Super moon

The super moon as seen earlier tonight. © Magnus Andersson

Nat Geo tells you all you need to know about it. Look outside now! That impact crater on the bottom right is serious (for the pixel peepers, shot on a D700 with a 300/2.8 and a 2x extender).

I've got another 700 reasons to be very happy...

One of my first test shots on the Nikon D700; wireless TTL left, seedy red lamp behind, TV light from right. © Magnus Andersson

...because I've just got my hands on a brand new Nikon D700! I was holding out for an updated D700s version but as the D3 got upgraded instead I couldn't wait any longer. Rumour has it that a possible D700s is likely in a years time...ho hum.

But I welcome the super fast and super accurate AF, the brilliant ISO performance, the built-in commander flash, the dream like DOF with my family of prime lenses, the solid build quality and on and on and on...yup, I'm very pleased with it.

Its not insured yet though so I am scared to take it out of the house. Frustration! Hence the random image above; shot in my living room. Hopefully it'll be sorted soon.

I've got one hundred two thousand and four hundred reasons...

...to get the newly launched Nikon D3s. The ISO goes up to 102,400. That's a little bit insane. According to BJP it is actually usable as well. That basically outperforms the human eye, meaning this camera will pick up details although you are struggling to see what's going on in the dark. Gimme gimme gimme. I think it will be a little while before I actually own one though as it will set me back £4,200. Hmmm.

Tech tip: The exposure to light stimulates the brain and creates a false alertness and stimulation

Portrait of Shlomo, human beatboxer and artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre - where this was taken © Magnus Andersson

Its Friday night and I'm staying in. I'm absolutely knackered after working five days in a row, i.e. a normal working week, BUT you have to bear in mind the impact of having just got back from a week long holiday, and you can understand how taxing things can be when trying to adjust to normal working life.

The illness (sinus infection) that eventually came upon me during my holiday also means that I am still recovering, so it's a pleasant surprise to say that the week has actually flown by! Today I was hounding MP Tessa Jowell on two jobs within one hour, no time for lunch as per usual, but its fun to hang out with the people that run/ruin the country.

I think also I lucked out on not having to shoot another one of the days' assignments; the OAP* sports day. Surely that's a contradiction in terms, or am I just being ageist? Quite possibly it also had the best/funniest pictures of the day. Imagine capturing all those hip's breaking as they fall over during football? Hmm.

Enough of the week, I think you ought to read a few things, first of all Stephen Fry's blog on all things technical in everyday communication. I've read a few of his books and his prose is as good as his blog/tweets/columns. Here's a man who embraces new technology with gusto and he also slips in enough links to make it easy even for non-tweeters like me to understand.

Secondly, lifehacker is such an all-encompassing site of tech news and bizarre-yet-useful DIY projects that I always end up spending longer than I intended. How about this for how to sleep properly: one, two and three.

Thirdly, and you cant read this anywhere, but I am still waiting for Nikon to announce a D700/D3 (notice the preference) with HD video. My life would be complete. It would all fall into place and the four prime lenses that I've bought on eBay in the last month or so would come to perfect use. Nikon, when can we see proper HD video from you? This summer, please! We cant wait any longer, or we will - again - have to revert to Canon. I mean it.

Apart from this I am struggling to get myself a new iPhone 3Gs. I even keep dreaming about getting one. Apparently they are sold out at the moment.

*Old Age Pensioner, for you non-UK'ers

Switching allegiance?

© Magnus Andersson

I have been on a week long holiday from work, so while I've been busy walking around the Jurassic coast of Dorset (more later), Canon has made me wanna switch. This is BIG news in the industry but as I have been out of touch for the last few days and most of you already know this, I'll spare you the details. If you must know, Vincent Laforet sums it up best on his blog.

Canon just kick ass at the moment and they have also just announced the G10 as well, so my birthday present is set. I'm all too sorry, but Nikon seems to have messed up the P6000 in favour of this new beast. I dont need 14.1MP, but at least the RAW files will be usable and its 28mm wide.

