Across the Southwest » Tips & Tricks

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.

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.

Pimp My Tripod

Adam Schallau — Tue, 06 May 2008 04:26:32 +0000

Ever since I got my first ’serious’ tripod, a Bogen 3001, I have been wrapping my tripod legs with foam pipe insulation and black duct tape to add a little padding for when I’m carrying it over my shoulder. I’ve recently made the switch to a Gitzo GT3540LS Series 3 Systematic 6X carbon fiber tripod (wow, that’s a mouthful) and the first thing I did after drooling over it was add the foam, giving it a nice ‘Mad Max’ look. I also make one other addition to my tripods that I’d like to share here on Across the Southwest.

I commonly use a remote release in my photography so I don’t have to actually touch the camera to fire the shutter, which provides me with a more stable shooting platform. Even though I live in the desert-southwest I often find myself shooting with the tripod in the water, whether it be a mountain lake, or the Rio Grande River. Several times now I have discovered my remote release dangling an inch or two above the water, and it’s gone swimming once. What I needed was a place to stick my release where it couldn’t go swimming (again) while I’m composing my shot.

My solution was to adhere a piece of 1/2″ Velcro around one of my tripod legs with a small piece of Velcro on the back side of the release. Now I’ve got a place to stick the remote release that will keep it out of the water, and out of the way when composing a shot.

If you find this tip useful or have one of your own that you would like to share, I’d love to hear about it.

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

Download USGS Topo Maps!

Adam Schallau — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:51:11 +0000

If you explore the wilderness you know that having good maps is as essential as having a good tripod for photography. This has always meant having to buy the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 7.5′ topographical quadrangles which gets very expensive once you’ve purchased all the maps you’re going to need. Fortunately nowadays we can get those same maps in a digital format direct from the USGS, and the best part is it’s free!

Go to USGS link at the end of this article and type in the place. Then click the red information bubble showing the maps that are available. Next click on “download” to get the maps that you want in a convenient pdf format. Then print. It’s that simple.

>>>Click here to download USGS topo maps<<<

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It’s in the bag. How to protect your gear on a river trip.

Adam Schallau — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:50:47 +0000

On my recent river trip down the Rio Grande River through Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park I carried with me my Canon 5D along with 4 lenses, the 17-40mm f/4L, 24-70mm f/2.8L, 70-200mm f/4L IS, and the 300mm f/4L IS. In addition I had numerous filters, extra batteries, and of course memory cards. My biggest concern on the trip was water. I was going to be surrounded by it for three days navigating through rapids and hopefully I wouldn’t capsize the canoe.

The guide service that I hired would be providing dry bags for my clothing, tent, and sleeping bag, but I needed something more to protect my camera gear. I contacted Lowepro and told them what I was going to be doing and they graciously provided my with a DryZone 200 AW camera bag.

If you’re not familiar with the DryZone series of bags let me give you a quick run-down. The DryZone bags are soft sided camera backpacks that feature a waterproof inner compartment known as a drypod that is sealed with a TIZIP™ zipper. This bag will float even when fully loaded!The real test of the DryZone bag came on the last day of my trip as we made our way into the deepest section of Santa Elena Canyon. Allow me to set the scene for you.

I have experience canoing on day-trips, but not on multi-day trips when the canoe is loaded down with lots of gear and it’s not as easy to maneuver. Strike 1!

The river makes several sharp turns in this part of the canyon where the water runs right up against the canyon wall, what our guide Billy referred to as a “wall shot”. You have to be prepared and position your canoe in advance for the “wall shots”, otherwise you’ll be in for a rough ride. Strike 2!

Santa Elena Canyon is strikingly beautiful. Everywhere you looked, up to the left, up to the right, and even behind you there was something new and magnificent to see. Strike 3, you’re out!

I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that we went right into the canyon wall. I guess I should have paid attention to where we were going. We slammed into it broadside and even though we leaned into the wall it wasn’t enough to keep the canoe from rocking back towards the current. In the process we took on a lot of water eventually filling the canoe and submerging the DryZone. I have no idea how we stayed afloat, but we did. The canoe spun around 180 degrees with us going backwards through some fast water. I was having a blast and best of all I didn’t have to worry about my equipment because it was securely packed away in the DryZone. We eventually got everything under control and pulled the canoe up against a gravel bar to bail the water out.

There are some drawbacks to the DryZone such as the TIZIP™ zipper takes more force to open and close, but I can live with it seeing as how it is a waterproof zipper. It’s also very deep which moves the center of gravity farther from your back. I wouldn’t use the DryZone as an everyday pack, but then again it’s not meant to be used that way.

I feel that the pack saved the day and was happy to use it. I consider it mandatory equipment for any future river trips or a hike up the Zion Narrows.

I’d like to thank Lowepro for their sponsorship and for making a great product.