I want everyone who’s reading this blog to stop for a moment, and remember what all this is all about. Whether you’re a photographer or not doesn’t really matter. Remember what *this* is about. Life, memories, the experience of being human.

I got on the internet this morning to catch up on news before I started some work, and clicked over to one of my favorite photographer’s blogs. Upon landing there, I learned of the passing of Tracy Turpen, a photographer who I never met, but has touched me nonetheless, like she has clearly touched so many people. It’s sobering, and saddening, and reminds me of what is important, and of the real importance of what I’m doing.

You see, I’ve been in a photographic rut. I have been feeling uncreative, and like I’ve been shooting the same old stuff over and over. I had a great opportunity to photograph some beautiful things in Oregon in December, and since then I have been discouraging myself and driving myself to the brink of utter frustration. Learning of Tracy’s death changes all that, reminds me why I take all the photos, why I feel compelled to create and to share. In part, it is to record moments that we will never have again, moments that might slip by forever if I don’t record them. Of course, photography is a vain pursuit in that regard, as you are only creating a reproduction of that moment. But you are also sometimes, if you are lucky, preserving a beautiful sunset with your family, or the smell of honeysuckle in the heavy summer air, or the sounds of children’s laughter, or a fall breeze’s chill caress on your face.

You are recording the world in a way that is uniquely you, as you see it, as it happens. You are putting your stamp on the world, asserting your existence, creating something. And even when it feels like it doesn’t matter, or no one cares, or no one’s watching or listening, you’re wrong. You’re touching someone somewhere, even if it’s just yourself. If it makes you happy to create, if it gives you something to grasp, then that is enough.

I know of Tracy because she photographed a friend’s wedding, and it was so beautiful that I found her website, and her blog, and have been following her photography ever since. She always photographed with such a sense of joy and real emotion, and her photographs express so much about the people in them, and about Tracy herself. She was clearly someone who set out to wring what she could out of life, and enjoy it on her terms.

Maybe we can all take something from that. Mostly, we can remember that all the moments are important, because the culmination of those moments is a life, and we never know how much time is allotted for us.

The world will miss you, Tracy, but perhaps you will rest a bit easier knowing that you made your mark.

I’ve probably written about it before, but I have some new photos with some new toys, and thought it was time to reassert something that a lot of budding photographers overlook in their quest to have the best gadgets: light is the KEY to great photos. I’m not saying strobes are key, or speedlites are key, or fresnel spotlights are key. What I’m saying is that light–the quality of it, the quantity of it, the angle of it–is one of the single most important components of a photograph (and, on the most fundamental level, light is REQUIRED to make photographs, obviously).

My usual setup is a couple of studio strobes (Alienbees if you’re curious), and it’s a relatively cheap way to make great photos because you are able to control and shape light to your creative vision. There is a great variety of modifiers out there–softboxes, umbrellas, beauty dishes, grids, the list goes on–and you can make the setups as simple or complex as you can dream up. There is a lot of power, though, in even one light.

And you don’t even need studio strobes. I am shooting a wedding next month in Kansas City, and want to bring my lights with me to get some really great shots of the couple in various places around the city. I had the logistics of getting lightstands, strobes, a softbox, and related accessories to Kansas City (a combination of shipping, checking, and possibly local renting), and then I realized I’d have to bring my Vagabond battery pack, a thirty plus pound anchor of a battery that I’d need to power my strobes. Not wanting to lug it with me, pay for shipping something that heavy, or purchase it again for a single event, I altered my strategy.

I bought some cold shoes to hold my speedlights (A Canon 430ex and 580ex) on my light stands, and an ST-E2 transmitter to control them. The photos in this blog are the result of some testing with just a bare 580ex and the ST-E2, adjusting angles, speedlight zoom, power, and distance, and adjusting exposure.

I could have shot these with natural light, and often do prefer to shoot with natural light and eschew the often distracting and annoying brightness of speedlights. Still, I like to have the ability to direct and shape the light to add interest and depth, and/or mood to my photos, and I enjoy experimenting with strobes when I can.