The D3 still sets the bar for AF performance though, so the sports shooters out there need not worry. The D3 is still the camera for photojournalism but Canon has laid down an aggresive marker against Nikon by pricing the 5d MkII at $2700. If Canon doesnt already rule your world, they will soon. Nikon are back in the passenger seat.

ps. above picture shot on a Canon P&S; the non-remarkable SD 850 IS, which blows out high lights for fun and has serious focusing problems.

Being shouted at and crying in the same day

Another month of work has gone by and we are now in September, my favourite month! Its got nothing (much) to do with it being my birthday towards the end of it, but more to do with the fresh air coming in and the last-days-of-a-dying-summer feeling; although to be fair, in the UK, the summer never really sprung to life this year. But this is where September usually comes in and rescues things with some amazingly beautiful days of warm sunshine. Seasons aside, this was the day:

My first job was down at Brixton prison where fire departments from three different stations had been called out to. Six fire engines were standing around doing nothing. I chatted to a friendly fireman when I got there and he said it was just a suspect device that they were checking out inside the prison, probably nothing, the number of trucks was just standard procedure, etc.

I then went over to the cordon - which anybody can walk up to - and took a couple of snaps and was then approached by a jobsworth fireman. He politely asked me to 'get the fuck out' despite all the regular office workers being allowed to stand next to me and look (at a scene where nothing was going on, I might add).

When I asked him why he said it was his managers orders. Sadly, this upstanding fireman 'wasn't in a position to reveal his managers name', or to get said manager to come down and say it in person to me, and then he promptly said the POLICE will come if I don't move. I said that is fine, you can bring the police if you want, and you'll see that they cant move me either, unless you first extend your cordon and remove these 'civilians' as well.

In the end I just said 'I'll move' and did so after getting my frames, but why, oh why, are people in uniform hellbent on telling trained members of the press what to do, while at the same time letting people stand around with their camera phones and not moving them? Some battles are not worth fighting, and this was one of them, but dang, I thought firemen were professionals as well? Next time I'll just bring my (future tense) P6000.

Two minutes later the firemen were given the all clear and they rolled back home to their stations...

The place to get the latest on these developments is, as always, on photographer Marc Vallee's blog. Interesting to see how we have moved on since the 90's.

The last job of the day was a vigil for a murder victim who died in Camberwell in September last year*. Quite a large group of friends and family had come, including the victims mother. As always on these occasions, it takes a lot longer than planned, but it doesn't matter.

A priest led the prayers after which people were invited to say what they felt. A Rastafarian friend of the victim sung an amazing hymn on the spur of the moment, dedicated to his family, and then people, one after the other, voiced their love for this man.

In 2007, I'd been at this very place to photograph the crime scene. Tonight I couldn't see through my viewfinder as I was overcome by emotion, tears were going down my face. My thoughts go out with all of the people present.

*He will remain nameless out of respect and because of an ongoing trial, but for the record, we were the only media invited by the family and the only media present.



© Magnus Andersson



© Magnus Andersson



© Magnus Andersson

Skate or die!

© Magnus Andersson 2008

On Friday we'll be having a feature on skate parks in South London. The shot at the top is for the front page, but I've yet to see what going on inside on the double page spread. What follows is unrelated commentary.


© Magnus Andersson 2008

I used to skate as a kid in Sweden and I grew up on Thrasher Magazine and especially the photography of a guy simply called O. He was the don.


© Magnus Andersson 2008

Lots of fish eye photography, lots of natural light, long before flash photography started dominating the scene. I wish I could link to his home page here, but you try googling 'O' and 'skate' and 'photography' and see what you come up with.


© Magnus Andersson 2008

Add/subtract to that search 'legendary photographer', 'seminal' etc, but still nothing. Maybe 'O' died, who knows, but his images of saturated pool riding, hand plants, Christ air's etc in the Californian 80's sun is still very much in my mind. If you have the link, please post a comment.


