Nominated by afx:

“I am just a sucker for perfectly executed wildlife shots and this as perfect as it gets.
Exposure, angle of the light, details, action…”

Chosen by Chris Fabbri:

“Fantastic light, metering, details and action.
Jim is doing great with his top quality bird shots.”

Click here to see the other photos nominated for this week.

A blog series by afx & millirehm

Case study 2 Developing a DIY bird-photography safari

This is the story of a dream that has not yet been concluded. There was a dream, to go to the Romanian Danube Delta. This largest European wetland area (5000 square kilometers) offers the option of photographing birds similar to an African safari.

But there are special things to consider.

Most of the Danube delta is covered by reed and water. There are settlements, of course, but while shooting you rarely can rely on solid ground. You need a boat, and you need a guide who knows the delta otherwise you are lost.

You can’t rely on a tripod as you are used to in other regions. In case of our travel group we had chosen May for our trip because it is an attractive time of the year and we wanted to avoid the inhuman hot and humid summer temperatures. There had been a lot of rain and consequent floods so there was even less opportunity to get solid ground beneath my feet.

So far I have made stage 1 the year 2005, the  reconnaissance trip. Standard prearranged Danube Delta trips are shorter. I did 10 days. We were traveling around on a small motorized vessel, and I tried to get an overview where to find what. Whereas there are species you can find everywhere in the Delta it appears that some of them only live in specific regions.

My equipment was rather minimal. A Nikon F4 body, a 28 mm and a 105 mm f/2.8 Micro for general purposes and my 400 mm f/5,6 Nikkor together with a TC14B converter served as the workhorse for bird photography. A Rimowa Ultralight case-bag which is waterproof and floats appears to be a necessary piece of equipment for the Danube delta environment. Having sufficient protection against water is a mandatory requirement and makes one much less nervous.

I made the decision to use 35 mm Film for the following reasons: digital SLR photography was early in its development curve and market success. The digital Nikon bodies were way too expensive for me. (Now I am well equipped but this was before my partial shift to the digital photography world.) And most important - the power supply. I was making a 10 days trip and switching the place to spend the night often. I did not know what I exactly had to expect,

Batteries require recharging often. There was no guarantee that there would be the required continuous power supply for the short charging intervals of a digital camera body.

Lessons learned:

The reconnaissance mission was successful for giving me initial knowledge about the delta and where to find what. The estimation that I will be way off the usual infrastructural standards was proven right.

On the downside I heavily underestimated what the vibrations of the boats engine will cause. There was only one opportunity to get on a rowing boat, most of the time we were spending on the motor vessel. Even though I tried everything not to hard-link equipment to boats parts and use my body for vibration reduction it was not sufficient. Having VR would promise some improvement for the delta conditions, but still would not be sufficient. I guess I’d need a Gyro-Stabilizer, but these are expensive, energy consuming and you can’t call them silent and as well so I don’t see this as a solution.

For the next time I am planning to have more time, stay longer at one place (which was impossible within the framework of the guided tour last time), use a motor vessel only for the intermediate long distance transfers and rely on rowing boats, and a guide with better support for photographers needs. They can also use the small channels which are outside reach for the bigger boats.

Actually it was a rather small motor- boat but its draft was too deep for a lot of channels (and its not easy to stop and go like you can with a car and would have required a more flexible crew)

I need a home base with the required infrastructure enabling me to go digital.

I would need a local guide that is more flexible than the last one (it was a very individual kind of travel but not what you really would need for photography -i.e. using the golden hours in the morning.

Getting basic skills in Romanian language would be advantageous for the required communication with the guide. Be warned: Taking a boat, and going on your own is by no way an option. Due to the size and structure of the Delta you will almost certainly get lost.

