Fayoum Desert Trip - Part 3

Sand Boarding

 
In the previous part, we stopped the story telling at the "Whales Valley", we rested there until the sun's & the sand's heat became bearable for sand boarding, which was our next activity, click through to find out more.

I have never done or seen any sand boarding before, and I was curious as to how the whole thing worked out. The drivers took us to some dunes with very soft sand (that of the type that enters beneath your focusing ring and under your mobile phone's keypad and sticks to yourhands and faces, a real threat for electronic devices) and a steep downward slope.
 

Car parked on a gentle slope

 
Next step are the boards themselves, as you can see in the opening picture, they are made of wood, and have straps to hold your feet, but not all of the boards had these straps. Before boarding, the sand boards are waxed from the bottom so the friction becomes minimal and they slide easily by the force of gravity, at first we tried going down sitting on the boards to see if we'll be able to control the board, it looked very steep from the top, and it was a far way down.
 

Sliding for the first time

 
Then some started sliding while standing.
 

Sitting & Standing

 
And soon enough we had our falling pictures.
 

Falling at speed

 

A heap at the bottom, far far away, that was shot with a 100mm focal length

 
Falling didn't hurt at all, but we soon discovered a big problem with the whole game, when you reach the bottom, you have to get to the top again, with the board, needless to say, it required a huge effort because of the slope and some of us took a break at the middle of the climb, I know I did, that killed it for me, after a couple of slides I decided the pleasure of sliding for a few seconds was just not worth climbing to the top again in several minutes. And it didn't help there were several people waiting and calling for you to climb tothe top so that they can use the board I had.
 

Using the board as an anchor by digging it in the sand to aid the climb

 
I spent the rest of the time taking photos from the top, gear wise, for the whole sand boarding thing, I have been exclusively using the 200mm f/2.8, the 24-105 went inside the bag and I decided not to use it for the rest of the day. I took some photos of the drivers and my exhausted comrades, there's just something with that 200mm look that makes me giddy.
 

Can't remember what was he saying, probably didn't even hear him since I was a 200mm f/2.8 away

 

Sun tired

 

Fallen down

 

Sun and effort took its toll on all of us

 
We had to leave this location and reach the place where we were supposed to cook dinner before the dark, and it was nearly sunset, one look behind us on the other side where the sun was setting, and I found some gorgeous photos, the 200mm helped me compress the pictures in a way I liked.
 

Cliche shot

 

Dunes and sunlight

 

Human steps

 

At the top

 
Once we finished taking these photos, we headed for a camp (just a torn tent) to grill our dinner and main course for the day, sun has already went down and I removed the 200mm and put on the 50mm f/1.4 and the 580EX speedlite which I specifically brought for low light shooting, and while we waited for the drivers to finish grilling, I decided to use the blue hues in the sky and take some pictures.
 

Last picture with available light, 50mm wide open

 

Artificial light

 

Sinister look

 
For the two pictures at the top, I metered for the sky until I got the blue hue I wanted and then I turned on my flash and bounced it to the left, I used the white fabric of the tent to bounce my flash from and get this nice directional light, I had my subjects sit beside the tent and turn their faces until I got what I wanted, flash was on TTL, I didn't fiddle with the power. The picture below shows a slight pull back to show where I bounced my flash from.
 

Bounce flash and TTL, best invention after digital sensors

 
After we finished dinner, we made some tea utilising the coal we used for grilling, and we spread around talking, relaxing, singing and doing whatever we felt like doing, we played for a while with a torch to make scary looking portraits.
 

Coal on fire, captured with the 550D and the 60 Macro

 

Lighting from the bottom looks scary, but the expression was not scary

 

Now that's more like it

 
For the final photos of the day, I wanted to try some long exposures, I had my Slik mini tripod, and I used the 50mm, I wonder how people focus on things in complete darkness, fot some photos I was able to focus using a torch to light someone's face, but for landscapes, it was very difficult, and I had to do some guessing based on the faint outline I saw at the back LCD live view image.
 

Can you believe this is only the light of the moon?