My point in this post, though, is how much power and control you can have over your photos with a single speedlight and something to control it. I bought both the ST-E2 and 580ex used, and the lightstand is of the cheap variety (cost, not quality) from Calumet. The coldshoe is something like ten bucks. The absolute cost isn’t trivial, but for those aspiring to L lenses and full-frame cameras, the whole setup for these was considerably less than a single L lens.

The thing with the lights is that any DSLR will do the trick, and since you’re not using super fast apertures, you don’t need a fancy pro lens. People have demonstrated that with good light, you can even use your iPhone and get great results.

So those of you out there who are looking at the top-shelf gear: there’s nothing wrong with wanting, owning, or using said gear. Just remember that there is tremendous value in things other than cameras and lenses, and that the best cameras and lenses can’t fix crappy light. Bringing your own light can (to an extent).

Of course, this doesn’t work for all kinds of photography, so all you landscape dudes and dudettes out there can just skim this post and shrug. But for those portrait shooters out there, hopefully I’ve said something useful.

I’m hoping at some point to write some sort of comparo about the pros and cons of strobes vs. speedlights, but obviously I will need a lot more time with the speedlights before I’d feel qualified to make any solid conclusions.

“Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone.”

This will hopefully be the last “gear” oriented blog for a little while. This one’s a little bit different than the last two, though, so I think it’s useful to think about.

Heading into 2012, it’s time to take stock of where I am photographically, and make some plans for the new year. Part of that involves starting a new Lightroom catalog for 2012, making sure all my 2011 files are backed up, and thinking about any gear changes I might need to make in preparation for weddings coming up. I, probably like most photographers, tend to focus on the exciting, big ticket items–the new cameras, the new lenses, the upgrades that we want or need moving forward. So, you might thinking that the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 would be tops on my list of wants for 2012. And certainly, it’s way up there.

You might think my list involves a 5DmkII, or a 1Dx, or a 1DmkIV, or some exciting lens like a 24mm TS-E. And all of these things are on my list of wants, though most of them are on the very periphery of possibility. What my actual list looks like, and probably what other photographer’s lists look like (or should look like), is more like this:

• New 1Tb hard drives for 2012 photo storage and backup and external RAID array
• Lexar dual slot reader
• New LCD monitor
• Cold shoes
• Gator Clips
• White and gray seamless paper
• New shoes
• More RAM for my desktop
• Pecpads and other cleaning supplies
• ThinkTank Airport International (I already bought this one for a wedding in February)
• Saving towards 2013 Iceland trip

So, no cameras or lenses in the top 10. After those odds and ends, we get down to the X-Pro 1 and its lenses, and maybe a 5DmkII or similar, but consider all of the above–nothing up there is photo-taking equipment, but all of those things are important elements of my photography. They are all the things you don’t want to buy because they’re not sexy or fun or new, but they are the things you need. To fulfill your professional obligations and back up your valuable photos. To be able to accurately edit your photos. To be able to safely transport your gear. To be able to ingest and manage your photos. To take the gear you already have to exotic locations and take once-in-a-lifetime photos.

As you plan your purchases for the coming year, whether you are a pro, an enthusiast, or an amateur, take the time to prioritize them, and don’t forget to include the mundane things. And if  your pockets aren’t bottomless, don’t forget about things, like trips, that can offer tremendous bang for your photographic buck. Because, as I repeat over and over and over on this blog, the experiences, the light, and your vision and creativity are far more important factors in good photographs than the gear. You might decide that your 5D can hang in there for another year with just a service, and put that grand you’d earmarked for the 5DmkII towards a trip to Yosemite, or Yellowstone, or Zion instead. Or you might spend that money renting someplace cool to shoot portraits. Or you might decide that, after all, it’s really time to upgrade your camera, because there’s nothing wrong with that. Just take the time to give it conscious thought.