For the next time I will get waterproof bags like kayak-drivers are using to protect bigger lenses and equipment. Before my last trip I just had acquired the 600 mm f/4 MF. As it is more than 6kg I decided to leave it at home due to the uncertainty in what travel conditions I would end up. I was right I - could not have made proper use of this lens on the conditions of this trip but a range of 600 mm and  the faster f/4 would have come handy.

For the next time I’d take my AF-S 500 mm with me, (in this special case a 600 VR could make sense, but I simply don’t have it and won’t afford another 600) and a 200-400 f/4 VR zoom which I currently don’t own. Together with a DX and an FX body this would be the perfect combination for a Danube delta bird safari.

Monopod and Bean bag, some hide improvisation will complete the equipment

Swimming Hide usually is a revolutionary idea, but it requires that you move inside the water and as the delta is full of bloodsucking creatures, this is not recommended.

I don’t know when I will be ready to go for the next time but it is a long term project but there will be a stage 2.

Case study 3 The “home-safari” as the most simple approach

For some people safaris in more distant/exotic countries may not be an option due to resource or  time constraints, or different considerations. But even in this case all hope is not lost, a kind of “home-safari” may be the option of choice, and it’s the easiest thing to plan a safari in your home environment.

If it’s o.K. for your view and imagination, you might get similar excitement than in a real safari even when sometimes wild-life conditions (like in Europe) require to using a hide and a lot of waiting. But even Europe is not that bad, there are options for wildlife photography while moving around , including car-based safaris as well.

As there is always a benefit. These “small scale” safaris may not be the big thing but they are cheaper than flying to exotic destinations, it is also a good way to get familiar with your gear so that you know how to use it instinctively through training. Usually it is easier to get sufficient power supply and your equipment has not be compromised by the requirements of long-distance travels.

An extended discussion by other Nikongear members on ’safari’ issues may be read at this thread

A blog series by afx & millirehm

Misc On-Safari Information

Non photographer gear that I found helpful:

Inflatable seat cushions can make bumpy rides in open safari vehicles much more enjoyable - especially if you have a weak back. Using trousers with zip off legs, known as ‘convertibles’ in the catalogs - will make it easier to adjust to temperature changes during the day.

Safari shirts with inside pockets are useful to keep your papers and money always on you. Liquid soap from a small hotel bottle does not take up much space in your pocket and can come in handy on the road. Brimmed hats are essential if you are without sunshade for hours during the day (baseball caps leave your ears exposed and lead to nicely roasted ears).

Organizational Things

By the time you have enough gear collected to call this a photo safari, you will have quite a bit of money invested in your gear. Make sure you have insurance with world wide coverage that covers theft from vehicles and on the street (and not just secure hotel rooms) as well as your own silliness like inadvertently dropping a lens down deep gorges.  Sometimes there is an option to attach photo gear to other insurance. This option usually costs less than dedicated photo insurance.

Depending on where you go to, make sure you have all the right immunizations.

Medical insurance and other documentation

If you are traveling a long distance from your home and especially to a country that has, perhaps, less than your standard health care, it would be advisable to consider medical insurance with evacuation protection. That will allow you, if injured or ill, to be evacuated to your home country or a region with adequate health care. Evacuation with a serious injury can easily cost $100,000 and, while rare, is a definite consideration. Read the policies carefully.

Check the validity of your passport and visa requirements. Beyond the normal visas, many countries have odd requirements; for example that your passport not expire for some number of months past your trip or that there be some number of additional blank pages in your passport.

Make sure any connection flights leave enough room to actually reach the connecting flight when planning the trip. It is no fun jogging though an airport with several security check points carrying a heavy photo backpack when your Munich - Zurich flight is half an hour late and you only had 45 minutes to begin with to catch the plane to Dar es Salam. This is crucial when you change airlines or when you book all the legs by yourself and separately.

