FAQ
(Actually, this should
probably be an OAC – Occasionally Asked Questions)
Q: Are you a
professional photographer?
A: Not at all.
My day job is as a software design engineer for embedded
systems. I am a climber myself and enjoy
photography as a serious hobby.
Q: So who do you take
these pictures for?
A: For fun, for practice, USA Climbing and
mostly, for you. USA Climbing sometimes
uses my shots for their literature, or their web site. Sometimes, one of the climbing magazines will
run shots taken at the national competitions. Urban Climbing in particular has been mailing
out a supplement with their magazine each year that has contained some of my
photographs.
Q: Why do you give away these
photos for free?
A: For a few reasons. The main one is that the photos do no one any
good by sitting on a hard drive somewhere.
If I charged for them, then it wouldn’t be a hobby anymore – and
what would be the fun of that? Besides,
the climbers I photograph are excellent.
They have put a lot of work into what they do and it shows. I think that’s worth at least a few photographs!
Q: I have one of the
prints that you gave me – how can I get another copy?
A: One way is by finding the photograph on my
web site and either ordering the print through Shutterfly, or downloading the
digital file and having it printed yourself. There are an awful lot of photos on my web
site, so I know that it can take a while to find just the print you are looking
for. If you don’t know which competition
the shot is from, I always write the date of the competition on its back, so
that should help narrow it down. If you
don’t have the time to search through hundreds of photos from a competition
(and who does?) you can email me (see the Contact button above) with the exposure
number (it looks like: 113.172.130) that I wrote on the back of your print
and I will email you the original digital file so that you can print the photo
however you like. Even a very old film
photo will still have a date and exposure number written on its back. If there is no exposure number
written on its back, don’t despair – if you can describe the shot to me, I can
still likely find it for you pretty quickly.
I never throw negatives or files away.
Q: You used to mail
out photos to all participants at Nationals – do you still do that?
A: Alas, no.
I used to take no more than 1800 film photos at Nationals. I had to print all of them to see which ones
were best for possible publication.
Since they were printed anyway, I could either trash all of them when I
was done, or send the prints to the climbers.
It seemed far more fun to send them to the climbers. Now that I use digital cameras, I take many
more shots and I don’t have to print them to see which are best. I throw away at least 4 of every 5 digital
shots I take whereas I used to throw away only 1 in 9,
but the result appears more professional, I think.
Preparing a good digital photo for printing
takes a lot more of my time than film did.
For instance, the photo lab would balance the color and exposure for film shots –
but for digital shots, I must balance the color and exposure myself. Also, to look its best, each digital shot must
be rotated and cropped. This all takes
time and I am not a photographer by trade. I
stopped mailing out Nationals photos when I found that I couldn’t prepare all
of the 2005 Nationals photos before the 2006 Nationals. It’s a bummer, but there it is.
Q: Can I get the
original digital files from you?
A: Yes.
If you want less than about ten files, I’ll email them to you. Otherwise, I'll send a SkyDrive link where you
can copy the photos from. If you'd like, I
can prepare and mail a CD or DVD of ALL the photos I've ever taken of a particular
climber for $10. This CD or DVD contains both
the original files from the camera and the retouched versions of what I considered
the best shots. To request a CD or DVD, just
contact me using the information from the “Contact” link above.
Q: Can I use your
photos for publication?
A: The short answer: yes. I
charge no royalties for photos, so if the photo is of you, or you can get an OK
from the pictured climber, you are free to use it for publication. I do appreciate hearing about any of my
photos that are being published, and if possible, I would appreciate being given
credit for the photo in the publication.
Q: Some folks get lots
of pictures while others don’t get many – do you play favorites?
A: The short answer: yes. My
goal is to get good shots of as many of the climbers as I can. Still, some climbers have climbing styles
that are conducive to great shots, while others, even the best of climbers,
have styles that make getting good shots much more difficult. For instance:
at redpoint competitions, climbers who try a lot of climbs and choose
well-lit climbs get more shots. I
believe that a good shot shows a climber’s face, so climbers who look at their
feet most of the time will get very few photographs while climbers who default
to looking up at the route ahead will get more.
Some climbers have a very unrushed style while others are in constant
motion, but motion ruins photos in a dark gym.
