Thomas Fitzgerald Photography

It never ceases to amaze me how some Photographers over react every time a new piece of equipment comes out that looks set to cause a shake up in the industry. Take yesterday’s introduction of Sony’s mirror-less interchangeable lens cameras. By all accounts these new cameras look like they could be pretty amazing. They’re tiny and yet pack the punch of a full size DSLR. Yet, some Photographers were quick to pooh pooh them on their blogs without ever having used or seen one. The argument boils down to the usual one that is trotted out when someone talks about new gear: that if you’re into new technology you’re not a real photographer. That the camera you have is perfectly fine and if you want the latest thing you’re just a gadget head and don’t deserve to be considered “one of us”.

Of course there is usually a level of hypocrisy behind those arguments. I recall two recent exchanges from so called professionals who decried the lust for new technology. Yet both of these photographers constantly talk about new gear on their blog and one in particular (I won’t name names) is constantly talking about their latest high end purchase. Yet when someone who is not a brand name photog talks up the virtues of a new camera on their blog or in a forum they are set upon by the same people for whom it’s fine to talk about new gear. So what gives?

I think it all boils down to a degree of elitism. Some people who like to consider themselves photographers (not necessarily actual pros) are protective of their little corner of the creative world. Being a “photographer” is their identity and they don’t like it when others get too close to their niche. The continuing push of digital camera technology has brought more and more people into the world of photography and the old school feel threatened by that. I think many photographers are subconsciously afraid that the more people with digital cameras the less special their skill becomes. I’m reminded of that great line from “The Incredibles” : “If everyone is super, then no one is”.

Sure, having a good camera is not going to make you a good photographer, but it’s also not going to make you a bad one. Sure it’s annoying if someone goes out and buys a DSLR and starts to call themselves a photographer with no skill or experience what so ever. That is very annoying, but it’s not the technology’s fault. If someone is into photography and they also happen to like technology then so what? Without technology there would be no photography. I’m sure when 35mm SLR’s first came out all the people with rangefinders and medium format cameras were equally damning. They just didn’t have blogs to rant from.

I love photography. I love the art, but I also love the technology. Does that make me a bad Photographer? I don’t think so. I don’t think my skill as a photographer has anything to do with my interest in the technology. I have no problem with people who’ve just bought a digital camera becoming interested in the art. The more the merrier. Perhaps rater tan belittling them, other photographers should make more of an effort to reach out and educate about what makes a good photograph. Some would argue that being a good photographer is about the person behind the camera, not the camera, and that’s absolutely true. That argument however, is also a double edged sword. Having the latest newest camera in no way makes the person behind the viewfinder or LCD a bad photographer.

There is a beautiful park near to where I live, and it’s really started to come alive now that spring is here. We’ve had some lovely few days over the last week and it’s great to see the sunshine after such a long and cold winter. I made an excursion to the park over the weekend and here are some images I took while I was there:

I printed some of them out yesterday too and I was really impressed with how they came out. they were shot on the 5DII and the resolution really shows when you print them large although if you inspect them closely they still have a more digital look off them than images from the original 5D which is a shame. There’s a very slight “smeared” quality to fine detail that you can’t get away from. Perhaps adding some more grain might help the result. Still, I’m pretty happy with them.

I haven’t had much of a chance to do some proper shooting with the 5DII as there’s been a combination of bad weather and illness preventing me from going out since I bought it, so it was good to get some quality time in with the camera.

A couple of courting swans in the lake, enjoying the beautiful spring sunshine with the rest of us!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here on the blog and I just realised that I’ve been neglecting things a little over here. I’ve recently been trying to get a new blog, The Aperture Blog, off the ground and thats been taking up a lot of my time. It also doesn’t help that I’ve been battling some health issues since January. Anyway, I have some ideas and projects in the works and I will return to my photoblog soon – I promise!

The much requested, often rumoured, previously promised firmware upgrade for the 5D Mark II is now available from the Canon website. From the release notes:

Firmware Version 2.0.3 incorporates five enhancements to the movie function and a fix to the manual sensor cleaning function of the EOS 5D Mark II camera.

Adds or changes the following movie frame rates.

NTSC:
1920×1080 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps)
1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
640×480 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps)
PAL:
1920×1080 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)
1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
640×480 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)

Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.)

According to Philip Bloom, the update also ups the bit rate of video from 38mbits to around 44mbits. I’ll upgrade mine later today and give it a try if I get a chance. It will be great to have 25fps being from a PAL country.

Here are some more Black and White Images from my collection of pictures of Dublin.

I’ve been slowly getting around to adding galleries of my work to this website. Far too slowly for my liking mind you, but that’s a whole other story. Anyway, after much trawling through my library, my travel section from New York is now online. Here’s the link, and I hope you enjoy!

After what seemed like an eternal winter, Spring has finally sprung. It was great to have a day where it wasn’t freezing, and after my poor health induced quarantine that has kept me indoors for the last two months, It was great to get out with my camera again. I was heading into the city anyway to do some errands so I took my 5D Mark II and a single lens, a 50mm f1.8. I got some lovely shots which I’ll be posting more of over the next few days, but for now here are some by the Liffey (The main river that flows through Dublin for those not familiar with the city)

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Here’s another one from the archive. Best viewed large (click on the image for a large version). I reprocessed it in Aperture 3 which allowed me to bring up more of the wasp than an older one which I had done. The original Image is here – as you can see – it’s quite a departure.

Here’s just a quick image I was playing around with in Aperture 3. I really love the new extended range curves adjustment. I love it even more that you can add as many as you want and brush them in and out. Here’s an image from our heavy snow in January.

As you can see the sky is burnt out. I could just use the recovery slider or lower the exposure then use the shadow and highlights to compensate. If I was in lightroom I would probably use the gradient tool to bring the sky back in. But in Aperture 3 by using a curves tool, I can bring the sky back in and have fine control over the contrast and darkness of the sky. Once I have it right I can just brush it on the areas I want. Here’s the result.

I have more before and after images on my flickr site. You can check out my Aperture 3 testing set here. I’ll keep adding to it so remember to check back regularly.