Booking rental cars in advance via an international agency is usually the better method to get a car from an agency that has lots of support throughout the country. Depending on where you go to a 4WD might be necessary or not (I never had one). Places like Krueger or Etosha are easy in that respect. If you drive in places where gas stations are far apart, also arrange for a petrol can and a second spare tire in advance. It’s no fun sitting 50Km outside Walfish Bay without gas when the sun sets and you don’t even have camping gear with you (I was stupid enough to trust the gas gauge)…..

In most African countries it is better to exchange money in the country then at home. So bring Euros, Dollars or whatever and exchange it there.

International Travel

Hopefully this is not your first international trip and you know what to bring along for yourself in general….

Make sure you have carry photocopies of copies of your passport, tickets and your gear insurance list with the serial numbers in various pieces of luggage.

A good medical kit is essential. Especially anti inflammatory stuff, painkillers, anti diarrhea medicine, and whatever you usually use to handle sprained ankles. The further away from cities you are, the more you are dependent on yourself. (I’ve been on a trip with a macho man that did not bring anything, even laughed about my preparations and then had to grudgingly admit that our kit saved his butt.). Of course sunscreen and mosquito repellent are a must. If you travel in a malaria area, stay away from Resorchin and Lariam, a lot of people do get interesting side effects. Malarone is much more friendly to your stomach and mind.

Spread your gear into sensitive essentials for the hand luggage and the other stuff in the checked luggage. Bring clothing that fits the area and is easy to wash.

I’d rather bring less clothing and wash on the trip than leave other essentials at home. In many camps in the parks you can get your laundry done easily and cheaply.

Heavy stuff that is replaceable or not mandatory should be always in checked luggage.

Even if you’ve booked fully equipped huts in the big parks in southern Africa, bring one sharp knife and a basic camper cutlery set. You never know… If you are a coffee addict like me, be prepared for a shock. In the parks and even in hotels depending on country, the standard coffee is instant (and the milk is white powder). Having a plastic Bodum travel presspott and our own coffee supply can get you through this (and you might make friends quickly with other travels if you share).

A good multitool with pliers is always handy. On out first trip to South Africa the fastener for the hood of the rented VW Jetta vibrated loose while driving at 80Kph along a gravel road. Apart from this being an interesting experience in itself, we had to wait ’till someone showed up with tools to fix it. If I’d had my Swisstool already then, that break would have been much shorter.

Travel Itself

On your travel day, make sure you have comfortable clothes with lots of (inside) pockets to store your papers and money. A photo vest can hold gear if your camera backpack looks already overweight. Wear your heaviest boots on the flight instead of putting them into your checked luggage (bring extra socks to walk around in the cabin). Side pockets of trousers can be useful for storing glasses, reading material for the trip etc..

Once you arrive, get some money changed at the airport. In some countries paying with Dollars or now also Euro is preferred over the local currency, so check in advance on how much you’ll need. Some places will charge credit card fees on top if you want to pay by credit card, again, check in advance (I ran into that problem in our hotel in Zanzibar).

If you are on a trip with self accommodation and self catering, inquire for the next shopping center. In South Africa we usually picked up some Styrofoam insulation boxes to keep our stuff fresh and bought some plastic dishes before setting out for Krueger. Why bother putting it in your limited airline luggage if it can be bought cheap locally (and someone will make good use of it when you return the car). Part of the fun experience is stopping at local markets and buying fresh produce and fruits. This depends a bit on the country though. Namibia for example is quite dry, so the choices there are not as abundant as in South Africa.

Generally make sure you get gas when you can and do not trust the gas gauge (see the example above about being stranded outside Walfish bay…). If you are taking small planes to the parks, make sure you have a camera and something in the range 28-100mm ready. Even shooting through dirty airplane windows will give you at least memory shots for yourself.

Shooting

If you are in camps in public parks, you will probably have regulations that govern when you can access the park, something like gates open at 6:30 in the morning and close at 18:00 at night. Combine that with sunrise/sunset and you’ll have your schedule set out.