When several climbers are climbing at once, I focus on the one who is
working the most photogenic portion of the climb. If more than one climber are
working photogenic cruxes, I admit, I focus on the
Q: So do you use a
digital camera?
A: Yes.
I’ve been all-digital since 2005.
I currently use a Nikon D700 and a Nikon D800.
The D700 does really well in the low light conditions of climbing
gyms. The D800 is not quite as good with
low light, but has such high resolution that it matters less. I use an 80-200mm f2.8 zoom on one
camera and a 24-70mm f2.8 zoom on the other.
I used to take pictures with film cameras, but now they are serving as
doorstops and paperweights. :) Ah,
technology!
Q: I usually see you
with two cameras – why is that?
I almost always use two
cameras these days because it is very hard to build an f2.8 zoom lens with a
very large range. If I could buy an f2.8
(or better!) lens with a zoom range of 24-200mm, I’d get it. Until such a thing is available, the only way
to get that kind of range is to use two lenses.
Since I can’t swap lenses fast enough (and they might fall to their doom if I tried!)
that means two cameras. I currently own an 18-200mm
f3.5-5.6 lens and use that and just one camera (a Nikon D7000) outside where
light is plentiful. For indoor
photography, though, it’s hard to beat an f2.8.
The boost in picture quality is enough that it’s worth juggling two
cameras.
Q: You always seem to
use a lens hood on your lenses – why bother?
The lens hood just blocks
light from the side that shouldn’t be in the picture and prevents it from
hitting the lens. When a strong light
source (like the sun or, say, a gym light) strikes the lens but isn’t directly
in the picture, it still affects the picture.
This is because no lens is perfect – especially in a climbing gym where
dust is constantly accumulating on the lens.
Light hits these imperfections and is scattered back toward the
digital sensor adding light to the picture that shouldn’t be there. This scattered light decreases the contrast
and sharpness of the picture. It can be
very noticeable – especially if you have a shot with and without a lens hood to
compare. Sometimes you may see me with
my hand out in front of the lens to shade it.
This is because the lens hood on a zoom lens must be cut for its widest
angle or the hood will end up being in the picture. This means that the hood cannot be sufficient
to completely protect the lens at the larger magnifications (narrower
angles). I sometimes need to compensate
for this by shading it with my hand.
Q: How come you never
use a flash? Photography would be a lot
easier, wouldn't it?
Yes. I don’t use a flash mostly because I like to
put my lens as much in the faces of the climbers as I can – and I’d prefer not
to risk having a climber not do their best because they were distracted by a
flash. There are other reasons too,
though. I like the look of pictures
taken with available light – that is, light that comes from several different
sources and not just from the camera all the time – that would be boring! Also, there is a lot of chalk dust floating
in the gym. This dust ruins flash shots
by adding big fluffy white blobs to the picture. The farther away the subject is, the more dust,
and the worse a flash shot looks.
Q: My photos always
turn out dark or blurry. How do you get
these shots?
A: I used to use fast film (ASA 1600), but a
good digital camera is able to simulate fast film with a menu setting. On the D700, there is even an “ISO”
button for setting the simulated film speed and while I’m shooting in a gym, I
generally set this to ASA 1600, just like the film I used to use. This is because although the camera allows a
faster setting, ASA 1600 is as fast as the D700 will go and still look
acceptable, in my opinion. Some gyms
have enough light (usually only on sunny days through skylights) that I can use
ASA 800 – which I will use when I can because the quality is a bit better.
Every digital camera is
different. Some don’t allow the ISO or
ASA speed to be set and some require difficult menu gyrations to change the
speed. Also, a smaller camera generally
has a smaller sensor which is more susceptible to noise in dark conditions than
a larger sensor. Although ASA 1600 works
fine on my camera, you may find that a higher (faster) number works fine on
yours, or perhaps that you will have to use a lower number to keep the picture
from looking too grainy.
If you want to try using a
flash, go ahead! Just because I don’t
use a flash doesn’t mean that you must not use one. I’ve never heard a climber complain that a
flash used from the ground was distracting.
When I ask them, they usually say something like, “you took a
picture? Cool.”
Caveats:
Good luck!