I am pleased to report that my Nikon D800 is back from the Nikon Service Center in Melville. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the camera experienced some very sporadic focusing issues during my trip to New Mexico. Since the camera is still under warranty, I sent it to Melville for a full check.

Nikon received my camera on January 24th. My camera was returned to me via UPS Overnight delivery this morning. I was pleased with the turnaround time for this repair.

Nikon performed the following steps on my D800:

1. Adjusted the autofocus operation
2. Checked the "communications" throughout the camera
3. Cleaned the sensor
4. Cleaned and checked all other aspects of the camera

Since the camera is still under warranty, the above services were completed free of charge. Because of the sporadic nature of my autofocus issue, I won't know for a while whether the issue has been fixed. But, if nothing else, at least my camera has been thoroughly cleaned and checked.

Many people buy a long lens specifically for photographing birds or other wildlife. Although I use my 500mm lens for those subjects, I also enjoy using the lens for capturing landscapes. A long lens is useful for condensing a scene.

While taking photographs at the Santa Fe National Cemetery, I started with the Nikon 24-70mm lens. Here's the scene when viewed through the 50mm focal length:

Santa Fe National Cemetery I liked the photograph at 50mm. That focal length shows the scene as I saw it with my eyes at the time. Next, I decided to try viewing the same scene with my 500mm lens. The super-telephoto lens does a great job of bringing the tombstones much closer together. And, by bringing the tombstones closer together, it portrays that the cemetery is very crowded.

Cemetery (B&W version) Both photographs were taken from the same location. By changing focal lengths, the photographs take on an entirely different look!

It's been a while since I've used flash units while shooting basketball. But, I get a lot of questions from photographers about how I lit some of the basketball images from grammar school gymnasiums.

Usually, I use either two or three small Nikon flash units to light the action:

1. One unit (SB-900) is placed on the camera and bounced into the ceiling. It is used as the Master unit and triggers the other remote unit(s). I usually set the flash on Manual at about 1/4 power and set the flash head at a 50mm zoom. Sometimes, I use the much smaller and lighter SU-800 to trigger the other strobes in the gym. The SU-800 also then frees up my SB-900 flash unit to be used off-camera.
2. A second unit (SB-800) is placed on the left side of the court just off the baseline. It is also set at 1/4 power and bounced into the ceiling at a 50mm zoom.
3. Sometimes, I'll also use a third unit (SB-600). It is placed on the right side of the court just off the baseline. The power is set at 1/8th and positioned to feather the light across the court. The idea behind this third flash is to add a little more depth and pop to the shots as otherwise they may appear to be a little flat with just bounced light.

Obviously, two or three pocket sized flash units will not provide sufficient power to light an entire gymnasium. So, I use the ambient light to the extent possible and let the flash units supplement the existing light. My first step is to set a manual exposure in the camera that will underexpose the scene by approximately two stops. So, if a good exposure without any flash requires ISO 3200 at 1/250th at f/2.8, I will adjust the ISO setting down to 800--which effectively underexposes the image by two stops. Then, I add flash. I adjust the flash power manually until it properly exposes the subject. Typically, this requires a power setting of 1/4. Sometimes, it requires more power (1/2); sometimes, it requires less power (1/8). With digital, just check the LCD panel and histogram on the back of the camera and adjust accordingly.

A typical exposure with flash ends up being 1/250th at f/2.8 at ISO 800. Without the flash units, the ISO would have been 3200 with the same shutter speed and aperture. More importantly, without flash, it takes a faster shutter speed (probably more like 1/1000th) to freeze the action. Please CLICK HERE to read my earlier blog entry about how flash can be helpful in freezing action at very slow shutter speeds.

White balance can be a challenge in such venues. I usually use a WhiBal card and take some readings at various locations around the court. Regardless, the cycling lights can cause the white balance to constantly change. Again, flash provides a huge benefit in dealing with this issue. By using flash, which emits light with a color temperature approximately like daylight, you mitigate most of the white balance issues that exist by relying solely on the cycling tungsten or florescent lighting in the gyms.

The Nikon system makes it relatively easy to trigger remote flash units. I use one of three approaches to accomplish this:

• Position the SB-900 flash unit on camera and program it to act as the Commander to control the remote units
• Position the SU-800 on camera and use it to control and trigger all of the remote flash units
• Place a Radiopopper transmitter on the camera and Radiopopper receivers on the remote flash units. These radio transmitters will trigger the flash units reliably from great distances and do not rely on line of sight.

Here is a diagram of how the flash units are positioned:

And, here are some photos of how the flash units are clamped (Bogen Super Clamps) above the floor in the gym:

Here are a few pictures from some very dark grammar school gymnasiums using this approach:

OYA girls' basketball OYA girls' basketball OYA girls basketball playoffs OYA girls' basketball OYA 4th grade basketball OYA 3rd grade basketball

I decided to try something different while photographing my nephew's recreational basketball game the other day. I captured most of the  pictures using an ultra-wide 14mm focal length! The wider field of view provides more of an environmental perspective of the action. However, for these to be effective at all, it is important to get very close to the action.

For these shots, I was positioned about a foot from the baseline and almost directly under the basket. This position would not be permitted in anything other than a recreational game in which I knew the officials! There were several times when I was forced to bail from my position as a player was about to land on me.

