Ann-alog, a Pixel Remix, where Ann Torrence blogs about photographing for a book on U.S. Highway 89, the greatest road trip route in America. Photography tips, locations, trip reports, and real life.

Team roping at the North American Indian Days INFR rodeo in Browning, MT

Millie's going to guest blog later this week and tell you about our adventures. Let me just say, 5 days, lots of miles, lots of shutter clicks.

The D2X rocks, that's one certainty in the midst of all the mileage and electronica. I reviewed some of the rodeo shots I made on Saturday, and the color, focus, and contrast are just gorgeous. I have done nothing to this RAW file, except resize it and a light sharpen (I don't sharpen in-camera at all). No saturation, no contrast. It is an sRGB file, which works better on the web for my tastes, but that's it.

The D2X is a beast. It's heavy. The buttons are spaced for a guy's bear paw, not my smallish hands. It does everything I ask. It's a beautiful piece of engineering. Kind of like some of the ponies we saw at the rodeo. Amazing animals, even more amazing horseman(woman)ship. If you get a chance to go to an Indian National Finals Rodeo event, don't miss it.

I just updated at.com with a post on useful photography stuff from the outdoor store .

An outtake from the 2005 Christmas project

I find the the flamingo needs the blue lights to be complete. I tried it without, and I much prefer them in the frame.

Review of my already purchased Sekonic light meter contains this confirming statement that I am not losing my grip. "Because I put more film through my Nikons than any other camera, I use its metering as my personal standard. Over the years I have found that all my handheld meters were 1/2 to 2/3 stop under the Nikon reading. But Sekonic, Gossen, et al. make no apologies for this, saying that there is no international standard for a neutral gray. Sekonic says they match Nikon's standards but I found about a 1/2 stop difference. Further shooting and tests will tell me more. "

The spot meter reads about 2/3 under the Nikon. Now that I know this... The fix is to set a compensation factor in one device or the other, and to stop going out into the cold and trying another experiment. Funny, as usual, I thought it was me...

Safely put away

I put away properly the N80 film body yesterday. Finished off the roll of film in it from last summer, took out the batteries, and put on the body cap. I had started in a roll of Velvia in July 2004 to do some night exposures - still had a dozen frames, which I finished off in the garden.

The N80 still feels good in the hand, light and responsible. Serviceable, and I learned a lot with it. It went to Paris and New Zealand and wolf-watching in Yellowstone and did not let me down.

That sounds so final. I'm keeping it, and I might need it for a project sometime. The D70 won't do star-trails, for example. It's a good back-up and a fine friend. Worth hanging onto.

Remind me: where do I go to get that film developed?

Downtown SLC

For a workshop at the Salt Lake Art Center, I'm pulling together shots on the theme of Glass & Architecture from my collection of "waiting to see the light of day" negs and files. I have images from Paris, Sydney, Auckland and Perth, and I wanted one from SLC. Here's one I'm considering, taken Saturday night with the new 12-24 DX lens. I scouted this shot the weekend before, and knowing I couldn't make the picture I imagined without the new lens is what broke the bank. It's supposed to be a good thing, to pre-visualize, but no one ever mentioned the expense.

A.B Eberle, team co-captain, senior leads the Red Rocks to another victory

Most Utah gymnastics meets are civilized one-on-one matches where we alternate with the visitors on every event, and the spectators can see every competitor's routine. On Friday, the Utes hosted a quad match, which means all events are going on simultaneously. R did a great job keeping up with the score during the events, and the fans around us appreciate it. Utah prevailed (197.425) over No. 6 Florida (196.450), Stanford (196.025) and California (191.500). It was really fun to have Trish join us.

Shot with the new bank-breaking 70-200 VR, worth every one of the vast number of pennies. I have never regretted spending money on vacation or for better toys, but I have later regretted cheaping out on stuff - not this time.

My test image

In the last 4 days I have printed 26 test images on 23 papers on the Epson 2200. Outcomes: I like the look of optical brighteners (non-archival), smoother texture, and icc profiles make a HUGE diffference. Favorites right now: Moab Entrada and Hahnemuhle Photo Rag for the matte papers.

The glossies are still drying.

Unwilling subject Lucy

Shell collection #1

Thanks to Bryan for pointing me to the LensBaby which arrived Saturday. Popped onto the D70 and almost immediately got a decent picture of Lucy with it. This is going to be a fun toy.

Time to reactivate the blog - the D70 is on order, hoping it will ship today. R encouraged me to spend this unholy amount of money, and maybe in the end it will pay. At $12.50 a roll*, it should take about a year to make up the savings in film and developing. But now there is a whole list of new "luxury" problems - filters in the odd 67mm size, batteries, memory cards. It should be fun. It shall be fun. Stay tuned for new images.

* [2 October 2006 - I actually shot off the equivalent of 400 rolls of film with this camera in the first year I owned it. I didn't figure on the multiplication factor on my productivity when I switched to digital.]

I miss my camera. My N80 has been at the Nikon service center for three weekends. So much for my "roll a week" discipline. The problem had its curiosity factor - the aperture would on occasion refuse to snap back open after a small fstop shot. Annoying, and causing me to miss shots. Got it there with 6 days left on the warranty.

I note here for the record that the N80 was Galen Rowell's light weight body. He knew what to do with it, and more money was not the issue. Further evidence that it is not the camera, but the seeing.

I don't need the camera to see - the light on R's face last night was exquisite. I need it to study how to realize the seeing onto the final image. That's the magic, and while I hope to master the process, I hope it never completely loses its mystery.