Angler Roger Hellen poses with his 41.5 pound Brown trout for Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel photographer Benny Sieu at Salmon-a-Rama on July 16, 2010 in Racine, Wis. The trout, caught that morning, was speculated to be a world record-setting catch. The current record for Brown trout was set last September in the Manistee River of Michigan at 41 pounds, 7 ounces. Hellen's trout, an ounce heavier, is pending review of National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and the International Game Fish Association before it can be declared the world record for this species. | Canon 1D Mark III and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 51mm | Exposed 1/800 sec. @ f/4, ISO 200 (+1 EV)

Not just any “fish story”

On the morning  of July 16, 2010, Roger Hellen set out in his boat, “Get Hooked,” with his friend Joe Miller.  He came back with what is quite possibly a world record for Brown trout: 41 pounds, 8 ounces.  The fish will likely earn Hellen the grand prize of $10,000  at Salmon-a-Rama, and also stirred up a bit of a media frenzy given the possibility of a new record for Brown trout.  The current record was set only back in September 2009 by an angler in Michigan with a 41 pound, 7 ounce Brown trout.  The catch also beats the Salmon-a-Rama record for largest fish entered in the contest which has stood since 1997.

So far, I’ve met some great people out at Salmon-a-Rama, and I think that the stories I’ve heard will be compelling for the argument that sport fishing is an important part of Lake Michigan–something that could be lost should Asian carp gain access to the Great Lakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Brown trout, EOS 1D Mark III, EOS 5D Mark II, photojournalism, sport fishing
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Yellow perch spasm on the table while Jeff Zinuticz, center, a fishery technician for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Craig Bender, left, the co-director of Salmon-a-Rama, measure and weigh angler Joe Staszewski's catch on Thursday, July 15, 2010 in Racine, Wis. After discovering that the perch were not prize-winning, Staszewski said that "they were hitting better before, but now Salmon-a-Rama has come." | Canon 5D Mark II and 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ 16mm | Exposed 1/80 sec. @ f/4, ISO 800 (+1.33 EV)

Last night I had a fairly productive evening at Salmon-a-Rama.  I still need a couple of audio interviews, to gather some ambient sound, and to shoot some video, but I have the feeling it will all come together.

Some of the photos are more visual “notes” that I like the idea of an image, but that a given frame is not enough to push it into the final edit.  I’m hoping to perfect all of these frames before the week is out, although the one above may be tough to beat given that the Yellow perch (“Lake perch”) were still jumpin’ on the table!

Please scroll down for the rest of the photos and, as always, comments and criticism welcome! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, photojournalism, pictorial, salmon, sport fishing
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Strong wind led to poor fishing conditions at Salmon-a-Rama as heavy waves crashed against the pier on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at the Reefpoint Marina in Racine, Wis. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 64mm | Exposed 1/2000 sec. @ f/4, ISO 200 (0 EV).

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, landscapes, pictorial
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Adults and children alike cool off from the summer heat in the Dr. Laurel Salton Clark Memorial Fountain on July 13, 2010 in Racine, Wis. The fountain, dedicated to the astronaut from Racine who was killed in the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, was recently re-opened to the public after being temporarily closed being in violation of the health code. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 57mm | Exposed 1/500 sec. @ f/8, ISO 200 (0 EV)

I was on my way to the boat ramp and piers by the Reefpoint Marina in Racine, Wis. yesterday when I passed by one of the city’s summer hot-spots for the past several years: the Dr. Laurel Salton Clark Memorial Fountain.  The fountain was named in memory of the astronaut who was killed in the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 who grew up in Racine.

Earlier this summer, the city closed the fountain to the public because its plumbing couldn’t handle the chlorination of the water any longer, and was therefore in violation of health code.  The city went as far as to post a guard in front of the fountain to deter people from cooling off in it, but it was recently brought back up to code–at least in a temporary manner–in time for the summer heat.

There’s one image I liked quite a bit from this afternoon, but I cannot decide on a crop for it! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, photojournalism, pictorial
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Fishing poles rest in one of the official buckets given to registrants of Salmon-a-Rama at Reefpoint Marina, Racine, Wis. The lines of the poles were tied off to beer bottles to alert the fishermen if a fish tugged at the bait. | Canon 1D Mark III and 70-200mm f/4L IS lens @ 89mm | Exposed 1/800 sec. @ f/4, ISO 100 (+1 EV)

The largest freshwater fishing tournament in the Great Lakes kicked off on July 10 in Racine, Wis.  One of the great concerns about the possibility of Asian Silver and Bighead carp entering into Lake Michigan is the potential for the destruction of sport fishing due to the radical changes that could happen to the food chain.  The carp are voracious filter-feeders, and could out-compete the fish that serve as “food” for the trout and salmon, and could be the final nail in the coffin for the lake perch.