OYA basketball action OYA basketball action OYA basketball action When taking pictures like this, I find that it's important to get really low. If the lens is positioned close to the floor, it makes the players look bigger and more imposing. It also maximizes the space between the player and the floor when they are jumping.

Indoor gymnasiums are typically not well lit. This one is lit better than most due to all the windows--which provides its own challenges. However, for these action shots I try not to let my shutter speed drop below 1/1000th. That required ISO settings of 2000 or higher in this gym with the lens nearly wide open. At night, the ISO settings exceed 6000 to achieve the desired shutter speed. As a result, I tend to favor B&W conversions as they hide much of the image quality issues that exist in the pictures.

I use the camera's manual mode to set exposure for basketball. This is even more critical here because of the bright daylight shining in from the windows. Just a small shift in view causes the exposure to change dramatically. If the meter emphasizes the window light too much, the players get underexposed. So, I usually aim the lens for an area of the court that is neutrally lit--and lock that exposure in manually. I'll check the histogram occasionally to make sure that the lighting hasn't changed too much. During this photo shoot, the light levels dropped from one game to the next and I had to increase my ISO accordingly.

Too often, it's tempting to take pictures while in a normal standing position. For more interesting photographs, it's helpful to view things from a different vantage point. Many times, I'll take another look at a subject from a much lower perspective.

While visiting Las Vegas, New Mexico (that's right, New Mexico!), I found this to be true while taking pictures of the historic train depot. When I first approached the subject, I captured the picture while standing up. Notice how insignificant the train tracks are in this version:

Las Vegas Train Depot A few minutes later, I tried looking at the scene after positioning my camera about two feet off the ground. I much prefer this version of the photograph as the train tracks make the image more interesting to me:

Las Vegas Train Depot When I'm doing a lot of shooting with the camera just a foot or two off the ground, I bring a pair of knee pads. I bought a pair of cheap knee pads from Home Depot and they really come in handy when kneeling in stones like these.

Last year, I sent my new Nikon D800 camera into Nikon's Service Center in Melville mostly as a precautionary measure. The camera showed some signs of focusing issues with the left sensor as well as a dead LCD panel at times. I've experienced very few problems with the camera since its return until my recent trip to New Mexico.

While shooting in New Mexico last month, I experienced sporadic issues with auto-focusing. As always, I would position one of the auto-focus sensor points on my subject and then release the AF-ON button to lock the focus. I program my camera so that the AF-ON button is the only thing that activates auto-focusing. Pressing on the shutter button does not activate focusing.

On a few occasions during my trip, the camera would continue attempting to focus even after I released my finger from the AF-ON button! The sensation was almost as if vibration reduction was continuing to operate. The lens would make a rattling sound and then typically focus on something other than my subject.

At first, I suspected that my new Nikon 24-70 lens was the culprit. But, the problem occurred a few times with my Nikon 14-24 as well. And, neither of these lenses offer vibration reduction.

So, my D800 is off to Melville once again. Fortunately, the camera is still covered under its warranty. And, if I'm fortunate Nikon will clean my dirty sensor before sending it back to me. I'll be shooting with my back-up D700 until the D800 returns.

Moving water is rendered as smooth and silky in many photographs. Photographers often use long exposures to allow the motion to blur the water within the image. Although this is usually my preferred method of photographing moving water, I sometimes like vary the shutter speeds to create different effects.

I selected a slow shutter speed (0.8 seconds) to smooth the moving water of Niagara Falls. To accomplish this slow shutter speed, I selected a low ISO (100) and a narrow aperture (f/11). As the sun rose, narrower apertures were required to retain the slow shutter speed due to the increased light. At some point, even the narrowest aperture won't allow for such a slow shutter speed. Then, the photographer is forced to use a faster shutter speed or to use a neutral density filter to reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor.

Horseshoe Falls

In this next photograph of the Lower Yellowstone Falls, I wanted a faster shutter speed to partially freeze the movement of the water. The faster shutter speed portrays more power from the Falls. I selected a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second. By using a neutral density filter, I kept the aperture at a sharp f/8 at the base ISO setting of 100.

Lower Falls rainbow In this picture of the St. Mary Falls at Glacier National Park, I selected a shutter speed that would render movement in the falls but also show some detail in the pools below the falls. In this case, a shutter speed of 1/6th of a second did the trick:

St. Mary Falls In this next image of a man-made waterfall at the Worth Water Reclamation District in the Chicago suburbs, a shutter speed of 1/30th kept some detail in the rapidly falling water and even more detail in the slower moving water below:

Falling water In this last photo of waves crashing up on Baker Beach in San Francisco, the last thing that I wanted to do was to smooth the water. So, I selected a faster shutter speed of 1/200th of a second.

Golden Gate Bridge

Selecting your preferred shutter speed is a matter of experimentation and personal preference. Slow moving water requires slower shutter speeds to render motion blur than rapidly moving water. Moving water that is further away in the frame requires slower shutter speeds to portray motion blur than water that is very close to the lens.

In the digital age, it is much easier to create what you are intending. I shoot the same scene at a variety of shutter speeds. The images can be viewed instantly on the camera's LCD screen. Or, you can view the images later and select the ones that work the best.