City SpringFort Wayne, March 2012

Country SpringSalamonie Reservoir, March 2012

It seems the unseasonably warm weather we’ve had over the last month or so has managed to thoroughly confuse the local plant life. Almost everything capable of blooming or budding seems to have done so over the last couple weeks. It’s been a good time to head outside for a walk, wherever you’re at.

Photographer Carl Weese is working on a project to document the drive-in theaters scattered across America, using large-format cameras and B&W film. He’s been working on it for years, but is now concerned that the switch to digital movie projection and distribution may spell the final end of most of the theaters he still wants to photograph. So he’s started a Kickstarter project to raise money for a final trip this summer.

I’d recommend checking it out, even if it doesn’t sound like the sort of thing you’re interested in funding. It’s a cool project, and you might even recognize some of the theaters he’s shot (I know I did). I’ve got one of his prints already, and it’s gorgeous. Check it out!

I took the camera out last weekend for a walk around downtown, for the first time in a couple months. It was a good reminder of how quickly you can get out of practice with something when you don’t keep on top of it. Consequently, I didn’t come home with any great photos, but there’s still something about that low, late-winter light that I like.

Shadows #2Fort Wayne, February 2012

36 megapixels is a lot. One thing that doesn’t seem to get mentioned much in all the online discussion about megapixels is the fact that increasing your camera’s resolution increases its demands on the rest of the system surrounding it. Some people mention the need for more computing power and hard drive space to deal with the files, but that’s not what I’m talking about, really. I’ve found that when I’ve upgraded to higher resolution cameras (from 6 to 10 and then from 10 to 16MP) that I’ve had to address weaknesses in my lenses, my tripods, and most importantly my own technique in order to really see the increased resolution in my photos.

In short, if you’re looking at one of these but don’t have top-notch glass to put in front of it, you might be better off getting one of the D700s that are due to flood the used market soon, and putting the money you saved toward some nicer lenses. That said, there are plenty of folks who can put all those pixels to good use, and I’m sure they’re thrilled right now. In the right hands, the D800 (especially the “E” version without an antialiasing filter) looks like a killer camera. I’ll be interested to see the sample shots when they start popping up.

I guess we’re a couple weeks into 2012 at this point, but that’s OK. It’s not like timeliness has ever been a major concern for this site. I hope everyone’s having a happy new year so far. Looking back on 2011, it was kind of a rough year from a lot of perspectives, so I’m hopeful that this year will be a better one.

Parapet Brook New Hampshire, August 2011

I suppose "ill-fated" is probably a little overdramatic. I had that camera for something like 6 years, and I got some pictures I really like out of it. That’s not a bad run for a digital camera, especially considering some of the conditions I hauled that one through.

Regarding the photo itself, I was continually surprised at the amount of water we encountered in the Presidentials. We had to cross countless streams like this pouring down the sides of the mountains, and there were even a few small lakes up above the treeline. I expect to see that out West, where there are glaciers that melt all summer to feed the lakes and streams, but not in the lower mountains out East. With the difficulty we ran into hiking out there in relatively dry August, I can’t even imagine climbing those mountains in the spring with snowmelt and rain.