Be among the first to be through the gate in the morning (On our first trip to Krueger I was traveling with friends in several groups and we had a competition going who was the first to line up at the gate in the morning). Use the next two to three hours for shooting, then turn in for brunch, rest etc. Get out again at 3 hours before the gates close.

Most parks do not allow you to get out of the vehicle on the road. So plan your rest stops accordingly. Of course you can drive around all day and see more. But the light will be not very pleasing and you will tire much more while usually not gaining much in photo opportunities.

In Krueger we tried to be at a camp always before the restaurants close for breakfast to grab a big brunch.

If you stay outside a park, you might be even further restricted and not be able to enter long after sunrise and you’ll have to be out before sunset. This of course is not desirable, so check in advance.

Paying higher fees for staying inside can quickly pay off with better photo opportunities. In Namibia I did not plan for self catering. So we had to stay in the hotel outside the Sossuvlei park. If we’d had stayed inside on the campground, we could have gotten to the vlei much earlier with much more interesting light.

If you are self driving in a regular car, and you are two people, spread to front and back row instead of sitting side by side. This allows each of you to get to each side of the car quickly.

If you have a driver from the camp, make sure he knows what you are interested in. A knowledgeable driver/guide can make a huge difference for the trip. Make sure you engage him in your activities. Show what you are shooting. If you develop a good interaction with your driver,  you and he will have a more pleasurable day and you will get what you want more easily. Tipping is another good way of keeping your driver happy.

Our driver in Tanzania was exceptional. He already knew our travel companion and his desires. So we spend little time on things that did not interest us photographically but went straight for action.

As you will be usually shooting from a car you need to think about how you support your long glass in the vehicle. Tripods are usually too big unless you are in an open car with few passengers (A tripod works well in an open Landrover with only two people). I found monopods work well in open cars if there is not enough space for a tripod.

Clamps on the windows/doors can be used or just beanbags over the windows. I once used pipe insulation material to rest the lens on the window. The more people there are in the car the more unwanted movements will happen. Bolting a lens to a window clamp can be quite cumbersome then. On the other hand, if you only lean your lens on a beanbag, you constantly need to hold it. Use all the long lens techniques you hopefully trained in advance.

Keep in mind that a car window leads to a specific camera position in relation to your subject. It might be too high or low. In open vehicles, crouching down and shooting below the railing might give you a more interesting angle. Or for shorter focal lengths, attach the camera to a monopod, prefocus it, lower it to the ground and use a cable release to get a different angle

Getting low in a boat as close to the waterline as possible is also quite useful. I still don’t own any VR lenses, so I can’t offer specific advice here. Theoretically, they should be very useful in your typical safari shooting situation.

While driving around make sure no gear is unattached. Lens caps and other small items easily get lost on bumpy rides (I did mention to bring spares, did I?) and flying cameras are not something you want to see. A photo vest helps to quickly store and retrieve the smaller stuff.

If you can get out of the car for shooting, watch your environment. Boots and long pants help to protect your feet and legs from various thorny things and hungry insects, being alert helps against being surprised by wildlife. When you are outside of the car, a beanbag can help you getting shots at ground level. A few rolled up t-shirts will do as well.

Typically you will drive up to some interesting animal and start shooting. Now instead of just blasting away, make good use of the RGB histogram after the first few shots and check your exposure. There is no excuse for having series of under or over exposures anymore with digital cameras. Zooming in occasionally will show you whether your current setting will yield sharp images.

If you have not scared off the animal by now work on your composition. Think about what you are shooting. Instead of the usually full frame centered animal shots, try to get some that include the environment or go for details.

On my Tanzania trip I initially tried to work with a fixed sunny or shady WB but quickly gave up and went back to auto WB with a slight warm shift as adjusting the WB constantly proved to be quite annoying and inefficient while not giving me any better results than auto  anyway. Standard exposure setting was center weighted with a -0.7 compensation.