 

Pile of stuff, shot 1

 

Pile of stuff, shot 2

 
The two shots above were both identical 14 second long exposures, but with one difference, an accident actually, during the first exposure you see at the top, one of the guys was taking a photo of the same thing but he used his flash, resulting in a totally different picture, which one do you like more? I like the first one more, it looks more interesting.
 

Staying still for 14 friggin seconds

 

B&W version

 
My cousin in the images above has an uncanny ability to stay still for a long time, so this time we decided to test him to the limits in a 14 second exposure, what do you think, did he succeed?
 
The red light you see is an idea we decided to implement to make the picture more interesting, we had a Yongnuo 565 flash that emits this weird pattern as an AF assist light, so we moved the light around during the exposure to create what you see at the top, and I made a black and white version as well, which one do you like more?
 
That's it for the trip, after resting for a while we gathered all our stuff and moved back to where we left our cars, the only thing worth mentioning during our trip back is that the drivers turned off their headlights for a part of the road and used the moon light only, their reasoning was that they were able to see the road more evenely and farther away that way, we were back at around 10pm, exactly 12 hours after we started.
 
I hope you have enjoyed this series and that I managed to tell you the story in a fun and an immersive way, until next time.
 
 
RELATED POSTS
 
Fayoum Desert Trip - Part 1
Fayoum Desert Trip - Part 2
 

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How I preordered a Nikon D600

UPDATE: 9/18/12 - What ultimately happened to my preorder.

UPDATE: 9/12/12 - Amazon.com now accepting preorders.
http://betterfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/2012/09/amazoncom-accepting-nikon-d600-preorders.html

UPDATED: 9/4/12 - SEE BELOW.

I sold my D3 and preordered a Nikon D600.

I am very sure that the D600 will be announced on or before Photokina, and I think there's a good chance it will be out by Christmas. I'm even more certain that the specs will be just right for my needs: a more reasonable pixel count than the 36mp of the D800, more portable than the D3 or D4 (I found the D3 too big and heavy). In terms of image quality, I believe it will have noise that is as good as if not better than the D3 and D700 but at a higher resolution (16 or 24mp) and therefore more easily cleaned up with noise reduction. Who knows, it may even have a pixel binning mode, which would be awesome (because low noise is more important to me than extremely high resolution). Plus it will have some of the new features from the D800 and D4. On top of it all, everyone is speculating that the price will be competitive. All of this adds up to one thing: the Nikon D600 is going to be a super hot seller. It will be harder to come by than the D800. Which means that unless you are part of NPS (Nikon Professional Services) or you pay a ridiculous premium on ebay or you preorder it, you will likely not get one for several months.

The problem of course is how to preorder it. If you call online stores like Amazon, Adorama and B&H, they'll tell you that you can't preorder it yet, because there's no item number for it (after all, it hasn't even been announced and is nothing more than a rumor right now). Instead, visit your friendly neighborhood camera store. Their policies are not as rigid as those of online stores. Ask them if you can preorder it or be on some sort of interest list.  Perhaps they may even already have such a list. If not, then offer to put down a deposit on one. They might start a list.

If you live in Los Angeles, call the Bel-Air Camera superstore. I like them because the staff are very knowledgeable, they stock a lot of equipment, and their pricing is usually very reasonable. I figure since they're one of the largest remaining brick and mortar stores in LA, there's a good chance that they will have a decent allocation of D600's. I spoke to Michael and Rica. Both of them were very helpful and created a preorder list for me. If you give them a call, tell them you were referred by Mic Ty.

After that, you can join me for the vigil. :)

A word of caution: it goes without saying you should pick a reputable camera store.  And obviously, nothing here is guaranteed.

EDIT:
In case anyone thinks I made this up, here is a screen cap of the charge on my credit card for the $300 deposit:

As I said, you should talk to Michael or Rica.  Mention my name, and my order number is 30228X (for privacy I'm excluding the last digit - I'm sure they will still be able to find the order).

7/23/12 update: called Bel-Air Camera and spoke to Michael today.  He said usually, Nikon will send their store a list of cameras that are available for them to order.  So far, they haven't received any such list from Nikon yet.  Meanwhile there is now a group of preorders.  So I'm not the only one who has been able to preorder from them.

