Nature Photography Section 1

In reviewing this section of the book, I noticed something that I did not notice the first time. The author spends the first page of the book explaining why digital is better than film, or at least equal to it. He also has a paragraph explaining how to turn film images into digital ones. I point this out simply because I think anyone buying the Nature Photography Digital Edition has probably already decided for themselves that digital is better. Anyway rereading the section on selecting the right equipment made a lot more sense the second time.

I didn’t really worry too much about the section on camera selection, since all he is explaining is that you need an SLR, which I already have. I did notice this time that he says amateur photographers don’t need to go higher than a 6-megapixel camera. I found this interesting because my D70 has only 6.1 megapixels, which is not great anymore, but it’s good to know that the author thinks my camera is “adequate”.

The parts about tripods I actually paid more attention to this time. After a semester’s worth of shooting, I have come to realize that a tripod really is essential. The first time I read the book, I thought it was a little odd that he would devote an entire chapter to the subject, but now I realize why. It is almost impossible to get a lot of shots without a tripod, and a tripod would make many other shots much easier.

The lenses also made more sense this time around. He talks about how every photographer should have telephoto converters, and lenses 300mm to 400mm. I have none of those things, and I understood why I should have them the first time I read this, but now other parts in the super-telephoto section make sense this time. I can completely see why a lens with vibration reduction or image stabilization is important; having gotten many slightly out of focus pictures with just a 200mm. Lens speed was actually understandable this time around too. After this class, I’ve realized just how important one extra stop can be on a camera, and that it probably is worth the extra thousands of dollars.

Now for my favorite parts: working in the field and winter photography. All I really have to say about the “working in the field” part is that I still have a very hard time believing that a tight-fitting floppy hat is an essential part of being equipped for the field. As for the winter photography, I still find most of the section obvious and have a hard time believing anyone would go to do a winter shoot in jeans flip flops and a t-shirt. However, I actually did learn something from the paragraph about bringing equipment into warmth after being outside. Having just faced this problem a week ago, I was glad to have an actual solution.

As for the rest of this section, I doubt if I will follow his suggestions for when to shoot where. While I am sure they are excellent places to shoot, I won’t be getting ideas for a travel destination from a photography book.