Photographic resolutions

I will be spending another long field season in Greenland this year and although there is plenty of field work, I will get a lot of photo oportunities. So what will I photograph? Well, I am open for what might come up but it can be good to make a plan too. So here goes:

Photo resolutions for Zackenberg 2013

My aim is to

1. use more fill light - flash and reflectors
2. do more macro - plants and insects
3. use less extreme wide angle - carry a 50mm, 55mm or 105mm macro
4. photograph all guests of the work station in a work situation
5. do more panos/soundscapes
6. record more sound in general - for slide shows or even a small radio program perhaps
7. record more video - for slide shows
8. try star trails
9. do much more photo trapping
10. do more birds
11. spend more time with the foxes

I will go through them in more detail in upcoming posts.

Photo packing list for 3.5 months in the North and East Greenland Nationalpark

Bellow is what I am bringing (or shipping ahead).
I am planning on having 2 or 3 TrapCams going more or less all throughout the season, so 5 cameras aren't that much really... ;) and the cameras need lenses too obviously!

Cameras:
Nikon D4 (main full frame camera)
Nikon D700 (main TrapCam and doubles as backup full frame)
Nikon D300 incl. MB-D10 (main cropped camera and TrapCam)
Nikon D200 (Timelapse camera and backup TrapCam)
Nikon D3200 (TrapCam)

Lenses:
AF Nikkor 10.5/2-8 DX
AF-S Nikkor 14-24/2.8
AF-S Nikkor 17-35/2.8 (to be used with TrapCam)
AF-S Nikkor 50/1.4
AI-S Micro-Nikkor 55/2.8
AI-S Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8
AF-S Nikkor 70-200/2.8
AF-S Nikkor 200-400/4
AF-S Nikkor TC-14EII
AF-S Nikkor TC-20EIII
Sigma 10-20/4-5.6 (mainly for TrapCam use)
Lensbaby 50/2.8
Lensbaby Edge 80/2.8

Lens accessories:
PN-11 extension tube
Canon 500D close up lens 77mm (for 70-200/2.8)
Nikon Polarisation filters
Hoya 8 stop neutral density filter

Flash and flash gear:
1 SB-800
1 SB-900
1 SB-26 (as backup)
2 Pocketwizard plus III triggers
2 Pixel King i-TTL triggers
1 SC-17 TTL cable
1 SC-29 TTL cable

Support:
1 Gitzo tripod
1 Monfrotto tripod
1 Monfrotto monopod
1 Hilmer-Koch groundpod
1 Wimberley Sidekick
1 Acratech GP ballhead
1 Manfrotto ballhead
2 No-name ballheads
1 Manfrotto monopod head
1 Servocity wireless remote control pan and tilt gimbal head

Others:
1 Lastolite EzyBox TTL
1 Lastolite trigrip 8-in-1 small difuser/reflector
1 Thinktank Hydrophobia 300-600 raincover
1 Trailmaster TM550 PIR trigger
2 snapshot sniper triggers
Pelicases for Trapcams
Battery chargers
Various bags and pouches
Memory cards
Plenty rechargeable camera and AA batteries

Ironically, with all this equipment, I mostly walk with only one camera and two lenses plus tripod or monopod (mainly D4, 14-24, 200-400 and Gitzo)... because I also need to carry fieldwork equipment and radio, signal pistol and rifle.

Wireless remote controlled pan and tilt gimbal

I did not have much luck with the intended purpose for the RoboCam last year. The musk oxen did not like it. They seemed terrified, so I only tried it once. I am in Greenland to observe the natural behaviour of the musk oxen after all - and not to disturb them... Although the foxes did not seem to mind too much, I will not bring the robot for this upcoming season. Instead I have ordered a remote controlled pan and tilt gimbal head from ServoCity. I plan on using it at the fox dens for close up wide-angle shots with relatively shallow depth of field. I got inspired by some really nice leopard shots taken in Zimanga Private Reserve in South Africa. I also want to remotely control the zoom by using a lens gear belt and a gear on a servo. I do have a 8/9 channel radio remote control on order from Hobby King but it seems to take forever to get delivered... I have not given up on using the robot for wildlife shots but I have got some other plans for remote controlled photography. I have acquired a toy quadcopter and is learning the principles of flying it with intentions of one day getting a big model capable of carrying a good DSLR.

Parts for camera traps

Rather than inventing the wheel again, using the Arduino that I planned, I have now gone another route. I discovered that camera trapping is a rather big hobby in the USA and joined a few internet fora to get a few tips. There is a market for PIR sensor control chips for home brew designs, so I ordered a few of the SnapShotSniper II along with a few small pelicases for protection of the camera and sensor. One big disadvantage of the Arduino is it's rather large power consumption. The SSII uses a small lithium battery that is said to last a long time. The control chip of the sensor module is a Picaxe 08M which is programmable. In other words the release and pause times can be set and probably also a threshold number of events for the camera to be triggered like with the Trailmaster 550. I have a few second hand dome ports from underwater houses on the hand that I plan on incorporating as I would like to use fisheye lenses. Lastly, I need to decide on a way of fastening the pelicases to tripod heads.

Virtual Zackenberg

I have photographic plans for the 2011 Zackenberg field season. I want to make many geoencoded "navigationable" panoramic photos with ambient soundtracks and display them on an interactive map. I am aware that I have often strived for including "everything" in my landscape photography, and with 360 degrees panos that is exactly what you are going to do! Hopefully, I will manage to do something beyond the mere documentation. Besides landscapes and wildlife, I want to cover fieldwork, facilities and life on the field station in general. Unfortunately the bandwidth is not good so I will not able to upload anything from up there other than notes on the progress.