Matching Vests and Hiking Shoes

Noted nature photographer Timothy Edberg came and spoke at the CMPG meeting last week. The main point of his talk was on lens selection for nature and landscape photography, but he also shared with us some of his thoughts on gear.

In a lot of ways, Tim’s pretty “old school” in his thinking — not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s refreshing to talk to someone who doesn’t feel the need to rush out and buy the latest gadget for his kit. Interestingly enough, even though he’s definitely a professional photographer in every sense of the word, he doesn’t use any real “pro” gear. His camera body is a Nikon N8008s, with an FM as a backup. He only uses “prime” (fixed focal length) lenses, and, it seems he only has four of them — a 24mm wide angle, a 50mm normal lens, a 135mm telephoto and a 200mm telephoto.

We’ll may get back to this a little later…

The most important thing that Tim talked about, at least to us, was how he transports his gear when he’s in the field. As we’re getting ready to go on a weeklong trip to Nova Scotia, we’ve been discussing a great length what gear to take, and how to carry it. We already knew that our traditional camera bags would be cumbersome and uncomfortable, and were considering the new backpack-style bags that can be moved around to rest about the chest for access.

Tim advocates a different approach — the photo vest. Once he showed the group just how much stuff he could get into a vest, and how convenient the vest was, we decided we’d have to go that route ourselves. Now, we could have spent a small fortune on one of these things, if we went to a traditional photo store to get it. But, I remembered “the old days” when the vests advertised in the photo magazines were made by manufacturers of fishing tackle, not camera bag makers. So, I started to look online to see what was available.

What I found was that Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World stores carried a perfect-looking vest for only about $40! Of course, the vest is not found in the fishing department. It’s found in the men’s clothing department. Go figure. At least the folks at the store near us knew where in the store to look. After some hemming and hawing, and looking at some other, similar products, we each decided to pick up one of the vests.

Tim also touched on the subject of footwear in the field. We both already realized that we would probably need better shoes for our trip, and Tim’s insights (along with Rob’s) were right on the mark. We needed a shoe designed for walking and hiking, that did a good job of supporting our feet and ankles.

Since we were in the store, we decided to have a look at new shoes as well. Unfortunately, the first shoe I selected was discontinued and out-of-stock. Ah, well, on to the replacement shoe. They felt wonderful! Not heavy, and pretty well fitted to my oddly shaped feet (my feet are slightly flat, and a little wider than usual). So, while I wished that they provided a little more support around the ankle, I figured that they’d do reasonably well for all but the most extreme conditions. Donna ended up selecting the womens’ version of the same shoe!

So, now we have matching vests and hiking shoes!

We supposedly had a plan for today that really didn’t include much, if any, photography. But, we did still need an image for the wedding invitations, and we decided that it would be a good time to try out our new vests and shoes. So, after we finished the grocery shopping, we decided to head back to Brookside Gardens for “a couple of shots.” Several hours, and almost 400 exposures, we came to the conclusion that the vests were the ideal solution to our needs. I also found that, while my feed did get sore (they were still tired and sore from my travels on Saturday), the shoes were also a great success. Donna is going to need to add some padded insoles to hers yet, as she has had some past issues with her feet that make her “walk funny,” and it’s going to be some time before she adjusts to walking “right.”

Back now to Tim’s discussion of lens selection. As I mentioned before, he’s “old school” in his preference for prime lenses. However, it’s not so much because of the old argument that a zoom lens isn’t optically as good as a fixed lens, but more because of his photographic mindset. He prefers to think in terms of how a particular lens “fits” a shot — what are the optical characteristics of the lens, and how those characteristics are applied to the image he wants to create. In other words, he thinks about the photograph with the end result in mind. Having infinite focal lengths to choose from, as with a zoom lens, slows his creative process.

I guess the same could be said for his use of the camera body. Yes, the N8008s is an auto-everything-capable camera, and a pretty decent one at that. No, it’s not on the “pro” level, but it is well constructed, and the autofocus is fast and accurate, as is the automatic metering system. But he rarely uses any of the bells or whistles — just the internal light meter (surprisingly, he does not carry a hand-held meter!). He prefers to focus and meter manually. His backup body is even more basic — an old Nikon FM, a completely manual machine (now replaced by the FM10).

Tim’s not yet convinced about digital. He still feels that film is sharper than digital, despite what other pros are reporting. Of course, he’s open to suggestion, and is beginning to research digital gear. In any case, I can’t argue with his results, and that is, of course, the litmus test. He gets excellent results with film, particularly chromes, scanned and manipulated in Photoshop. I feel that I get better results with digital images.

It all gets back it thinking with the end result in mind. For instance, I have a photographic project coming up that I’m very seriously considering shooting on film — medium format film. Obviously, I don’t own any medium format gear, so I’ll have to rent it, adding to the cost of the project. But, I believe the end result will be worth the extra cost and effort.

The advantage that I’ll have on the shoot is that I’ll have both the film and digital cameras set up. That way, I can proof the image immediately, verifying exposure, lens selection and composition “live” before committing any images to film.

Enough rambling on this particular topic for now. There’s other stuff to talk about , too…