questions, I will present the bag to the participant that traveled the farthest to attend.

I hope we have a chance to chat in March. In the meantime, get out there and shoot!

New Firmware for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Adam Schallau — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:48:56 +0000

Canon has released a new firmware for the 5D Mark II which addresses the ‘Black Dot’ and vertical banding issues.

We have learned that some users of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera (with firmware version 1.0.6) have identified two types of image quality phenomena that appear under certain shooting conditions.

“Black dot” phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
Vertical banding noise

Details of the phenomena and shooting conditions under which they are likely to occur (if the firmware is version 1.0.6) are as follows:

“Black dot” phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
When shooting night scenes, the right side of point light sources (such as lights from building windows) may become black. The phenomenon may become visible if the images are enlarged to 100% or above on a monitor or if extremely large prints of the images are made.
Vertical banding noise
If the recording format is set to sRAW1, vertical banding noise may become visible depending on the camera settings, subject, and background.
▪ Vertical banding noise is not noticeable if the recording format is set to sRAW2.
▪ Vertical banding noise does not occur if the recording format is set to RAW or JPEG.
▪ Noise can be reduced if C.Fn II-3: Highlight tone priority is set to 0: Disable.
Firmware version 1.0.7. that addresses these phenomena is now available for downloading from the following Web site:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&tabact=DownloadDetailTabAct&fcategoryid=314&modelid=17662#DownloadDetailAct

Canon is also recommending updating the Digital Photo Professional and Picture Style Editor software if you are update to the 1.0.7 firmware.

I haven’t experienced the ‘black dot’ issue myself, and I don’t shoot in sRAW, but I am still updating my firmware.

Old Gas Station Signs

Adam Schallau — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 05:56:14 +0000

I spent the afternoon shooting at a cool place south of Taos that has tons of old gas station signs and memorabilia. This was another opportunity to test the low-light/high-ISO capabilities of the Canon 5D mark II and again I was left impressed.

This image was captured using ISO 800 with an exposure of 1/25th at f/5.6 and was shot with the 24-105 f/4L IS lens at 24mm hand-held with the Image-Stabilizer turned on.

Please click on the image for an expanded view.

It’s here! The Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Adam Schallau — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:09:23 +0000

After a long wait, the much anticipated Canon EOS 5D Mark II is in my hands. The update to the original and classic Canon EOS 5D, the 5D Mark II is a full-frame digital SLR with 21.1 juicy megapixels, a DIGIC 4 Image Processor, an ISO range of 50 to 25600, 3.9 fps, 150,000 cycle shutter life, Live view, and 1080p High-Definition video recording at 30fps. I purchased the kit including the EF24-105 f/4L IS USM lens which I’ll write about in the future.

I must admit that as a landscape and architectural photographer, I’m very excited about Live View and the new LCD display. Live view will allow me to frame my compositions with a rule-of-thirds grid superimposed over the scene and I’ll be able to manually focus with greater precision. The new 3.0″ LCD display with 920,000 pixels is absolutely beautiful and allows the photographer to judge the sharpness of the image, something I was never comfortable doing in the past.

My first experience with the 5D Mark II in the field will occur tomorrow. I’ll be working with a student, but I’m sure I will find some time to fire off a few test shots with the new camera. I’ll have another opportunity to test the camera tomorrow night when I photograph the Lighting of Ledoux. An annual holiday event in the oldest art district in Taos, the Lighting of Ledoux involves lining the street with farolitos (paper sacks weighted with sand with a lit candle inside) creating a magical scene that is often filled with carolers and the beat of drums from members of the Taos Pueblo.

Please click on any image for an expanded view.

Black & Whites from the Canon G9

Adam Schallau — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:19:57 +0000

Sometimes it’s nice to leave the ‘big’ camera at home. Last year I purchased a Canon G9 to be used as my point-n-shoot, always with me camera, a camera I could take anywhere and would not necessarily draw a lot of attention. What I didn’t count on was having so much fun with it or the quality of images that it’s capable of producing when used properly.

Here are a few pictures that I shot in Santa Fe last year when I first got the camera, but have just recently got around to developing. All images were captured in color as raw files and later processed as a black & white using the Black & White tool Photoshop CS3 and several curves layers to selectively add contrast.

The photos shown here are available as limited edition prints, please contact me for pricing and availability.

As always, please click on any image for an expanded view.

Extension Tubes and Wildflowers

Adam Schallau — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:11:38 +0000

We had a good wildflower year here in and around Taos, but more specifically, in my yard. We had poppies, cleomes, sunflowers, and of course the cacti bloomed. This year I wanted to try something a little different from my usual wildflower photography, so I picked up a 12mm extension tube to experiment with.

If you’re not familiar with extension tubes, they look similar to a tele-extender, but unlike an extender, the tubes have no optical element(s), i.e. tubes are hollow. Extension tubes work by moving the lens farther away from the film or digital sensor in the camera. Doing this allows the lens to focus closer producing greater magnification at the loss of being able to focus on infinity, in fact when using tubes you have a very narrow range of focus and depth of field to work with.

Both the first and second images shown here were photographed using a Canon 24-70mm/2.8L lens at approximately 60mm and f/6.3. The last images was captured using the Canon TS-E 45mm tilt shift lens with a 1.4x extender at f/11. All images were captured with a Canon 5D , 12mm extension tube, and a portable reflector to cast even light on the flowers.

When working with extension tubes, it’s important to be aware of how close the front element of your lens is to the subject. I had to clean pollen off of my lens several times.

Please click on any image for an expanded view.

Very Large Array (VLA)

Adam Schallau — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:11:29 +0000

Here are a few photos from my visit to the Very Large Array (VLA) on the Plains of San Agustin. Located approximately 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico, the VLA is part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). The VLA consists of 27 massive antennas (satellite dishes) that can be spread out along three arms of a Y-shaped railroad track to expand and contract the overall size of the array.

Photographers visiting the VLA should be prepared to use every lens in their bag, but in my opinion, a super-wide such as Canon’s 17-40 on a full-frame camera, and telephoto-zoom are probably the most useful. For the first photo I used a 300mm lens and a 1.4x teleconverter (420mm equivalent) to compress the scene making the antennas look closer together. For the second image with the woman walking in front of the array I used the 70-200 at about 80mm. The last photo was captured using a 17-40mm lens at 17mm to give a sense of wide-open space to the image while including as much of the foreground antenna as possible. All images were shot using a Canon EOS 5D full-frame camera.

Keep in mind that when you’re using a wide-angle or super-wide lens and taking photos with lots of blue sky, it’s best to leave the polarizer off to avoid having the sky become very dark or nearly black.

I hope you enjoy the photos. Please click on any image for an expanded view.