If this is your first safari, make sure you trained in wildlife parks at home first. I have a year pass for a local pace 15min from home and go there quite often. Most of the time the shots are nothing new. But it allows me to train with my gear and commit thinks to muscle memory so that I can react faster once I need to get the shot.

Daily Routine

When coming back to camp, copy your CF cards to your storage devices. I usually copy from CF to laptop first, then to an external backup disk. Then I start culling on the laptop. The images on the external disk never get culled, just in case I mess up.

During or after the first culling start to caption your images while your memory is fresh. You can’t have enough notes….

You will have a crowd around you quickly if you do your culling/captioning at the camp bar. For me the funniest things where the complaints about the shots that I deleted. Most onlookers  claimed that they would have been happy to get the shots that I nuked.

Always make sure your batteries are charging while in camp. Bringing your own power strip is helpful when trying to run battery chargers and a laptop at the same time (and you’ll need only one plug converter).

Check your lenses for dust and examine your sensor (shoot a bright sky at F22). A good blower should be sufficient to get rid of most of the daily dust.

A blog series by afx & Millirehm

Miscellaneous knowledge (pre-safari)

Metering

The history of photography has brought us a lot of methods or gadgets to determine the desired exposure, the sunny f/16 rule, using hand-held light meters, using the camera’s measuring and  exposure modes, check against the display.

Choosing your cameras metering mode

Centre weighted and Spot metering serves as your a stable basis for your own correction, whereas multi-pattern metering (aka matrix metering) gives more control to the camera and although the results often are very sophisticated, it has more of a black box approach from the photographers viewpoint.

In Flight Action

When doing action photography of birds in flight you frequently need to deal with a rapidly changing background . In these situations,  especially when photographing against the sky, automatics will not give you reliable exposure any more.

There are two workarounds to deal with that. Set the camera to M, measure some neutral object, set aperture and shutter speed and then leave it as it is and shoot (under sunny conditions in middle Europe I often end up with f/4 and 1/500 at ISO 100).

Spot metering gives the possibility just to measure the target. In former days this was more for the slow approach and unusable for action. In modern cameras, the option of hard linking spot metering to the active AF field range theoretically offers the possibility of tracking the main subject to measure it while at the same time staying on automatic settings. This approach shows promise but how valuable it really is still to be tested out.

Knowledge about animals with special focus on birds

Biological/ecological knowledge and insight of the environment your living objects of interest are to be found is at least as important as having the best gear you can find. You can improve your chances of success if you know when animals are active and what the typical ecosystems they prefer are. And don’t forget acoustics. A lot of animals (especially birds) create unique sounds. Knowing their voices enables you to locate them, even when you don’t see them first hand. If you can hear a bird approaching his nest this makes you more alert and better prepared for upcoming photo opportunities.

A positive side effect of increased knowledge: it enables you to treat your objects of interest respectfully and stay outside of their critical distance. In protected areas appropriate behaviour is a must for peaceful coexistence with national park rangers, etc.

In many world regions wildlife has adapted to landscape formed by mankind’s culture, animals have moved into urban and suburban regions. They are still wildlife, but maybe less shy, thus increasing the chance of a good shot.

A few words about “digi-scoping”

The availability of compact digital cameras caused the evolution of a new branch of photography. Birdwatchers are making extended use of the telescopes in their mandatory equipment by using digital cameras to capture their eyepiece’s image. Coupling devices were developed and are available on the market (sometimes for ridiculous prices). The promise: get good bird shots without carrying too much stuff.

Brief summary: I have seen digiscoped images (small birds at rather large distance) you simply can’t get with SLR-equipment, and despite the disadvantage in using this method, the image quality was not bad. But my personal experience is that the success rate is rather low - the shutter delays are long so you can’t snap a shot and do fast action, to avoid vibration is difficult.

I have used both, there is no comparison if you once have seen what you can do with a fast and modern SLR and a supertele, but there remains an interesting niche.