What about me? I’m going to make my way through that list above, with maybe a few other odds and ends added to it (there’s always something). My one indulgence this year will likely be the X-Pro 1. If it works out as I hope it will, I might pick up a second and jettison some Canon gear. If it doesn’t, I might end up with a 5DmkII after all. Or maybe not. I have to get through all that other stuff first. Meanwhile, I’ll keep shooting with whatever I’ve got, and in the end, that’s all that really matters.

***Note: The Opening shot of this blog was obviously NOT shot with a Fuji X-Pro 1, because they’re not out yet and I’m not special. I thought an iPhone photo was fitting because the X-Pro 1 should be particularly well-suited to this kind of inconspicuous, street style photography.

Because I never intended to make this blog overly technical, I’m not going to wax poetic about the just-announced Fujifilm X-Pro 1… Suffice to say, O.M.G. I will have one (or two) in my hot little hands as soon as I can possibly manage it. I think that this camera, for me, is the game changer I’ve been waiting for. The camera that packs the image quality of the 5D into the body of the GF1 (not quite on the size, but close enough). There are still some unanswered questions, but I’m giddy!

Every once in awhile, whether you are a creative person or not, you hit a rut. As a photographer, sometimes I feel like I’ve photographed the same things a hundred times, have photographed all the interesting angles, found all the interesting lines and textures and light and whatever. Of course I haven’t, but I feel like everyone has already seen that same old stuff I’ve photographed, and I don’t want to photograph it again because it’ll be as boring to them as it was to me.

It’s not like that, of course. And I was thinking about it this morning as I drove to work, and I assigned myself some homework that I encourage others to try out. I assigned myself the task of going back to things that are familiar to me, things that I feel like I’ve shot to death, to try to get something fresh, and something different. The photo above is one result of that–I have taken hundreds of photos of downtown, and specifically of the American Tobacco district. But tonight I tried a different perspective, different technique, different angles. In the past I have fought against the light poles that jut into my compositions, distracting the eye and wounding compositional harmony. Tonight I tried to incorporate them, to use them as visual interest in my composition. I’ll let you be the judge if it worked or not, but the point is this: I went out to an area that is familiar to me, that is important to me, and found a new way to look at it.

In my house I have hanging two black and white photos of trees, both taken in 2008, during one of the worst droughts I have experienced in North Carolina. One photo is from Falls Lake, the other from Jordan Lake. Both are dead trees that I wouldn’t have been able to photograph had the water been higher. I entered both of them in a photo contest, and won third place for one of them.

I periodically return to Falls Lake and Jordan Lake because I like to be near the water, like to see the herons and ospreys, like to keep my eyes peeled for the elusive bald eagles (I have seen them, but haven’t yet taken a good photograph of one). These lakes, like downtown Durham, represent something that is familiar to me, and often they are sources of great angst–I return to them again and again to photograph, but only occasionally do I come away with photos that I think are worthwhile. I return to the lakes, in spite of this frustration, because there are the non-photography related things I like about the lakes.

Here again, though, I push myself to go back, to take the time to really look, to find compositions, to find something fresh. Most recently, I went to Falls Lake and found a couple of trees to add to my black and white “lake tree” series. Maybe one day I’ll collect them all, print them, display them. Maybe they’ll just be practice. But again, I push myself to revisit the familiar and try to come up with something new.

I won’t try to convince you that it always works–I am still feeling like I’m in a rut, and the photos aren’t really scratching the itch. But even when you’re just going through the motions, it’s important to be out there, even just for practice, even just to be working on the muscle memory, or memorizing the field of view at various focal lengths. Sometimes, it’s just a good idea to have your camera with you, just in case something rare and beautiful comes your way. As with an amazing sunset the other evening, if you don’t have your camera with you, you can’t get the photo (I didn’t, and I missed it).

Ansel Adams said he felt successful if he ended up with one great photo a year. I strive for a bit more than that, but that sounds about right. So get out there, and get shooting. If you’re not a photographer, find that thing that has become so familiar it’s almost invisible, and try to make it fresh again.