© Magnus Andersson 2008

I seem to remember that he was a Nikon guy as well, maybe eventually a Nikon F4 shooter. Not quite sure why I remember this as it was way before I started shooting seriously myself, I was just happy to skate.


© Magnus Andersson 2008

My best friend Daniel and me used to rip it up in our home town and around 1987-88 nobody could touch us. Daniel was the master of the big ollie and I was the first one to land an ollie airwalk.


© Magnus Andersson 2008

We gave up when kids half our age landed the ollie kick flip more frequently than us, but we're still best friends today, dreaming back to our days of fluid movement.


© Magnus Andersson 2008

Come to South London, skate or die. I used to ride a Steve Caballero Powell & Peralta board just because he used to do the big air. Indy trucks with Rat Bones underneath.

Tony Hawk was just a wannabee at the time. I've still got a skateboard in my closet (literally) and I've used it only once to ride down the local supermarket in two years. I felt such a fool. Back in the day I would have called myself a poser. The same thing applies now. I can still do an ollie though. No, really, I can.


© Magnus Andersson 2008

Nikon announces my present

It seems that the rumour I wrote about earlier was true, which means that I have found myself the perfect birthday present (providing it is as good as it seems, otherwise I'll still get the G9) - Nikon says that the P6000 will be released just a week or so before my birthday!

In case you are wondering what else is on my wish list, how about three or so Pocket Wizards, a 10.5mm fish eye lens, a very good laptop (not Apple, please, why pay extra for less performance? Its like Viagra in reverse). And two D3's.

Just to contradict myself, I wouldn't mind the new Apple iPhone 3G though...all that free 3G capability would actually be useful on the road. I would also like to attend my friend Bjorn's wedding in Sweden that month, but somebody had booked their holiday before me, so the stag do this month will have to suffice instead.

OK, I would gladly take any Apple product actually, but cash is king, and at the moment you get about twice the performance on a Window's based laptop, like-for-like money spent.

A new desktop computer would be great too, but after upgrading my RAM and getting some dirt-cheap PCI cards on eBay, my desktop - which was the absolute top-of-the-range when I bought it for for £1500 (!) in 2000 - now performs like a brand new beast! So that will have to wait for another birthday.


Post script 19/11/08 :
The Nikon P6000 didn't live up to its expectations, neither did the Canon G10. When will manufacturers take note of performance in low light? I would have been happy with only 6-8MP if it only could perform without having to use a flash, similar to the (now) old Fuji f31fd.

The developers behind these things must be whipped daily by marketers who have research data found in focus groups, telling them that more mega pixels is what the consumer wants. Fools, bloody fools, consumers, researchers and developers alike.

The Panasonic LX-3 is the only alternative at the moment, but even that falls a little short, although not by much. A P6000/G10/LX-3 with usable ISO up to 3200, and my money - along with every other photojournalist - is spent on you, Nikon/Canon/Panasonic. As it stands I am not spending a penny on any of you.

Genie in a bottle

The strobist page is just sensational. He's got so many useful tutorials on there that I cant understand how he has time to be a newspaper photographer as well?! Anyway, one of the posts got me thinking a bit. It basically explains how you can override your cameras max sync speed (1/250th in my case). Sadly, my D2Hs hasn't got the electronic shutter needed for this, so I am stuck at that max speed (we're not discussing FP sync here, by the way, a different beast altogether). I also sold my old trusty D70 earlier this year. However, I know that before they upgraded to D2Hs here at the newspaper, they used to shoot on Nikon D1H. Not a great camera, I know, but it has the required electronic shutter. I brought one home to try out over the weekend and I have been charging its batteries ever since.


© Magnus Andersson

The above bottle was shot as follows: SB-800 (left) on PC cord, SB-80DX on slave, both on 1/128 power, f/20, 1/16,000 sec, ISO 800 (no post processing at all). Yes, sixteen thousandth of a second - that's 0.0000625 seconds. Insane. I just wish I could use this for work, but it seems unlikely as the batteries for these old cameras are completely knackered. Lasts maybe 30min, maybe less, so I cant risk it on a job just yet.