Hints and tips for wildlife photography  with special focus on: using superteles, bird photography and going on safari

Authored by afx and millirehm

Disclaimer: At the beginning of this series the authors like to clearly speak out that they do not claim universal validity for the provided information but rather share their experiences, and the results of their learning processes. That’s what we stand for.

About the term safari

“A safari is an overland journey. It usually refers to a trip by tourists to Africa, traditionally for a big-game hunt; today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph big game and other wildlife.”

Motivation

One of the first recommendation is: start with clarifying your motivation

Why are you doing wildlife photography? Where is your photography aimed at? what is your target? Are you doing it for yourself, or for making exhibitions, publications – just for vacation or triggered by professional interest in earning money (or even attempting to find some way of combination) Do you want to prepare for everything that comes along or aiming specific species? Focus yourself before you focus your lens!

Ethics

Technically it is possible to do wildlife photography without any considerations about “Ethics”. The authors think it should not be done like that. There should be room for the necessary respect against living creatures, and the potential damage you can make as a consequence of disrespecting photographic approaches.

There is no reason why captured creatures should not be photographed. But to be fair those photos should be marked up captive and not be announced as wildlife.

In case of traveling to foreign countries, keep in mind that there are human inhabitants too even though they may not be the reason of your travel. These indigenous people may either profit or suffer from tourism. Keep in mind and be prepared that in some regions political, economic or social instability might cause trouble for you as well.

The following topics will be covered in successive blog entries:

Hints and tips for wildlife photography

Special focus: Using Superteles, bird photography, going on safari

Starting considerations to begin with

General Equipment Section

Knowledge about Animals with special focus on birds

Going on Safari

Case study 1: Planning a African Wildlife photo Safari

Scouting out the Destination

Equipment

Organizational Things

Packing

Travel

Shooting

Daily Routine

Case study 2: Developing a DIY bird-photography safari

Case study 3: The “home-safari” as the most simple approach

Resources

Sometimes what you think will be easy to shoot often turns out to be a real pain in the proverbial ass. This past Friday a local pub asked me if I would do some photos for a competition brochure they were having made up. The first prize is a bar fridge together with a year’s supply of beer and the second prize is a coffee machine with a years supply of coffee. One bar patron is going to be very disappointed to come second in this one, methinks.

The brief was to photograph the fridge stocked full of beer. They wanted an oblique view of it as well as a head-on shot. The first problem I faced was that the door of the fridge was glass and unless I could somehow turn myself and the rest of the set invisible, everything else in the room was going to be reflected in that glass door. The second problem was that the inside of the fridge looked very dull once the beers were placed inside it.

Dealing with the first problem came down to me having to shoot the fridge with the door open. I could have flagged off the whole of their boardroom with black or white sheets, cut a hole in one for the lens and then done the shot with the fridge door closed, but that would have required a lot of stuff I didn’t have on me, plus it would also have lengthened the shoot time considerably. Something you come to learn pretty quickly when you’re doing this type of thing for a living is that time is your commodity. You can’t charge clients for the time it takes you to experiment with various setups and then not deliver the shot. They’ll baulk at that immediately. Experiment on your own time and once you have a fair idea of how to accomplish a certain task you’ll be able to re-create it fairly easily on location. In my case I just didn’t have the time and I also didn’t want to make too much work for myself in PP. I shot it with the door open.

The second problem would be a bit easier to deal with, although you probably wouldn’t think so. The Nikon SB-800 is a wonderful piece of technology. You can put these things just about anywhere and they will give you some kind of light. I stuck one of mine into the fridge behind the row of beers on the middle shelf. The other SB-800 I put on a stand and fired into a white umbrella, just to the left of the camera and above the fridge. Ordinarily I would have metered both the lights manually and then shot the fridge in manual mode, but after watching a few of Joe McNally’s excellent training videos I decided to go with the iTTL on this one.