8/15/12 update: spoke to Michael again.  No news yet re the D600.  FWIW he also believes the D600 will ship in time for Christmas.

9/4/12 update. Called Bel-Air.  They confirmed the news about a Nikon launch on September 13 although of course there's no official word on what the new camera will be.  They confirmed that they will be honoring preorders for anyone who has placed a deposit.  Once they receive the actual product, they will be calling people with preorders in the order that they were made.

RELATED POSTS:
Nikon D600 photos leaked; what we can deduce from the photos
Nikon D600 predictions
Nikon D600 order update

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Fayoum Desert Trip - Part 2

The lake from the top

 
In the first part of this series we stopped at having breakfast by the lake side, in this part we climb up to see the full lake and go to the "whales valley" to see some fossils and have a light lunch.

Our breakfast location from the first part

 
Remember that picture? I showed it in the first part and told you to keep it in mind since I am going to refer to it, check that next picture, the red dot represents the place where we had our breakfast.
 

Red dot points to the bay where we had our breakfast

 
See how large the lake is, I was astonished at its sheer size when we climbed up, and in the middle of the desert. The opening picture features the same lake but shows a bit of the foreground to make a more interesting composition and give a sense about the size.
 

Taking pictures at the top

 

Small man, large desert

 

Climbing

 
During our time in the cars, we tackled some scary inclines and declines, but this was one of the scariest, at the top of that climb, the incline was almost 50 degrees with little space to gain enough speed beforehand, you don't take these steep inclines slowly, you gain enough speed beforehand and try to keep the engine running at its optimum power band.
 

The car in front of us, that 2-step climb is very difficult

 
Our first attempt to climb this two part incline failed (look carefully at the picture above), we weren't able to climb the top most part, the car loses too much speed and power once it climbs the first part, and there is no space to gain speed for the second part, so we descended to the bottom (going backwards, scary) and tried another go with more speed, you can see the cars waiting at the top. After the first attempt, I fancied taking pictures of the car climbing, so I left the car at the bottom (before the second attempt) and asked the driver to wait until I took a good safe position for shooting, and this is what I got.
 

Wheels in the air

 
When I showed the driver this picture, he was very happy and asked mt to send it to him (which I did).
 
After we reached the top and parked the cars, everyone spread around observing the scenery and taking pictures, I was checking the climb pictures with my cousin at the back of the camera's LCD, we were standing behind our car, the blue jeep, then suddenly I found myself taking a very strong hit in my forehead and flying backwards on my back, with the camera in my hands, I didn't really understand anything, all I did was raise my right hand holding the camera to protect it, and directmy fall on my left shoulder and arm, then I noticed the blue jeep moving backwards towards me, so that's what hit me, but it was still moving, so I started rolling away trying to escape the wheels before the car finally stopped, fortunately enough the driver heard the sound of the car hitting something and stopped.
 
After checking with my cousin and the driver, it turned out that the driver decided to move the car, but failed to notice us standing behind (I assume he's used to moving freely in the desert as there are no obstacles to hit, ha!), and he didn't actually hit me, he hit my cousin first since he was closer to the car when wewere both bent down looking at the camera's LCD, with a force that made his head hit mine strongly that I was thrown back, and fortunately my cousin was able to jump over me while he was falling. It was a really stupid move from the driver, but fortunately ended up with minor scratches on my left arm, and a swollen right eyebrow, and the camera never hit the ground once.
 

Happy driver

 
After that we moved on to our next destination, the "whales valley", at that point several of us were feeling exhausted because of the strong sun and the harsh weather, I took a few pictures on the way, see that picture at the top, I like it for several reasons, the relatively slow shutter speed shows motion in the wheels and the sand below the car, and is accentuated by the bent antenna, add to that the smiling driver and the guy sleeping at the back and you know why I like it.
 

