Updating the paintbrushes

Lots of life changes lately…so, I have not been as consistent as I like to be updating my blog. We are moving in to a new (for us, anyway) apartment in Boulder and that has taken up a lot of my time.

There are changes afoot in the realm of my photography as well, and that has me really excited: I am updating my “paintbrushes”, that is, the tools I use to make images. I don’t often talk about tools on this website as I consider them to be secondary to vision…but I’m pretty thrilled about the possibilities this new change will open up.

Coming from the Ansel Adams fan club and also having messed around a bit with black and white film, I have always pondered the idea of moving from the 35mm format up to medium format. My big hesitation was that the equipment was big, heavy, and expensive. I suppose if you stay with medium format film as opposed to using digital backs you can negate some of the cost factor, but you are still dealing with big and heavy…not good for one who likes to walk about with the camera gear afixed to aging shoulders and back.

Enter the Nikon D800.

I have been eyeing this camera ever since it came out. It pushes the boundaries of what used to be considered medium format, but in a DSLR-sized package. (Medium format folks will certainly argue this!) The big problem I saw associated with it, though, was that it would require me to upgrade most of my hardware involved in my workflow–I would need full-frame lenses that would be up to the task, a faster computer to handle the big files, a better, truly color-calibrated monitor, a printer that could take advantage of this new level of resolution and dynamic range, and–maybe most importantly!–improved capture technique out in the field.

It has taken quite a long while, but the pieces are now falling in to place and, by September or so, new images from my D800 should be flowing through the workflow pipeline and emerging, I hope, as beautiful finished prints. Of course, the key will be to see if I can push the quality of my photographic vision to match this new upgrade in hardware quality!

Expect some of my future blogs to touch on the lessons learned as I paw my way slowly up this new learning curve.