Photo Safaris By Region AFRICA - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya - Namibia—Land of the Himba - Cape Town—Photo Tour for Women ANTARCTICA - Ultimate Antarctica ASIA - Angkor Wat & Bagan - China's Winter Tigers & Giant Pandas - Japan's Winter Wildlife - India—The Palace on Wheels - Snow Monkeys & Giant Pandas - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - Great Rivers & Mountains of China & Tibet - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival EUROPE - Britain's Winter Birdlife - Eclectic Holland - Wildlife of Hungary & Transylvania - Transylvania—Romania of Myth & Legend - Venice - Tuscany - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Provence - Spitsbergen—The Pack Ice Voyage - Ultimate Puffins - Albania, Macedonia & Montenegro NORTH AMERICA - Ultimate Wolves - Ultimate Yellowstone - Horses & Icons of the Wild West in Winter - Nature & Digital Photo Seminars with John Shaw - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - Great Smoky Mountains - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Predatory Animals of North America - Action & Adventure Sports - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage - Glacier National Park Field Workshop - Denali National Park in Autumn - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - South Dakota Wildlife—Bison Roundup & Mount Rushmore - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women PACIFICA - Papua New Guinea SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA - Patagonia' Mountain Landscapes - Baja California—Whales, Wildlife & Wilderness - Easter Island & Machu Picchu - Mexico's Colonial Heartland Photo Safaris By Date JANUARY - Ultimate Antarctica - Ultimate Wolves - Ultimate Yellowstone - Angkor Wat & Bagan - Britain's Winter Birdlife FEBRUARY - China's Winter Tigers & Giant Pandas - Horses & Icons of the Wild West in Winter - Nature & Digital Photo Seminars with John Shaw - Japan's Winter Wildlife MARCH - Baja California—Whales, Wildlife & Wilderness - Monument Valley & Slot Canyons - India—The Palace on Wheels APRIL - Nature & Digital Photo Seminar with John Shaw - Patagonia' Mountain Landscapes - Eclectic Holland - Great Smoky Mountains - Wildlife of Hungary & Transylvania MAY - Grand Canyon at Havasu Falls - Transylvania—Romania of Myth & Legend - Venice - Tuscany - Turkey—Continental Crossroads - Snow Monkeys & Giant Pandas JUNE - Predatory Animals of North America in Spring - Action & Adventure Sports - Essential China—Iconic Landmarks & Landscapes - Provence JULY - Spitsbergen—The Pack Ice Voyage - Ultimate Puffins AUGUST - Humpback Whales of Alaska's Inside Passage - Glacier National Park Field Workshop - Denali National Park in Autumn SEPTEMBER - Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya - Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in Autumn - Great Rivers & Mountains of China & Tibet - Albania, Macedonia & Montenegro - Namibia—Land of the Himba - Mongolia—The Golden Eagle Festival - Predatory Animals of North America in Autumn - South Dakota Wildlife—Bison Roundup & Mount Rushmore OCTOBER - Papua New Guinea - World's Best Raptor Shoot - Nova Scotia—Photo Tour for Women - Nature & Digital Photo Seminars with John Shaw - Easter Island & Machu Picchu - Mexico's Colonial Heartland NOVEMBER - Wet & Wild—Andean Condors and Iquazú Falls DECEMBER - No tours scheduled for December 2008 JANUARY 2009 - Cape Town—Photo Tour for Women

		By John Shaw John Shaw Nature & Digital Photography Workshops Click here for locations and dates Mexico's Colonial Heartland March 17–24, 2007 Horses and Icons of the Wild West August 26–September 1, 2007 Masai Mara Wildlife Reserve, Kenya September 7–21, 2007 Australia Wildlife November 1–20, 2007 There's a lot of interest in panoramic photography right now, in taking pictures with at least a 1:3 proportion. If you primarily want to make prints in this format, you can shoot a series of 35mm images, overlapping each about 15-20% or so, and combine them in your computer using a high-end image processor such as Photoshop. In fact, if prints are your preferred end point I would suggest going this route, as scanning individual 35mm slides is a lot easier than scanning other film formats. With enough RAM in your computer you can string together as many images as you want. But if you want to shoot original film, to take a panoramic image right in the field, your choice of camera is very limited. Basically there are several ways of doing this. I'll discount APS cameras right off the bat. Film choices are extremely limited in APS, plus the resulting negative is really a masked-down 10x30mm area of the film. This small image size is the same problem with systems that mask down a standard 35mm slide with a so-called panoramic adapter. Minolta used to offer a panoramic mask, which would crop the standard 35mm image size to 12x36mm. That's still extremely small; one-third of a standard 35mm slide does not lead to quality reproduction. The only real choices left are between cameras that make a long image on 35mm film, and those that use 120/220 films. These I consider real panoramic cameras — cameras specifically designed for pans. There are some definite advantages and disadvantages to both film sizes. In 35mm you have a choice of two cameras, both of which yield 24x65mm images. The Mamiya 7 system has a 35mm adapter accessory, but of course you have to first buy