Shooting with the D700 I went into the flash menus and set the pop-up flash to be the master and set up two i-TTL groups, one for each SB-800. Group A was my main light and that was going into the brolly, whereas Groub B was the light inside the fridge. I dialled that one down by -2 stops. The pop-up flash I set to have not fire, just act as a trigger for the other two lights.

I put the camera on the tripod, took a shot. Wow, works like a bomb!I then moved the SB-800 up to the top shelf and took another shot. The end result I would merge in post.

What you see below is the original image of the fridge, straight out of camera. Again I screwed up the white balance, but fortunately when shooting in RAW that is easily corrected.

And then the final shot. Note that there is a row of beer added to the bottom shelf (client’s request) together with matching reflection in the fridge door. This shot also shows the merged top rows so that the light looks a bit more even inside the fridge and the key-stoning (perspective) has been corrected. The whole fridge has been deep etched and the path is intact on the jpg for the designers to use.

Even though I was left alone with the beer for about an hour I forgot to bring my Swiss Army knife - couldn’t open any of them. Lesson for photographers, always be prepared…

The coffee machine I brought back to the studio to shoot. My standard set up prevailed (two Broncolor C80 Minipuls heads) with softboxes, but the biggest problem with shooting this was that of the reflections coming off the shiny black plastic. It caught the edge of the shooting table and also the edge of the overhead softbox. I thought I could deal with that easily enough in post, but after the first try I gave up and used a big piece of white cardboard curved up to both the left and right sides of the machine, sandwiched between two pieces of white polystyrene board. That took care of the edges of the shooting table.

This shot was metered manually. I’m still not 100% happy with the reflection along the top angled edge of the machine, but again time is important and the client was very happy with the end result.

I first heard the name Dan Patlansky about 5 or 6 years ago from my friend John, who sold me my first guitar and told me that if I enjoyed the blues I really ought to go and see Dan playing live. I didn’t think much of it at the time and in passing I mentioned it to my then guitar teacher, who being something of a maestro himself, also suggested that I should go and see him play. It took another two years before that eventually happened, but when it did I swear I thought I was hearing Stevie Ray Vaughn reach back into this world from the other side. Oh my, this boy can play!

A year or so after my first Dan Patlansky gig I got to take some photos of him playing an in-store set at the opening of my friend John’s music store. The lighting was God-awful (fluorescent tubes) and the store was packed with fans who’d pushed aside the regular drudgery of a Saturday morning to come and see this blues prodigy play a few numbers. Despite the throng of people I somehow got myself near the front and armed only with a D2H, SB-800 and 18-200mm VR lens I managed to get some shots of Dan that I was pretty happy with. Dan must have liked them too as I see he is using a couple of them on his Facebook profile!

About two weeks ago Dan sent out a message to all his fans on Facebook telling them about some shows he was performing at the Catalina Theatre down at Wilson’s Wharf in the Durban harbour. So I wrote back to him and asked if he would mind me taking some pics of his show, coz see, I gots me this new shoot-in-the-dark Nikon camera and I’d really like to put it to the test in a theatre situation (you has to speak like a Bluesman if you wants to be heard). No problem, said Dan. He’d put me on the list.

This past Friday rolled around and I called up the Catalina to find out if I was on this “list”. Turns out there was no list, but on enquiry at the ticket booth I was told to go upstairs into the theatre and ask Dan if it would be alright for me to take some pics. I’d never been to this particular theatre before, so I had no idea where to go, but I soon found myself walking down a dark and skinny corridor towards a light and the smell of one of those little cigarello cigars. Behind a closed door I found Dan and his rhythm section (Andy Turrell & Smelly Fellows) warming up for the show. I introduced myself and Dan’s face lit up. He remembered me and seemed genuinely pleased that I had come to photograph his show, told me to go back down to the ticket booth and tell them that it was a “Done deal” - they must give me a front row seat. Sorted!