I want to start off by apologizing for an unabashedly gear-focused post–I generally strive to write about technique, creativity, vision, and composition over tech-specs and gear, because I think it’s all too easy to get caught up in the gear and forget what you’re really trying to do. Still, I work with this gear and I think it’s worthwhile to discuss a bit, every once in awhile.

In recent months I’ve spent a lot of time posting about downsizing, making use of less sophisticated equipment, and focusing on art and vision over tech specs. This post is a little different, because even though I believe all those things I wrote, and I’m moving away from DSLRs, my Canon 5D and Canon 1DmkIII and array of lenses are still the mainstays of my photographic life. They are undeniably great tools, and I am reminded of just how great they are every time I pick them up and make photos in just about every sort of scenario.

Above is the Canon 1Dx, with a spec list of dreams: 18mp, full-frame, twelve frames per second, ISO sensitivity up to 256,000 (I had to bold that because it’s so nutso). Introduced on the heels of the 1DmkIV (I think just a year or two instead of the regular 3+ year pro body cycle), The 1Dx promises to be mind-blowingly good, and represents Canon FINALLY jumping into the arena that the Nikon D3 has been playing in for years–now, instead of a bifurcated pro line of a crop sports camera and a high mp “other” camera, you can have your cake and eat it too, all in one glorious potent gear wet dream.

It’s the camera I’ve been waiting for for years, while I cut glances at Nikon and wondered if I shouldn’t have stuck with it and bought a pair of D700s, instead of turning to Canon when I did. I lusted for the amazingly clean files of the D3, dreamed of a day when I could have 1-Series responsiveness AND a full frame in a body that wasn’t $8,000. And finally, Canon has delivered… sort of.

You see, the problem isn’t what the camera can do–as I’ve said, this is the camera of dreams. It, and the upcoming Nikon D4 seem to declare, “If DSLRs are going the way of the dinosaurs, we’re going to make sure they go out with a big &$%!!$ bang, hoo-RAH!” The problem is the price, MSRP of $6,800. When it hits the streets, I’d expect to see something more along the lines of $6,000, but that’s a lot of cheese for a digital gizmo that will be replaced before you know it. True, for many photographers like myself, it sort of represents the acme of all I could ever need in a camera, but that’s sort of what I’m starting to get to in this post–it’s just so… MUCH.

Let me segue for a moment, and talk about rumors of the upcoming Nikon D800 and Canon 5DmkIII. I’ve put off making this post for a bit because I don’t like to discuss speculation as fact, but it’s pretty apparent that the next generation of prosumer bodies from both companies are likely to pack 30+ megapixels. That’s all well and great, you might say–I’m paying similar money for more mexapixels, which means more cropping, bigger prints, etc. etc. That’s super if you shoot landscapes, crop a lot, or have really big walls to hang prints on. I, however, shoot portraits, and 10-12mp is enough. Probably more than enough. I’m sure the new cameras will have reduced resolution modes, but in the case of the 5D, if it follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, it will be hamstrung by good, but not cutting edge, autofocus and other features.

I thought Nikon really hit it right when they came out with the D700–a wedding photographer’s dream. The megapixels are right, the size is right, the functionality is right, the lowlight performance is exceptional. I probably would have switched had I not had so much money invested in Canon, and had I not loved my lenses quite so much. Now we’re headed in a direction that doesn’t quite make sense to me, unless the new offerings can boast both big megapixels AND big lowlight performance.

Getting away from the speculation and back to what we know, why can’t Canon make a 1Dx lite, a la Nikon and the D3/D700? I’m still shooting with the original 5D because I don’t see any great need for 21mp, and because the 1DmkIII is such an exceptional camera that it makes up for anything the 5D lacks. I have learned to live with the strange 1.3x crop, but I long for some consistency across bodies, and I really want my 16mm field of view back with my good camera. Canon has created a dilemma where it’s built a camera that is too good–it’s priced itself out of the hands of folks like myself, who would otherwise find it perfect. My upgrade choices are a 5DmkII, which has more mp than I need and doesn’t really have the sensitivity or responsiveness that I want; I can continue with a crop sensor and get a 1DmkIV and gain better lowlight performance; I can try to find some 1DsmkIII that is a reasonable price and sacrifice the high ISOs, or I can continue to long for a camera to fill the niche. I understand that camera companies can’t please everyone, and I know that there are a lot of professionals who will scoop up the 1Dx and swallow the higher pricetag with nary a wince, but it’s really got me wondering where things are going.