Gear heads only

Alleged Nikon P6000

I have been seeing a bit of movement on this lately, and I do hope its true. I'm about to spend some cash on a new compact, and this would fit the bill perfectly. Would easily whup G9-butt in the ISO stakes.

Unless the Canon G10 and subsequent G9 price drop is true, and the Nikon rumour proves wrong, of course...

The alleged Nikon P6000 certainly looks good, but where's the front dial wheel as seen on their D-series SLR's? And why so many mega pixels???

Loose ends

Strawberries sans cream © Magnus Andersson

A few of my blog postings seem to end in the words 'more on that later', but frankly, once I've posted something I don't necessarily feel the need to go back and revisit it once again. But in attempt to be diligent and to keep you, my fine readers, coming back, I shall tie up some loose ends and give you closure (sort of) on one thing: Wimbledon.

It obviously finished a while ago now, but for me it was a really good insight into how a global sporting event like this works. I get a feeling that the same togs tend to go every year, so if you have a good year, your agency/paper/magazine will ask you to do it again the next year. For me it was a bit of a mess though, because I'd never covered sports before, let alone such a major event. I look at sports photography quite a lot, but seeing what kind of pictures that are being used and then trying to teach yourself exactly that are two very different things. First of all you need the kit.

I'm ashamed to tell you what kind of kit my newspaper supplies me with after having been at Wimbledon but here goes: one Nikon D2Hs (no spare body, just ONE), 17-35/2.8, 50/1.8 and a 80-200/2.8. That's it.


Swedish veteran Bjorkman lays into one © Magnus Andersson

Not a lot that you can do with that at a sporting event for sure, but luckily I own a 300/2.8 personally, and that came in handy, especially on the cropped D2Hs sensor, but overall, I felt like
I was back doing work experience again, watching all these 400 VR's and 600mm's and 2-3 bodies dangling off each photographer, while I had to make do with a student kit. Allegedly we will upgrade our kit in a year or so. Ho hum.


Court One from the corner pit © Magnus Andersson

However, help was at hand. Nikon and Canon were both there, and they basically let you have any kit you wanted for a day or two - as long as you signed your life away. That meant I was swinging D3's and D300 all day long, and let me tell you, the D3 is the shit. I've never felt a camera to be that responsive and intuitive in my life, and the files that it produces are wonderful. Combine that with a super fast AF, superb colour rendering and high ISO performance and you have a camera that every single newspaper photographer would want to own at least two of. Many thanks to Alex and the rest of the staff at Nikon UK for sorting me out on my days at the Championship.

Sadly, I managed to get myself barred as well...


Centre Court from the stand pit © Magnus Andersson

My pass allowed me access for the first ten days, and after that they take a view on who can come and why. I asked if I could come on Ladies Final day (Saturday, it ends the next day) and was told it was OK. Never mind that I wasn't paid for this, going to shoot Wimbledon is a rare opportunity so I got up early to get to (unpaid) work that morning, even though I had worked 14 days in a row by this stage. I paid the parking attendant his £25 (parking fee's are ridiculous) and went to the entrances. I put the unwanted of my gear in my locker inside the photographic area, then went to the Nikon people to pick up some much wanted gear and headed to Centre Court.


Court 18 from above © Magnus Andersson

First off was the Williams' sisters final and I just made it in time. Three security guys checked my pass and let me in. I got a spot near the baseline, right next to a big TV camera, but there were still a few empty seats around us, so I was OK for elbow space. The final unfolded in two straight sets, a blessing when it comes to editing. I don't envy the guys who had to shoot the men's final. Five long sets with several rain delays. They had to be there at 2pm and probably didn't leave until long after midnight, and got wet in between...