into the system. If you already own a Mamiya outfit this might be a way to go, but I would not recommend purchasing the camera if all you want is the panoramic ability. There's nothing wrong with the Mamiya; it's just an expensive way to go compared to the other choice, the Hasselblad X-Pan (which is actually manufactured by Fuji, not Hasselblad). The X-Pan in my opinion is the absolute best choice if you want the convenience of 35mm film, which you already carry for your Nikon or Canon SLR. A major advantage of the X-Pan is that the camera and lenses are really quite small and lightweight, thus adding them to the ton of equipment you already carry is not a tremendous problem. You'll have the camera with you in the field when you want it. The camera is a rangefinder with a built-in TTL meter and motor winder. You can switch between the 24x65mm pan format and standard 24x36mm format on the same roll of film at any time. Right now there are two lenses available, a 45mm and a 90mm, while a super-wide 30mm (which takes an accessory viewfinder) has been announced. Best of all, in terms of the pan world this is an extremely affordable system, since a camera with 45mm lens retails for a street price of around $2000. The 90mm retail price is about $575, but watch out if you want that 30mm. The only price I've seen for it is a whopping $2600, more expensive than the rest of the system combined. So what are the drawbacks? Actually I see only one, which might or might not affect you. If you're shooting for your own pleasure, or if you primarily want to produce images for magazine articles or book reproduction, then this 24x65mm format is superb. But if you want to sell images as advertisements, then you had better go to a camera that takes 120 film. Panoramic Images is a stock agency that, as the name implies, deals only with pan images. Here's what they say about the sales potential of pans on 35mm film (and I'm quoting here from their photographers' newsletter): "PI's sales philosophy has been "Show Big, Sell Big." Medium format imagery outshines 35mm imagery on the light table every time and allows better reproduction quality. We used to maintain 35mm pans in our files, but there were virtually no sales from this material. While we encourage you to experiment with this format, we are not accepting 35mm pans for our files." Basically their clients, primarily the advertising world, are used to seeing and dealing with medium format pan images, particularly the traditional 6x17cm image. That's a pretty big chunk of film - actual image size 56x168mm, a bit more than six times the area of a 35mm pan - to drop on a light table. In this case, bigger is better. I'm positive this preference for big images will change in the future, and 35mm pans will become quite acceptable in the ad world, but right now the 6x17cm format is king. Bigger image size, however, means that all the hassles and problems are also bigger. To get this image you're going to spend a lot more money and carry a much larger camera body with much larger lenses. And you're going to learn how to make every mistake possible. In fact you'll learn to repeat your mistakes time and again. There are two fixed lens (non-rotational, that is) medium format cameras on the market: the Linhof 617SIII and the Fuji GX617. Of the two, the latter is more popular and easier to find. The GX camera offers interchangeable lenses, while its predecessor, the G617, did not. It came with a fixed 105mm lens. The older camera is the best deal pricewise if you want to get started in medium format panoramic work. I've seen used ones advertised in mint condition for about $2250-2500. Having only one lens is really not as bad as it sounds, as not all subjects are pan potential. The 105mm translates into roughly the 35mm lens equivalents of a 22mm horizontally and a 45mm vertically. But the "big gun" is the newer Fuji GX617. This is the system for the serious panoramic shooter who wants the convenience of a roll film pan camera. The alternatives are a 6x17cm roll holder for a large format view camera, or a special panoramic view camera like the V-Pan. I would stick with the Fuji unless you're already a view camera user. Basically this thing is a giant point-and-shoot camera with interchangeable lenses. There are four lenses available: a 90mm 5.6, a 105mm 8 (the same lens as on the older camera), a 180mm 6.7 (which you can consider as a "normal" lens), and a 300mm 8. I would suggest starting with the 90mm and the 180mm, but even so be prepared to max out your credit card. The body alone is about $2600, while the 90mm is another $2600 plus $2350 for the 180mm. These prices reflect the facts that production of these cameras is extremely limited (Fuji sells every one they can make) and that for practical purposes the bodies are hand-made. A camera with the 90mm and 180mm lenses takes up quite a bit of space so you'll end up carrying another whole camera bag; the camera and lenses are not that heavy but they are certainly bulky. The 180mm, by itself, measures 6 inches x 8 inches x 4 inches. For those of us used to all the bells and whistles of current 35mm cameras, dealing with the GX617 panoramic camera can be quite a shock. For example, there is no meter in the camera, no motor, no shutter, no TTL viewing, no auto exposure, no viewfinder. This is a box that holds the film, and that's all it is. You can use either 120 film