Bringing heat on the other side of things are all of the upcoming mirrorless offerings, with the Sony NEX line making a strong showing, and upcoming Fujifilm bodies that look fantastic. With mirrorless cameras putting serious pressure on entry-level DSLRs and advancements coming apace, how long will it be before these smaller, lighter, cheaper cameras are “good enough,” and cameras like the 1Dx and D4 become overindulgent exercises in excess?

Maybe Canon has foreseen all of this, and that’s why they put the ‘x’ in 1Dx–the know it’s excessive, they know it’s indulgent. It’s a Ferrari, a Bugatti Veyron (yes, I know medium format digital cameras are probably better analogs for high-end sports cars, but stay with me).

And therein lies the dilemma, the quandary–Canon has finally created the camera I’ve asked for, plus some. And it’s out of my reach. It’s too much.

Guess I’ll keeping hoping for the mythical 3D.

Today I had the privilege of shooting new headshots for New Media Campaigns, an awesome web design company in Carrboro with whom I recently started an internship. I wanted to show these headshots for a couple of reasons. First, I don’t have any headshots on my website anywhere, so this is an opportunity to show some. Secondly, I wanted to show these because they took me about twenty minutes total to shoot, process, and post on the NMC website.

The big point I want to make is that these were all shot with nice, diffuse natural light through a window, with a single camera and a single lens. If I’d really wanted to get fancy I could have used a reflector to camera right for a little fill on the non-window side, but these came out okay. I shot these in the office, in front of a white wall, and focused on getting the most genuine expressions from people.

Some people are comfortable in front of the camera and it’s easy to get good photos of genuine expression. For others, you have to employ a little trickery and get them in between more forced expressions. Look for smiling eyes, look for relaxed poses. Talk to them, direct them, have them move around. If you’re paying attention and fast on the shutter, you’ll be able to catch the right moment.

Pay attention to the details–watch how the light falls, where your catchlights are… make sure there aren’t too many flyaways. If you do the bulk of your work in-camera, then processing is a simple matter of batch processing some light levels adjustments (and in this case converting to black and white).

Most importantly, don’t get caught up in the minutiae of technical detail–as I said, these were all shot with natural light. If you choose to use strobes, that’s fine (I often do), but don’t miss the good stuff because you’re fiddling with light placement and aperture settings. The technical details are important, but if you’re shooting headshots for real, you should already have that stuff down.

Thanks to the NMC team for modeling for me!

Since returning from my trip to Oregon, I have taken some more photos with my iPhone and Instagram, and I have taken some more time to consider its increasing role in my photography. Though I still don’t think it could ever take the place of my other cameras, increasingly I find that the iPhone has its own story to tell. And, lest I sound like an Apple fanboy (I’m not, but am increasingly becoming one… maybe), it’s the particular symbiosis of Instagram and the iPhone that works for me, not any particular inherent goodness of the iPhone (but there is a lot of inherent iPhone goodness).

At this point, I am finding myself sometimes on the verge of iPhone-photography-obsessed. I look for opportunities to use Instagram, I pull it out and take photos all the time… sometimes inopportune times. Both of my parents seem a little unsettled, but I feel compelled to make images with my phone when the other cameras would be cumbersome, clunky, uncomfortably conspicuous. I like the challenge of making more than snapshots, of using these powerful, handheld tools to make real images. With great power comes great responsibility, I guess… but Instagram is just so COOL!.