The Catalina is a small intimate venue with about 8 long rows of 20 seats or so. The only one available was right at the left end of the front row, so fortunately I had the isle to put my bag in. I had about 5 minutes before the show started to get myself prepared. My longest lens is a Nikon 105mm 2.5 AIS. The others don’t go further than 60mm. From my seat I took a few test shots of Dan’s microphone and guitar stand. I had the legendary D700 ISO cranked up to 6400 but I was still getting the “Lo” reading on the shutter speed even with my lens wide open. I made sure the lens cap was off. Uh-oh… The ceiling of the theatre is painted black, no surprises there, and I didn’t really want to start bothering the band or the patrons with a flash. Dare I enter the unknown world of Hi-1 or even Hi-2?

Now, I’ve only had the Nikon D700 for about three weeks and most of that time I’ve been restricted to shooting purely in studio or messing around indoors trying to come to grips with the seemingly endless menus and shooting configurations. The shots I took of the microphone were not good - shutter way too slow - and to make matters worse the main theatre lights were still on, those would be turned off once the show started. I calmly reminded myself that I only needed to get about 5 shots worth keeping and that panic would not be a viable option if I was going to achieve that. Besides, I wasn’t shooting for anybody who was actually paying for the shots and the only people apt to be disappointed were me and (maybe) Dan. At least he could take out his blues on a guitar. Me? I was thinking of heading to Zack’s Pub & Grill downstairs to wash away my sorrows with whatever they serve that doesn’t cost more than a buck a shot. You don’t want to hear my 12-bar blues.

The lights dimmed and Dan, Smelly and Andy walked out onto the stage to enthusiasic applause from the small crowd of afficiandos gathered to see them play the Blues. My first few shots during the opening number had me very confused. In the review panel they looked like some kind of posterised, 60’s day-glo pop art. WTF? The predominant light sources were a couple of red and blue spotlights and clearly these were having a weird effect on the D700’s sensor. I’d never seen anything like this coming straight out of any sensor. Kind of cool, but unless the world’s Blues fans all start dropping acid and praise me for some kind of art fusion, it was going to be a very boring series of images. Dan finished up the first song and launched straight into the fastest version of “That’s Alright Mama” that I’ve ever heard. Elvis would have dislocated something trying to keep up, that’s for sure.

Around about the third number the lights finally changed and a more soothing, brighter, warm light hit the stage. Things were suddenly a lot easier and the pics on my review screen went from Andy Warhol to reality bites just about immediately. Phew!

The trick to doing this kind of photography is to lower your expectations. Expect the worst, but hope for the best. Don’t expect every shot you take to look like it could make the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. It won’t. High ISO’s aren’t always going to save your ass either. You’re still going to have to employ just about every trick in your bag to come away with your handful of good images. If you’ve got the time, experiment and find the camera settings that work best for you. The D700 is ridiculously good at high ISO’s, but you’ve still got to get some good light onstage otherwise you’re way up the creek without an oar.

I know all about the frustrations of shooting performers onstage. Back in my D70/D2H days I’d tried and failed often enough shooting at ISO 1250/1600 even with fast glass and VR. You could get good shots, but they were just very hard to come by and post processing them was like Chinese water torture. With the D700 it’s a whole different animal, but it’s still not point ‘n shoot. Shooting at between 1600 and 6400 ISO, mostly with a -1 compensation and a narrow centre-weighted meter (8mm) I managed to get these shots. They’re not awesome, but I think they’re good enough. I found myself metering off the brightest part of the guitar, using the AE-Lock button which has a fantastic “sticky” option on the D700 to keep the values locked in until your next shot.

These are probably all shot with the manual focus 105mm 2.5 set to various apertures between 2.5 and 5.6. Fortunately Blues guitarists tend not to move around a whole lot on stage, which makes using old lenses like this possible. Ever see Eric Clapton live? Yup, same thing with Dan. He has one hell of a “guitar face” to make up for lack of Eddie Van Halen type jumps though!

Take a listen to Dan Patlansky on his MySpace page