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Posts Tagged ‘foraging business’

OK then, now talking about photography as part of a telephone conversation turns out to be trickier than I thought. First of all there should be some sort of context so I’d better say a few words about this conversation: and who the people are.
I’m speaking to my nephew the forager Fergus Drennan. If you want to find out more about what he does you can go to his website at (http://wildmanwildfood.co.uk/). I wanted to congratulate him on the response to his latest television special on BBC3, “The Roadkill Chef”. I wasn’t able to see this programme as it’s not available to me but I was sent a copy of a review by Nancy Banks-Smith of the Guardian which was fairly typical of the many positive responses. Now of course as part of his continued efforts to spread the word of foraging, Fergus has just been commissioned to write a book and this is where the problem starts because his agent, Debbie Catchpole who he refers to obliquely as the usually lovely Debbie has helped to secure his contract as an author. The problem is that this book not only needs text but photographs.

The only person available to take these photographs is Fergus himself and he’s no photographer. So what to do?
Here’s how we got on.

J. Hullo Fergus, is that you? Glad I caught you as you’re pretty elusive these days. I just wanted to have a word with you to tell you that I got a copy of the review from Nancy banks-Smith in the Guardian. So obviously your programme was a success. Congratulations.
F. Yes, it was such a success that I wasn’t able to go down to the supermarket next day. I was worried in case anybody recognised me. And indeed some people recognised me on the street. One woman told me I looked better without the stubble.
J. Well, that’s great. So things are really taking off for you. This foraging business is finally happening.
F. It seems to be but of course it’s one of those good news bad news situations.
J. OK, so what’s the good news?
F. The good news is that I’ve just been commissioned to write a book. It’s been arranged through my agent Debbie Catchpole. And the problem is that I’ve got about a year to write it which isn’t much as I’ve got to cover all the seasons – but the real problems and this is why I’m panicking and I’m hoping to get some advice from you is that I’ve got to take the photographs because of course no-one else can be with me all the time.
J. Well, that’s a bit of a challenge isn’t it? I mean, I know that you’ve taken a few photographs over the years but obviously nothing serious. So what are you thinking of doing?
F. Oh, that’s what I was going to ask you.
J. Given the fact that these pictures are going to be printed in a book you really need to find out some of that facts concerning the final output, what use they’re going to be put to and how big they’re going to be. I expect your publisher could help you there.
F. Yes, I’ve actually spoken to them. It’s likely to be an A5 book and in certain cases they say the pictures might be printed right across and bled to the edges.
J. So some of the pictures could be quite big. You’ll need some good quality.
F. That’s right. I had a talk with one of the photographers there and he was helpful so I thought I’d talk to you and check it out to see if you agreed.
J.What did he say?
F. He said I ought to go straight into digital and not bother with film and probably my best bet was to buy one of the new 10 megapixel digital single lens reflexes.
J. That sounds like pretty good advice. Anything else?
F. He told me that he was a Nikon user and that there was Nikon D80 just out. He also suggested that the Canon 400 might be suitable.
J.He’s picked the two leading brands for you to think about. Yes, you could well make a choice there.
F. What do you think?
J. First you need to understand that I’m a Canon user so I’ll have a slight bias. It isn’t because I think any camera is better than the other and I’ll tell you some more about that later. One of the problems is that once you’ve invested in lenses and other gizmos for one system it’s hard to change. New cameras keep on coming and going. So you have to have some confidence in the brand. I’ll try to tell you what I can. I don’t actually know the Nikon camera. My information is that it’s very well made and that the standard kit lens supplied with it is of quite good quality. My own experience is that the Canon – I have the D350 which is the previous model but is fairly similar is not quite as strongly built and the kit lens supplied is not really very good in my opinion.
F. So what should I do then? Are there any more features?
J. There is one thing that I personally find a problem with my Canon. I do get a lot of sensor dust. This is because every time you change the lens dirt gets into the film compartment and falls over the sensor. Now certain companies like Olympus pioneered sensor cleaning systems and the Canon 400 now has a fully automatic cleaning system with, I believe, some help from the software if necessary. I believe that might be quite a consideration. It’s also a little cheaper. One other small point is that if we ever get together when I come over sometimes you could try out some of the lenses and things that I have from Canon. But it’s up to you. I’d go around and see what’s the best deal you can get. Did he have anything else to say then?
F. He told me that I’d be shooting pictures and started talking about RAW files and jpegs and things like this I didn’t understand. He told me that if he were doing it he’d stick to jpegs. Does this mean anything to you?
J. Yes it does and I’m going to tell you that I tend to disagree with him. One thing to bear in mind is that of the cameras that you’re considering with the Canon I don’t know about the Nikon you can shoot can shoot a RAW file and a jpeg at the same time. So you don’t have to make the choice initially though you would run into problems needing more memory and storage and so on. Still, I’ll tell you that in my opinion the RAW file is the way to go if you have the time and you’re willing to acquire the skill. Both cameras will process a jpeg file and produce a good quality photograph but there’s little you can do if you want to change it or modify it or optimise it because it’s all been done for you by the camera. If I were you I’d strongly consider using the RAW file.
F. Can you give me any help with that?
J. Yes. You’ll get some software with Canon and you can also get some free alternative programmes. I recommend Raw Shooter Essentials. You can download it from (http://www.pixmantec.com/products/rawshooter_essentials.asp) but hurry because Adobe have bought the company and I don’t think a free version will be available for long. I personally find this programme more user friendly than the official Canon product.
F. You said something about memory and storage.
J. Yes. You’ll have to buy some memory cards. Personally I’d would suggest another kind of storage system as well. You can buy small, portable hard drives with 40 or 80 Gigabytes of storage where you can download the pictures on your memory cards and this works out much cheaper in the end. So that should give you something to think about.
F. Yes. If I go and buy the equipment can you give me some more help and advice?
J. Certainly. There’s one thing you could do. When you’ve taken some RAW pictures you could send some to me and I’ll have a look at them, see what they’re like and how you’re doing on that. If necessary I can optimise them myself for you to get you started.
F. How can I send them? These files are quite big.
J. I suggest you get yourself an email account with plenty of storage. I’m thinking of gmail or perhaps the new Lycos account and of course you can also try an online storage system. The one I prefer is produced by (www.diino.com). Diino, that’s d i i n o is a Swedish company. And they have a very good free service which is reliable and you could put some files up on there, tell me how to access them and then I’d be able to help you. Is that it for the moment?
F. Yes. I’m actually quite frightened. That’s quite a lot. I’ll go out and get one of these cameras. I think from what you say I’ll probably go for the Canon and then I can get back to you. There’s just one more thing before I forget. you said that the kit lens was not very good. Any ideas on that?
J. Well there’s quite a lot you can do about it. You can buy another lens instead but many lenses are very, very expensive when they’re good. And this can be a bit of a problem. I think It’s fair to say that I’m one of those photographers who think that lenses are more important than cameras. It’s no use having a camera however sophisticated and however well-built if the lens is no good.
F. That sounds bad.
J. Given the kind of photography you’re likely to do which is not high speed action photography for example, I would suggest that you might consider the standard 50mm 1.8 lens. If you take the Canon for example, it’s plasticky, lightweight and cheap but it has a very high optical quality and perhaps used with one or two close up lenses it might do for you.
F. Right
J. So, see how it goes and tell me what you think later.
F. OK
J. Once again it’s great news about your book and congratulations on your television programme – bye for now
F. Bye

Was my advice sound? I like to think so but it set me thinking about how to take the step into high quality digital photography and what I would call the RAW advantage.

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