Shot on a borrowed Nikon D3 & 14mm 2.8 © Magnus Andersson

Next I was headed over to Court One to cover teenage wonder kid Laura Robson in her final. I heard somebody shout my name and turned around to find Russell from the photo office chasing me. He came up and asked me in his stern Scottish tones: 'Were you in the pit at the Ladies final'? I said: 'Yes'. He told me that I wasn't supposed to be there, that I was in breach of Wimbledon rules by being there and taking pictures.


Bjorkman squeeze down to fit my full frame © Magnus Andersson

I thought 'Oh shit, I'm out the door right now'. I was taken back to the office to find out how it had happened that I was let in to that Williams final. It turned out that that they have a sticker system on Finals' days and I had not been assigned one, and hence wasn't allowed to shoot that final. My bad. I wasn't aware of this system, but rules are rules. I think security had a lapse for not spotting the missing sticker on my badge, but I apologised profusely to Russell and his colleagues for causing trouble when I wasn't even aware that I was.


Line umpire tries to ignore photographer © Magnus Andersson

What happened next was rough but fair. Russell had a quick chat with Bob and then spelt it out for me: 'You are banned from Wimbledon next year. Your newspaper is welcome, but you, personally, can't come back. Now go and photograph the final you came to photograph'. And he left it at that, so thanks Russell, for letting me shoot Laura's match.


Laura Robson kisses her trophy © Magnus Andersson

Next year I hope one of my colleagues will learn from my mistakes. Anyway, I'd still like to thank Bob Martin, Russell Cheyne, Trisha and the French girl (still don't know her name) for making it a great event for me.

Thought for the day: Ignorance might be an explanation, but its not an excuse.


Venus Williams mesmerized by her new bling © Magnus Andersson

Automatic Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor = camera porn

The first proper SLR camera that I bought for myself was a Canon 1000 F/N, but before that, the first SLR that I ever used properly was a Nikon F3 (left). This was when I was studying at Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg, early 90's, and was a member of the CFFC (Chalmers Film & Foto Kommitte). The F3, even by today's standards, is a beautiful piece of work. We used to shoot T-Max 3200 on gig nights down in the student union and we processed the first roll during the show and managed to hang prints in the place before the gig was over! Proper dip'n'dunk.

I don't know if it was the superb handling and feel of the F3 that made me a Nikon-head, but I've remained true ever since (apart from straying over for a Canon 20D, but gave it up for a Nikon D2x). Sadly, at least in the high-ISO stakes, Nikon have been lagging behind Canon for quite a while. Until the D3 (left) arrived. The race was over and image quality counted for more than mere megapixels, at least for us photojournalists.

I'm pretty sure that lens quality is the next area-for-improvement rather than MP, but for sure, consumers are still fooled into buying more pixels and less quality. (And if Canon comes up with the goods, I'll switch, OK?)

Today Nikon have announced the D700 and the flash SB-900. These two products - to me - is camera porn. I love all things technical, love reading the specs, love trying out all the functions. And my girlfriend suffers.

But I also feel sorry for all the people that have bought the D300. Surely a D700 - with the superb sensor of the D3 - is a much better option if you want to go with a smaller camera body (and presumably a smaller budget)?

And for D3 users there's another annoyance: the have introduced dust removal on the D700 as well, so why buy a D3 anymore? Anyway, I don't want to berate the cameras that I love the most and its good to see that Nikon are forging ahead. Having been at Wimbledon the past week I have also noticed a fair shift away from the white lenses as well, so come on Nikon!

And when uber-photographer and SportsShooter.com founder Robert Hanashiro of USA Today a - a long time Canon user - says that they have switched to Nikon, it means a lot (p.2 in the interview).

As for image quality though, there's only one brand to trust: Swedish-made Hasselblad's of course...I have a whole (film) system gathering dust at home, any takers? Their 39MP sensor produces some decent stuff though, I have to admit.

But so does the D2Hs, my current work camera, and it only boasts 4MP (below).


Nadal goes for power on a double handed forehand shot. © Magnus Andersson