for 4 frames on a roll, or 220 film for 8 frames. You will quickly learn to opt for 120 film for a simple reason: you can't change lenses if there is film in the camera. The "lens mount" is actually the entire front panel of the camera body. Take off the lens, open the back, and you can stick your arm right through the camera body. Each lens comes with a finder, which you insert in a special shoe on top of the camera. When you view through it, the finder shows the pan format of that lens as an outlined image, but remember that you are not viewing through the lens itself. The frame lines are reasonably accurate for working distant subjects, and much better for composing an image than the fixed finder on the earlier Fuji pan camera. Most people who use this camera carry around the viewfinders, using them to view potential compositions before dragging out everything else. By the way, the finders do have a distinct color cast which you must learn to ignore. There are two accessories which you'll end up adding if you get serious about panoramic work with this camera. First of all, both the 90mm and the 105mm lenses need a one-stop ND center filter. Almost all wide-angle lenses show light fall-off along the edges of the frame, and the extreme pan format exaggerates this fact. Think about this: with a short lens where the elements are close to the camera, the distance from the lens to the center of the film is much less than the distance from the lens to the sides of the film. Since light falls off at the square of the distance, the edges of the frame receive considerably less light, one stop in this case. To even this out you need to add one stop on ND right in the center of the image. That center filter isn't inexpensive, but if you're shooting with an expanse of even tonality in the frame — the clear blue sky for example — you need it. Just leave the filter on the lens at all times, but remember that it has cost you one stop of light to the film. You have to add one stop additional light to any meter reading you take, whether with a hand meter or your SLR's TTL meter when you're shooting with either the 90mm or the 105mm. With all the lenses you must manually set both the -stops and the shutter speed. These are Fujinon view camera lenses mounted for the pan camera in standard Copal #0 shutters. Like all view camera lenses you must also cock the shutter before each shot. Shutter speeds are from 1 second to 1/500 second. With these speeds you use the shutter release on the top of the camera, but with longer speeds you must use the release on the lens itself. With the long speeds you trip the lens shutter, then squeeze the top shutter button to release the film advance clutch mechanism so that you can wind the film to the next frame. Get in the habit of always winding after each shot, or you'll double and triple expose lots of images. Long exposures are determined by the old "one- thousand-and-one, one-thousand-and-two" routine, except that two-second exposures of static subjects are easier to do with two one-second shutter trips. Just don't wind the film until after the second exposure. Focusing the lenses is done by estimating your subject distance, which works fine until you try to work a close-in subject. Then you'll want the other useful accessory, a ground glass back for precise focusing and framing. Just as with changing lenses, you cannot use this if there is film in the camera (once again a reason to only use 120 film). You open the back of the camera, mount the ground glass back which incorporates a focusing hood, open the lens's shutter by setting it to "B" while using a locking cable release, and open the aperture all the way. Now you can see an image upside down and backwards on the ground glass. You might want to carry a dark cloth to help cut extraneous light, particularly when using the 90mm. Get a loupe to use on the ground glass for precise focus and composition. When you're all set, pull the ground glass back off, and remember to close the shutter by unlocking the cable release before loading film or you will have exposed the first frame. Shoot four frames, and it's time to reload. Here's a format where you shoot nine rolls of film to equal the number of shots on one roll of standard 35mm. As a finishing touch, all panoramic images need to be mounted before you show them. Here are two sources for both 35mm and 2 pan mounts: The Stock Solution 307 West 200 South Salt Lake City, UT 84101 (800) 777-2076 Franklin Photo Products 2113 East Michigan Blvd. Michigan City, IN 46360 (800) 238-9777 Right now, nothing equals the impact of a 6x17cm pan image, and I think the big Fuji is absolutely the way to get there. Questions and Answers John Shaw will answer readers' questions in his bi-monthly column regarding equipment and photography techniques in the field. He can be contacted via e-mail at this address: johnshaw@photosafaris.com. Due to the anticipated volume of inquiries John cannot answer questions individually, but he will cover a wide range of topics within each column. The new columns will come on-line May 1, July 1 and September 1. We look forward to hearing from you.

	Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc. P.O. Box 655, Vashon Island, Washington USA 98070 Phone: (206) 463-5383   Fax: (206) 463-5484    Email: info@photosafaris.com Copyright © 2008, Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Inc.