Exhausted

 

Shot from the car while moving

 

Sun behind the clouds, it was this beautiful and moving in reality

 

Whales valley rest area

 
We arrived to the valley, and the drivers opened the cars' hoods to cool them down, after all, they were old tough Land Cruisers that are built from rocks. The actual fossils were not in the place you see above, this is the rest area, cafeteria and the bathrooms. The fossils were left where they were found, surrounded by a rope to keep people from touching them, they were distributed around the cafeteria, we were given a map showing all the fossil areas, and the paths to there were marked with rocks on the sides as a means of guidance.
 
We decided to wash ourselves, rest for a while and have our lunch before walking under the harsh sun to see the fossils, when we decided to mocve, some of us prefered the shade and didn't come see the fossils, I envy them, maybe I had high expectations but I was dissapointed, I didn't find them interesting at all, and I decided not to take a single picture of it.
 

Leaving the cafeteria and going to see the fossils, taken with the 550D and the 60 Macro

 

Some coral reefs from the times when this desert was covered by water

 

More reefs

 

Interesting shapes

 

More interesting shapes

 

Even more interesting shapes "reminds me of KFC, my phrase, not the picture, ultra mega super duper zinger supreme"

 
When we returned to the cafeteria, we decided to stay there until the sun's intensity decreased so that we can start our sand boarding fun, but that's for the next post. We spent the time chatting, taking pictures, playing riddles, etc... The large number of people made it really pleasant, I don't imagine I would have enjoyed it this much were we 4 or 5 guys only.
 

Me shooting video with my Galaxy S II

 

I rarely get my pictures taken, so I am celebrating here, 550D + 60 Macro

 

550D black and white mode, JPG shooting, me likey

 

My friend found this little fox and took this photo, long pointy ears

 
That's it for this part, the next and last post will have my absolute favorite pictures of the whole trip, sunset and sand dunes, that's all I can say.
 
 
RELATED POSTS
 
Fayoum Desert Trip - Part 1
Fayoum Desert Trip - Part 3
 

 

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Testing the DIY Spinlight

Recently, we posted about a DIY alternative to the Black Foamie Thing and Spinlight 360 using a Flashright Pro.  What you see above is yet another such DIY alternative.  This one was posted on the Strobist Flickr forum by photographer David Huy.

Hit the jump to see how I assembled mine, and how it performs against the modified Flashright.

COMPONENTS
The "DIY Spinlight 360" uses the following parts:

• Flex mount flash gun adapter.  Variously branded as K-8, Interfit, and Strobies.  There is a specific adapter for the most common flashes.  For example, for the SB-800, the K-8 branded flex-mount adapter is the CA-1 model.  Available on ebay.  Some are white, some are black.  As low as $9.99
• Honeycomb grid.  This is the matching grid for the flex mount above.  To my knowledge, the grid is the same for all types of flex mount.  Available on ebay (a bit harder to search for because of the variety of names used, including honeycomb, honey-comb, and grid).  As low as $11.99.
• Optional: dome diffuser.  This is similar to the type of dome used for Gary Fong's lightsphere.  Available on ebay.  As low as $1.99.  I didn't attach a diffuser to mine.
• black foamie thing (BFT).

I removed the grid on the honeycomb grid accessory, leaving just the outer frame.  Strictly speaking, you don't have to do this, but if you leave the grid on, the grid will eat up a lot of the light.

Removing the grid is not easy.  The grid's frame is held together by three clips, equally spaced apart:

In addition, there are three tabs that fit into three corresponding holes on the other part of the frame.

To disassemble the frame, I held the lip of the frame and pushed against the edges of the honeycomb until the frame started to separate.  Before disassembling the grid, I didn't know about the tabs so I tried to pry one side open, which broke two of the tabs.

Once the frame is separated, you can remove the grid and reassemble the grid's frame.  The frame attaches to the flex mount and rotates.  All you need to do is attach the BFT to the grid, and if you wish, a dome diffuser.

The flex mount itself is mounted to the flash head just by pressure and friction.  It's reasonably secure though I wouldn't dangle my flash by holding on to the flex mount.

IMAGE QUALITY

How does the DIY Spinlight 360 compare to the Flashright modification?  To me, they have almost identical performance in terms of light pattern and efficiency.  (The DIY Spinlight 360 seems to have a slight edge in efficiency.)