I don’t know that I have any great proclamations for this follow up to my original post about Instagram and the iPhone. I let it rest for awhile, back at home with the familiar, as I was. There wasn’t anything I felt compelled to document for a moment. But then things started to catch my eye, and the Instagram dialogue between my peers and myself resumed.

Mostly, i just wanted to share some more photos. Maybe by admitting I have a problem, I might be able to keep this Insta-addiction in check.

I’ll admit it. I’m ready to eat crow. Ready to take the hat off my head, put it in my mouth, and chew on it. Or a shoe. Whatever. It started slowly, almost without warning, when I got my iPhone and downloaded Instagram. I would snap a photo here, there, whenever something caught my eye and I didn’t have the GF1 or a DSLR handy. I started to follow some of my favorite photographers on Instagram, some of my friends, watching their feed. Some of the photos may have inspired me. Maybe.

I complained about the whole Instagram fad before I had it. It’s been so long ago now that I can’t find where I said it to quote, but I’m pretty sure I said something about phone camera photos being not that great. I worried that crappy cellphone photos were taking the place of photos that could have been taken with proper cameras. It was not a tremendous amount of bellyaching over it. But I thought about it hard enough to mostly dismiss photos taken with phones. Mostly.

A curious thing started to happen. When I’d be out shooting with my GF1 or Canon DSLRs, sometimes I would want to share what I was shooting. Not in an hour, or later that evening, or tomorrow. Right then, while I was in the moment and feeling it, with the light right and creative juices flowing. So I’d pull out my iPhone, get Instagram going, and take a photo. I’d apply my favorite filters, then upload it to Facebook and/or Twitter. Just like that. A moment shared, immediately.

The more I took these little photos and shared them, the more I started to find some that I liked. And when that happened, I started to TRY to take good photos with my iPhone. And when I started to TRY, I started to feel really… CREATIVE. Sometimes, I would be out with my son Isaac and I wouldn’t have a camera at all, or HE would have my camera. But I always have my phone.

The watershed event was a recent trip to Southern Oregon to visit my mom. I took my GF1, I took my Canon 5D, I took a few lenses for both, and I of course took my iPhone. While flying across the country, I had WiFi on the plane (another modern marvel to discuss in some other post at some other time!).

I could have unwedged the 5D or GF1 from under the seat, or taken the 5D out of the overhead compartment, contorted myself to try to take some photos out of the plane window, removed the SD or CompactFlash card, ingested the photos into Lightroom, exported them as JPEGs, uploaded them to Flickr, then shared them with my friends. Or… I think you see where I’m going with this… Or, I could just take my iPhone out of my pocket, take the photo and edit with Instagram, flip a couple of tabs, and *POOF* my photos are online, shared with my little network as I flew high over the Great Salt Lake.

It was a pivotal moment, to be sure. For the first time, I have images from three different camera formats that I would use for a photo essay, or a photo album, or some other method of telling a visual story. The iPhone, the GF1, and the 5D worked together as a team, as tools in the bag, serving different purposes at different times. Just as a photographer of yore might have packed different color films for different applications, I had used different tools to different ends.

And you know what? I really like the results. The images I took with my iPhone don’t–can’t–tell the whole story of my journey, but they do say something, they do have their part to tell. The GF1 adds its voice, and the 5D its own, as well. I have images from all three that are deeply satisfying.

Chase Jarvis, a professional photographer that I follow and admire, is a big proponent of “the best camera is the one you have with you,” even going so far as to have an Instagram-like photoblog of his own by that name. He also has elevated and celebrated the snapshot, pointing out the importance of those fleeting moments, those records of the ordinary or the sublime.

I’m not sure where I fall on that spectrum, but like I said, I’m ready to eat crow. I’m a convert. A believer. A born-again photographer. Whatever you want to call me, my ID on Instagram is markitos57. Check it out, if you want. Whatever you do, be creative, with whatever tool you have. Don’t let its limits keep you from expressing yourself and your vision.

One thing I am sure of: it is a fascinating time to be a photographer.