It wasn’t foremost on the minds of the anglers participating in Salmon-a-Rama, but when I explained the idea of my project, there seemed to be universal concern about the invasive carp, most recently found only six miles from the shoreline of Lake Michigan.  It’s encouraging that this project is relevent even if the environmental outlook for the Great Lakes seems to be discouraging. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asian Carp, EOS 1D Mark III, EOS 5D Mark II, Master's Project, photojournalism, salmon, sport fishing
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Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 50mm f/1.4 lens | Exposed 1/640 sec. @ f/11, ISO 100.

Who says you can’t make a good picture in the middle of the day?

Over the weekend Elizabeth and I found ourselves in St. Louis for Independence Day, partly thanks to a hotel deal through Hotwire.com.  While I’ve been going to school at the University of Missouri for two years, and have spent some time in St. Louis in that time, I haven’t actually gone up to the Gateway Arch since a seventh-grade field trip back around 1997.  Frankly, I can’t even remember if I took a camera (taking a 35mm SLR was something I was never too keen to do back when I was in middle school).  But I do remember going up in the arch and feeling the structure sway back and forth in the wind.  Fun!  But it’s still standing there.  Unfortunately, getting up to the top of the arch is harder than I can recall from all those years ago: you have to go through a magnetometer, your bag through an X-Ray, and rangers are standing by to pat you down.  We actually tried two days in a row to go to the top, and both times the line for tickets was either painfully slow or, on the second day, not moving at all because the eight (eight!) employees behind the ticket counter weren’t selling tickets.  C’est la vie. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: architecture, EOS 5D Mark II, pictorial
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Black Tern in flight alongside Hwy. 49, Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, Mayville, Wis. | Canon 7D and 400mm f/4 DO IS lens | Exposed 1/1600 sec. @ f/4, ISO 400 (neutral EV)

A Brief History of “Back-focus”

Last weekend I was at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge and experienced some focus problems with my Canon 7D heretofore non-existent, or so I thought.  Upon reviewing photographs from the 7D from the past several months, I noticed that none of them were actually as sharp as they could have been.  I attributed the softness to the lack of acutance in the files, and while I continue to believe that is an inherent property of cramming 18 megapixels into an APS-C format sensor, there was a real problem in play.

I didn’t want to believe that it could be a question of the camera “back-focusing” (or front-focusing) because I’ve grown to distrust people’s claims that their camera, and not their own inabilities, are to blame for their out-of-focus photographs.  I don’t remember these claims from the film days.  Perhaps I was just oblivious to the complaints, but I tend to believe that the instant feedback of the digital camera is partly to blame for the knee-jerk reaction that anything wrong with the pictures must be camera, not operator, error.

I will not mince words: ever since the Canon 10D and the Nikon D70, there’s been a lot of bitching and moaning in online forums about back-focused images, and I did not believe them.  At all.  Until now.

Now, I will argue that there is definitely operator error to blame in most many cases of complaints about back-focusing.  Last weekend I was convinced that I must have chosen the wrong focus point or didn’t have the AF locked by holding in the rear button–some prefer AF to only be activated by using the back button, I prefer AF to only be turned off if I hold in the back–and allowed AI Servo (Continuous AF for Nikonians) to screw up the focus.  To confirm my assumption, the next day I took test photographs in the garden around my parents house in Racine, Wis. and was shocked to discover that none of them were sharp.  Sure, the wind was to blame in a couple cases, but even when conditions were perfectly still the results were poor, so I rented a LensAlign from Lensrentals.com to investigate whether front or back-focus was to blame.

And what did I find after I unpacked and set up the LensAlign?  The 7D and the 5D Mark II both back-focused with the 400mm DO IS lens.  Well, there goes the neighborhood.  And a lot of preconceived ideas, with it.

Post continues after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: birds, EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 7D, equipment, LensAlign, nature, Reviews, wildlife
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I have just re-listed the 1D Mark II N that I am selling on eBay as a $1200 Buy-It-Now offer.  With Bing.com Cashback, you could knock 8% off of that price.  Tell your friends!

Tags: EOS 1D Mark II N, for sale
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