One subtle difference is that when aiming the flash to the rear corner, the Flashright mod may have a slightly lower lighting ratio (i.e. shadows are a bit brighter), possibly because a portion of the dome may not be entirely blocked by the BFT.  In the Flashright shot below, note the thin hard shadow below the jaw line - meaning that a second light source (in addition to the bounce) was illuminating the subject.

OTHER DIFFERENCES

Although I haven't tested them in the field, both the DIY Spinlight 360 and the Flashright Mod appear to work very well as replacements for the BFT and Spinlight 360.  If you are choosing between the two, here are some factors to consider:

• Cost: the DIY Spinlight 360 can be had for about $21.99.  The Flashright Mod costs whatever the Flashright Pro costs (currently around $27 + shipping and handling with the 74PLEASE discount code).  I'm not sure though if the Flashright Pro discount will last.
• Versatility: the Flashright Mod can be rotated to allow the dome to contribute to the exposure.  I suspect the same is true for the DIY Spinlight if you attach the dome diffuser, but I haven't tested it, and there may be a decrease in efficiency from the diffusion effect of the dome diffuser.   On the other hand, one benefit of the DIY Spinlight is that the flex mount can be used with other accessories that are produced for the flex mount, such as a globe, mini beauty dish, mini softbox, snoot, or barn doors.
• Compatibility: the Flashright Mod can work with almost any speedlight.  The DIY Spinlight requires you to have the specific flex mount for your flash.  If you have another flash or are borrowing someone else's the flex mount might not fit.
• Weight: the DIY Spinlight (part of which is made of a dense plastic/rubber) is much heavier than the Flashright Mod.  When the DIY Spinlight is mounted, it will make the flash a bit top heavy.  Sometimes, with a little movement, the flash head might not maintain a tilted angle.
• Durability: I haven't tested the durability of either the DIY Spinlight or the Flashright Mod, but I think the DIY Spinlight would be more durable because it has a simpler design, and much of the flex mount is made of a plastic/synthetic rubber material.  It is not indestructible though -- its weakest part is likely to be the 4 small plastic clips that hold the grid frame.
• Portability: the DIY Spinlight is larger than the Flashright Mod and will take up more space in your bag.
• Speed: the DIY Spinlight is faster to attach and remove compared to the Flashright Mod.  All you need to do is push it on the flash head .  With the Flashright Mod, you need to use a velcro strap.
• Stability: the DIY Spinlight is a snug fit on my flash but can be knocked off with moderate force.  By contrast, it is hard to remove the Flashright from the speedlight without undoing the velcro strap.
• Ease of use: both the DIY Spinlight and Flashright Mod are easy to rotate, though I find the Flashright Mod slightly easier to rotate because you're turning a smallish dome compared to a wide ring with the DIY Spinlight 360.
• Ease of construction:  FWIW, I think the Flashright Mod is easier to make because pulling apart the honeycomb grid for the DIY Spinlight is not easy.  Make sure no kids are around to hear you cussing.
• Aesthetics: this is totally subjective but I think the Flashright Mod looks more sleek, elegant and high-tech than the DIY Spinlight though the rubber band (if you use one) can detract a bit from its appearance (maybe i'll use a black one).  I imagine the DIY Spinlight could look pretty cool too in black.

I will be switching between the DIY Spinlight and modified Flashright to test them both in the field, and will be updating these posts with my observations. (Note: the product shots for this post were taken with the Flashright mod.)

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Nikon SB-800 head modification - live!

Normally, the Nikon SB-800's head cannot turn more than 90 degrees to the right.  You may have seen a modification where the head is forced to turn an additional 45 degrees.  Sometimes it works.  Sometimes the flash dies.  In this video, I do the modification "live."   To find out if my SB-800 survived, watch the video...

  

Please note: the Nikon SB-910, SB-900 and SB-700 can all rotate 180 degrees in both directions, so there is no reason to risk this modification to your SB-800, except if you absolutely need the most powerful speedlight available.  (To date, the SB-800 is still Nikon's most powerful flash.)

Moreover, forcing the head to turn is probably riskier than doing surgery on the SB-800 to accomplish the same objective.

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