New Canon G10 Arrives

I'm in the process of replacing all my cameras over the next few months. As mentioned below, I've already added the 50D to my collection. I've also recently purchased the Canon G10 point and shoot digicam. I wanted a smallish p&s camera with good image quality (at low iso anyway) for those times a DSLR is too large to bother with. It will immediately become my skiing companion this winter. I plan to shoot some local Christmas festivals with it as well.

I must say, this is the best built p&s I've ever layed my hands on. Kudos to Canon for a great design. The image quality is exemplary as well at low iso (at least from the few test shots I've taken). This is definitely a major step up from my Canon S3 which it's replacing. I'm looking forward to playing with it a lot this winter.



Update - May 15, 2009: I thought I'd update my impressions on the G10's image quality now that I've had some time using it. My final conclusion is that it's far from revolutionary. While I appreciate the resolution that 14+ megapixels offer, the noise accompanying the camera is a bit annoying for me. I had hoped that the noise would be pretty minimal at iso 80 (the camera's base iso), but I've found that isn't the case. I think it would be acceptable for anyone who does minimal post processing work on it's files but my experience is that, even with a moderate amount of massaging (and I'm talking raw files here), the noise increases dramatically and needs to be dealt with. Please realize that I'm extremely picky when it comes to image quality (being spoiled with Canon's higher end DLSRs) so others may not agree with my whining! The bottom line is that, while I do consider the camera a big step up from my Canon S3, I'm still finding that I'll take it with me on midday scouting trips or skiing ventures, but little else. And, of course, any kind of action photography that would require sensitivities higher than iso 80 are out of the question.

A Sedona Getaway

In order to get back in the good graces with my wife (after abandoning her for the better part of autumn), I agreed to a take a trip to Sedona, AZ with her. Oh, the horror...I have to go to Sedona! :-)


Watson Lake - Prescott, AZ

The catch was that I could only do minimal shooting. This was to be quality time together. To my amazement, I kept pretty true to my promise. It helped that I was pretty burned out photographically from all my autumn adventures. I only pulled the camera out one evening and the final morning. The evening shoot was actually at Watson Lake in the Granite Dells (north of Prescott). The final morning was spent at the Seven Sacred Pools in Sedona. Fortunately for me, it coincided with the best weather of the trip.


The Seven Sacred Pools - Sedona, AZ

This trip also gave me the chance to meet up with my Sedona-based photog buddy, Derek von Briesen for a night out. I met Derek through PBase a few years ago and have had some incredible shoots with him at Havasu Canyon, Monument Valley and along Colorado's Sneffels Range in autumn.

Sedona/Watson Lake Images

Finished Adding Autumn '08 Images

After 11 days on the road in the Colorado rockies and two weekend trips to Canyon de Chelly National Monument (Arizona), I've finally finished up my fall color shooting for the season. It was a tremendous year to be in mountains, that's for sure!


Crystal Mill Near Marble, CO

My Colorado travels took me to the Kebler Pass area (near Crested Butte), the McClure Pass / Marble area, parts of the Snowmass-Maroon Bells Wilderness, and the San Juan Mountains. In Utah, I spent a couple of days exploring the La Sal Mountains near Moab. All in all, I arrived at most of these locations considerably before peak conditions occurred. Should've waited a little longer. Next year I'll know better!


Woods Lake Near Telluride, CO

Click on the link below to see more imagery from my travels...

Autumn 2008 Images

Special thanks to fellow photogs Monte Trumbull and Luke Tingley for their companionship during the San Juan leg of my trip. Thanks for putting up with not only myself, but the crazy antics of my young pup, Yoda!

I'd also like to thank John Mumaw for inviting me along on his Canyon de Chelly shoots. It was my first time to this beautiful National Monument and I guarantee it won't be my last.


The Window, Canyon de Chelly NM, AZ

New Canon 50D Arrived Today!

I took possession of my brand new Canon 50D this morning. I've sold my old Canon 1D Mark II N and replaced it with this baby. I wanted a wildlife (and backup landscape) camera with more megapixels (for cropping) and better noise characteristics. I can live with a slower shooting camera, but I'm a little apprehensive about the hit I'll take in the autofocus capabilities. The real test is gonna come in December when the 50D will get a good workout shooting the birds of Bosque del Apache in New Mexico. Until then, I'll be experimenting with it to see what it can (and can't) do.



Update - May 14, 2009: I thought I'd update my impressions of this camera. My biggest concern with this camera upon further use was the noise that it produced all the way down to iso 100. It was just plain worse than my old 1D Mark II N at every iso level! Needless to say, I wasn't happy one bit. My workflow has me using both Photoshop Lightroom and CS3 and upon further research, I learned that Adobe's algorithmns for rendering the 50D's raw files was subpar. The workaround for this was to render them with Canon's DPP software instead of Lightroom. While I hated to have to do this as it's always a pain to change one's workflow, specifically for one camera, it did alleviate the problem. Every time Adobe updates their Lightrooom program I check to see if there's an improvement, but no luck so far.

Self Published Books Available

For those of you who just can't get enough of my work (which probably only includes my parents), I have two self published coffee table style books available, titled

"A Taste of Minnesota"



and "Capturing America".



"A Taste of Minnesota" is a pictorial essay of my experiences in Minnesota, the state I called home for some 45 years while "Capturing America" serves as a portfolio of my imagery from across the United States (up until early 2008 anyway).

These books are printed on demand and, unfortunately, the price reflects this. Some day I hope to publish in a more conventional manner, but until then this is what I can offer. Thanks for having a look!