Heading Out For My Long-Awaited Grand Tetons Photography Trip
As I write this, I’m on the plane heading out to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to shoot at Grand Teton National Park this week. I’ve been wanting to get out there for a while now and my good friends Jeff and Randy are teaching a photo workshop along with Dave Black so I figured it was a good time to go do some shooting and catch up with friends.
Some New Gear
I’m psyched because I have some new gear to try out too. First, I have a Nikon D800E from LensProToGo.com for the week. I’ve been shooting the D800 on my last few landscape shoots, but I haven’t pulled the trigger on buying one yet. I’m really close, but I wanted to try out the D800E first to compare. It’s supposed to be sharper, but susceptible to moiré patterns and aliasing artifacts because of it’s lack of anti-aliasing filter. I’m anxious to put it to the test and I’ll let you know what I find.
And A New Tripod
I’m also sporting a new tripod – the Really Right Stuff TVC33. The last tripod I bought was a Gitzo traveler about 4 years ago. It’s been my trusty tripod ever since, but I need something stronger for outdoor shooting. I’ve made the Gitzo “work” but I’ve also sacrificed some sharpness as a result. See, the biggest strength of the Gitzo Traveler is also it’s biggest weakness – it’s just too small and unstable for heavy duty outdoor shooting. Don’t get me wrong, I still use it quite a bit and it will probably still be my go-to tripod since it fits right in my laptop bag and I don’t often check bags. But if I’m going to be up in the mountains with wind, water, and unstable ground I need something a bit stronger. Again, I’ll report back with my thoughts on both the tripod and the D800E after the trip.
And if that wasn’t enough, I know Dave Black will be doing some light painting so I brought along a Promote Control to try out for long exposures and some HDR.
In the meantime, I’ll post photos and stuff as I get ‘em. Have a good one.
(photo above courtesy of Fotolia.com)
Matt Kloskowski
