A couple of years ago I got into a discussion in an online forum about the wisdom of using a tele-extender on a zoom lens. I was surprised to see a number of people steadfastly maintaining that one could not achieve professional quality results with a tele-extender on a zoom. Just wouldn't work, period, they said.

My own experience contradicts that viewpoint. I've used a Canon EF 1.4X II extender on my 70-200mm F/4L IS USM zoom since 2005, and I've been pleased with the results. I like the combination because it is light, long, compact, affordable, and hand-holdable. Mounted on an APS-C camera like my Canon 60D with a 1.6X 'crop factor', the 35mm equivalent maximum focal length is 448mm with a maximum aperature of f/5.6.

Below is a photo of a 12 spot dragonfly taken with this combo. The upper frame is the final cropped edit. The middle frame shows a 100% crop of one wing so that you can get an idea of the sharpness achieved. The bottom frame is a screenshot showing what I cropped away.

However, I would add that good mechanics are essential.  Either use a sturdy tripod or a high shutter speed, and check your focus carefully.  Use the sharpest f/stop available, usually f/5.6 or f/8.

Tonight I'm working on my new website at www.ashcreekphoto.photoshelter.com. So far I like Photoshelter a lot. They provide tons of support for photographers like me who are serious about creating a website where I can display and sell my work.

What I Learned Today:

I participated in a Canon workshop in Hood River centered on shooting wind sports with long lenses. I learned that pro windsurfers describe people who just go back and forth across the river without doing any tricks or jumps as "mowing the lawn". Very apt.

Another thing I learned today. Shooting windsurfing when the wind isn't blowing is not so much fun. That was a shame, because the Canon reps put lots of work into putting on the event.

I took the above shot a few years ago.

Screenshots, Screen Captures, and Screen Grabs.

The image above is a screen capture of my computer's desktop, showing the GIMP open in the upper right corner and a photo open for editing in the center of the screen.

When trying to communicate about software techniques, it's often useful to display and share an image of one's own screen. There are a number of programs that support this function, including one or more that may already built into your operating system.

This page has a useful tutorial on basic screen capture functions in Windows.

Gina Trapani's blog has a nice tutorial on captures in Vista with an integrated MS utility (which, unfortunately, is missing from the Vista Basic version).

I've been using Gadwin Systems' popular 'PrintScreen' freeware for years.

Typically screen grabs are captured in .bmp (bitmap) format. I convert them to .jpg in GIMP or Photoshop.

NOT Born to Blog

I was shocked, SHOCKED, to see that I haven't posted anything for 10 months. Between shooting, editing, maintaining 2 websites, a job, and a home, it seems to be hard to execute on the blog mission.

This morning I added a subtitle to the header of this blog; "What I Learned Today". One interesting aspect to digital photography vs. film photography is that there is just so much to learn. The instruction manuals for my Canon DSLR camera bodies have roughly 10 times as many pages as my old manual film cameras, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

My plan is to start adding content about my own learniing experience on a much more frequent basis. I hope it is of some value to you.

An APS-C Sensor Advantage

For more than 2 years I've been using Canon DSLR cameras with the smaller APS-C size sensor rather than the 'full-frame' sensor that is about the size of a 35mm frame. While I wouldn't quarrel with anybody who chose to go with the larger sensor, I made a very deliberate decision to go with the smaller sensor.

One reason that I chose to build my system around the APS-C sensor is that the lenses used with APS-C have shorter focal lengths for equivalent fields of view than the lenses made for full frame sensors. The advantage is that the shorter lenses have greater depth of field, everything else being equal.

I do a lot of landscape photography, and extra depth of field is a big advantage, especially when shooting scenes with wide angle lenses where I need to focus on the near foreground as well as the horizon.

More on DIGITAL ICE on the Epson V500

Using DIGITAL ICE does add a significant amount to a scan, and the amount of time added seems greater on some photos than others. For example, on a simple 645 size transparency that I scanned recently, the scan without DIGITAL ICE took 43 seconds and the scan with DIGITAL ICE took 155 seconds.

The scanner resolution was set at 1200 dpi, 24 bit color, and the 'Unsharp Mask' was on; ICE was set to 'Quality' rather than 'Speed'.