Fotodiox Canon EOS Macro Extension Tube Set fits ALL Canon EOS Lenses
© Paul Mozell
I recently taught a workshop on wildflower photography and demonstrated the use of extension tubes. Fotodiox has a very inexpensive solution in this category that is worth checking out if you are a Canon shooter. Read more
Clouds Over Ipswich Bay
Sometimes I feel as though I’ve been conditioned by the great late god of Kodachrome to seek out and photograph perfect blue skies. But here over Ipswich Bay in Massachusetts one evening, as darkening clouds block the setting sun, I feel liberated for a moment from the urge to photograph cobalt blue and puffy-white cumulus clouds. Seeing these shades of grey, tan and pale yellow over the glistening bay I feel freer than before.
If you are looking for a sense of renewal in your landscape photographs, try responding to the darkness.
My First Hand-held Light Meter
© Paul Mozell
I must have been 12 or 13 years old when my father, a professional cinematographer and still photographer, gave me my first light meter, a General Electric. In these days of 36 megapixel DSLRs it may be useful to remember the tools we had available in the 1960′s.
I still have this meter and it works! You can flip open a cover on the top and take a reflected light reading. Or, you can snap off the entire top of the unit and take an incident light reading—the light striking the subject. It’s a simple matter to transfer the reading from the dial to the calculator to get your f-stop and shutter speeds. I used the meter for many years with a twin lens Rolleicord, later a Rolleiflex, and a Kodak Retina II 35mm rangefinder camera. I upgraded to a Weston light meter and later a Gossen. All to support black & white photography.
General Electric photographic light meter
If anyone knows the date of manufacture of this meter please comment below. I suspect it was the late 40′s or 50′s.
Eliot Porter: An Appreciation of a 20th Century Master of Landscape Photography
© Paul Mozell
Until I opened the book, “In Wildness Is The Preservation of the World,” I had not heard of the photographer Eliot Porter. As a high school junior I was unaware that landscape photography was a discipline within the visual arts, as distinct and noble as photography of sports, current events, portraits, fashion, and weddings.
Spruce Trees in Fog, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, August 20, 1954 (Amon Carter Museum of American Art P1990-51-3026-3)
Although I was the son of a professional cinematographer and still photographer, the names of photographic giants Ansel Adams and Edward Weston were of little importance to me. At the moment I first turned the pages of “In Wildness” in our living room, my teenaged mind — swirling with the psychedelic imagery of the Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and 1960′s pop art— was brought to a new place by the large-format, sublime, color photographs of Eliot Porter. Read more
Why Can’t I Find My Image Files?
© Paul Mozell 2013
I hear this question…or this whine… very often: “Where are the photo files I just transferred from my camera?” or, “Where are the files from last Christmas?” or, “Where are all my photographs?” Here are a few pointers for keeping track of your irreplaceable images.
Huntington Ravine, White Mountain National Forest, NH
- Check the default settings of the software you are using to offload files from your card reader or directly from the camera. Are the files going to the Pictures or My Pictures folder? On Mac use the Finder, on Windows use Windows Explorer to see if you have more than one Pictures folder. Read more
Review: Lowepro Rover Pro 45L AW
© Paul Mozell
Has Lowepro successfully designed the ideal camera backpack for backcountry use? The Rover Pro 45L AW and Rover Pro 35L AW are for hiker-climber-photographers who go off the beaten path and need to protect their camera gear and carry essential gear and clothing for comfort and survival. I took the Rover Pro 45L for a field test.
My view of this new camera pack is shaped by a lifetime of experience as a dayhiker and 4-season backpacker, and as an outdoor photographer. The challenges for me are to find a way to carry and protect just the right amount of camera gear, as well as enough gear to support the hike itself. Doing most of my trekking in the mountains of New England means that I must be prepared for extremes of weather at all times of the year. An all-day summer hike in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, for example, might require full top and bottom rain-gear, a warm layer, first aid kit, lunch and snacks, map, headlamp, and at least 2 liters of water. Read more
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