The last day, Thursday, was brutal. The winds were strong and blowing sand swirled as we shot. It was a bit chilly also. Once again there were dry-fire drills, and practice drills and then the dry fire practice test.
But just before lunch - we had what was called man-on-man shootout. Steel targets with a hostage plate - and Ryan, Kurt's friend, took the title. I made it to the second round, Kurt the Third.
After lunch was the Practice test - and then the final test. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't difficult - and i was disappointed that I didn't shoot better and get Distinguished Graduate, as Kurt and Ryan did. I shot Graduate. Some rounds were thrown and I wasn't as precise as I should have been.
This is a highly recommended class -- there are some things I would like to see changed, but they have deemed their formula effective.
The Range Master Ciaccio is also highly recommended for his knowledge and teaching skill.
Range 1E, and 14 Range master: "Chachi" Ciaccio
The assistant instructors on our range were:
Wayne Walker P. Walker Spenser Moser Dan Chomycia Koop Rover
Through out this week of shooting at FrontSight - I'm surprised at the diversity of people here. I was expecting many of whom who would be former Military types but that could be anything from the truth as there were even some with limited firearms skills.
Today was more building of the previous days skills and new drills of drawing from concealment. I was mentally done at about 3pm today - but drove thru to the end.
Day 2 - Started at 0800 with some review and dry-fire drills of yesterdays skill sets. The temps were in the mid 30's and once the Sun appeared quickly warmed to the 60's. Great weather for January !!
Half the day is all on the range - shooting, instruction, dry-fires and repeat.
Lunch is an hour and concludes with some kind of lecture of 30-45minutes.
After lunch and the lecture it's back to the range for the rest of the day until about 5pm. At 515 there is another day ending lecture.
My fingers are sore from loading mags - and a bit overloaded from trying to keep up with the malfunction drills to overcome.
And hopefully the guy on lane 14 - our neighbor pays some more attention and doesn't shoot himself or others.
The first day started with an I.D'd check in and registration and a sign off of liability. The staff is professional and instruction everything is incremental.
There were many dry fire exercises which started at the grip and presenting the firearm to the threat - cullminating with a live fire. Morning and afternoon sessions saw about 200 rounds expended.
The take away -- the training is good - but so far I'm more impressed with the doctrine from the MagPul DVD's. I may be too quick to judge - as this is only day one.
Tomorrow is day one at FrontSight in Pahrump Nevada.
Nevada is a peculiar place and one of the only I've experienced where the hotel staff at the Saddle West offered "Rags", pronounced Regs, we are still getting used to some kind of accent, for firearms cleaning. Such a welcome takes you off guard.
Along with the non-existent "Clean-Air Act" in the casinos, a pack of smokes, and some guns - well… life isn't too bad.
Yesterday's World-Cup speed-skating event at the SLC Olympic oval pushed the limits of the photographic skills.
I brought the gear not because I was thinking to get a special photo, but to refine the skills and work through problems. And it's a bit more interesting than chasing the cat around the house in January - although I did that also - more on that later.
Big fast lenses are the norm and I see why anything less than an f4.0 and light becomes a scarce resource. These athletes are not slow movers - and when I placed myself in the 3rd turn following them thru with 3-d tracking and the D3s said -- "whoa"..
What did I learn -- shooting this stuff is all percentages - I blew thru 300 frames and maybe have 2 good pics.
Know your equipment - the D3s chokes when it's trying to focus, expose, and capture while writing NEF - I thought about JPG - but I hate JPG.
Know your venue - press passes are scarce and mostly impossible, so get there early to scope out the best areas to shoot from.
Know your backgrounds - busy backgrounds make interesting photos.
Nikon, today, released the D4 - the successor to the D3s, and I've been asked if I will get one. Short answer, is no. But if you are trying
to decide there are a couple of ways to figure this out.
26 months ago I bought the D3s - which replaced the long in the tooth D2h.
The D2h was a great camera, but I out grew it. When the mega-pixel race was on there those who would argue that MP didn't matter, and there were those who knew better. This is a bit of a long back story but it's an important part to the decision when weighing the why.
The D2h was a love it and hate it piece. The AF was thoroughbred, the files were small and easy to manage and the body fit the hand like a glove. ASA's could be pushed to 1200 with great results.
On the flip side, it was only 4mp - so forget anything bigger than 12x19 and to push that limit you had to nail the exposure and know what you were doing in post. The JPG engine was crap - and the reds and greens were bad for jpg and marginal for RAW. Every single image - and I shot a lot of images with that camera, had to be touched - and that was ok, as I had nothing else to compare it too. The only better in the market place was the D2x and that you couldn't shoot past 800 ASA, and it was twice the price on a good day used.
As this was my first - I decided on a $1200 used D2h.
The D3 was released 6 months after I purchased the used D2h.
I was still in my learning curve though - and shooting a kit lens, 18-135 f3.5-5.6, with really good results, before I even know what the D3 could do - I still lusted after the D3.
Two years latter I finally started to get frustrated with the D2h - the reds and greens were a pain - the images lacked detail, and I wanted something new. So I worked two jobs and saved the $5,200 for the upcoming D3s - rumored, but yet to have been announced.
Long story longer - I ordered it when it was announced in Aug of 2009 - and it changed my game.
The images are like butter, colors are spot on - I have a two-three stop latitude if I want to adjust or really screw something up - AF is even more racehorse and it's full frame. Did I say full frame. Oh -- and it can shoot in the dark - I exaggerate with that last comment, but lets say it puts me in the 5%.
So since I'm still totally happy with the D3s - and it's paid for itself this year - I will still have at least 2 years left until the D4s is announced.
Then I may get a new body. The other side of this argument is save the cash for Lenses - and I'll discuss that in a later post.
I can't wait to see the photographers at the Summer Olympics flying the Nikon flag - good luck Canon.
Keep hands and feet inside the ride and no cameras or video recorders. I cheated - and didin't listen. This brought us up 301 feet and rotated while we were strapped in. It wasn't as bad as it looks - Knott's Berry Farm.
Trey Ratcliff, @treyratcliff, posted his thoughts about the death of the traditional SLR as we know it. I didn't quite know what to think of his far reaching ideas - and I had to think about the industry and more importantly the photographer.
His ideas maybe don't quite take into consideration what I call the 5% rule. There are going to be certain things related to process and equipment which is going to allow you to perform past the 95% of your peer group, putting you in the top 5%. This may be achieved in many areas such as approaching a job, composition, process and delivery - and when all of these disciplines are in the top 5% then a sort of state of Grace happens. Meaning - you nail it !
Now -- back to the hardware -- sure, there are those who say the camera equipment doesn't matter - and they can make pictures with some film, a lens, and a paper cup. Of course I'm being sarcastic.
Recently Sony is getting some traction with their mirrorless NEX series - and Panasonic and PEN with the micro 4/3 systems.
I have a NEX-7 on order - and I can't wait to get it and run it into the ground.
For me - during a shoot, I try to live in the 5% - the D3s sensor allows me this by being able to shoot at a printable 6400 ASA - and printable I mean this ASA was published - amazing. I could only get these photos by the way of the D3s - and I was in the 5%.
An 80-200 f2.8 lens - puts me in the 5%
9 "Full" frames per second - puts me in the 5%
There are times when most of this related to photography doesn't matter -- there are times when 95% of the time I can use an Iphone to get some great pics -- but, and here is the key to my whole argument - when someone is paying me to perform for them - I'm using the best to almost guarantee the 5%.
The SLR and the big lenses will never disappear -- be it for weatherproofing, easy external controls, great battery reserve, dual memory card slots, or lighting fast autofocus. And more imporantly, when I"m shooting a job - that's what I'll be using - else, it's amature hour.
The new year and a new experience of Disney Land with the extended famly. I'm amazed at the will of man to develop such a place. I enjoying it - much to my dismay of the thought.
The big camera stayed home - and I'm with IPhone-4 and the small Canon SD780. I love the phone for it's ability to instantly process and share/post - and I love the Canon for the video.
This is my best shot so far - I love this - early morning breakfast overlooking the park.
So... I got a little coop'd up and decided to pose some action figures -- yep... between the re-runs of "Storage Wars" -- and "Pawn-Stars" I let'er rip.
Processed with an X-Equals preset in the Fuji family and shot with a 50mm f1.4.
Maynard Keenan with his 10 foot airstream trailer in tow approached the stage as a silent crowd
listened to his brief mantra of personal activation and existence, opened the second
leg of his Puscifer show last night.
Flat screen monitors flanked the stage as behind the band, other projected images lit the white wall.
While talking to the crowd and dressed in jeans and "Blood into Wine" esque cowboy hat, Keenan set
up a pseudo BBQ scene with folding chairs, side tables and a fake Webber Grill as band members
joined him - including the mounted drum set on a modeled hay trailer.
His fan mix was eclectic, either pierced and tattooed or some just leaving their
offices wearing white button down shirts and all having to enter a TSA type search of your person for cameras and recording devices.
Before the set began a pseudo documentary shown in the background projected on the
far wall of his previous years act with a mockumentary type style of the past characters male and female which Maynard dropped, for at least this venue. Keenan appears to sarcastically mirror his fan base with the film. His past character wears a mullet and embraces trailer living with a squeaky voiced female sidekick companion.
The set opened with familar Keenan arrangements with a heavy influence of Tool and Perfect Circle melodies and typical Keenan vocals. Arrangements were simple but with layering became complex and the crescendo blended sounds brought control to his musical vision.
The technical mix and execution was something only personally comparable to my viewing of Emerson Lake and Palmer early '90's tour. Puscifer was masterful.
His middle set performance brought the drummer to middle stage on a different rolled portable set of an electronic kit and the band broke from the familiar and entered the into experimental. The sounds were non-typical combined with a mix of visual with panoramic video and images. Most of this was melodic.
Two bottles of wine with glasses were on stage and times before and after songs Keenan would imbibe where appropriate.
Puscifer is a creative experiment of music, visuals and mantra and Keenan's show exposed that his Puscifer performances are very serious business creatively - and he didn't disappoint.
I haven't been shooting much lately - the occasional family event will bring my gear out of the bag or of course paid work where I'll be motivated by a job - but lately that has been it.
The excitement of the new Sony Nex-7 is still fresh - yet yesterdays announcement by Sony's delay because of their flooded assembly plants has put a damper on this future format of a smaller less obtrusive camera.
So - as a motivator I decided to shoot on the way home from work, the walk to the UTA Trax line. The time change made for some surprisingly rich colors - and this experience opened my eyes so to say - that certain times of day add an attractive aspect of color.
The lights - the setting sun and wide open exposures all came together.
