Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat?

Well have you been to the movies lately? this is one well worth keeping so when you get harassed for showing your camera in a public place

What is it with photographers these days? Are they really all terrorists, or does everyone just think they are?

Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We’ve been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Except that it’s nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography.

Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat? | Technology | The Guardian

Photojournalist uses G9 for assignment

There is a great post on Strobist for the Canon G9 users on how to get the most out of your G9 using flash and  how they used a G9 shooting for an assignment.
It is no wonder that many PJ’s are now using the G9 as it is a pocket size  DSLR. Heck you can even use Nikon speedlights with this baby so why wouldn’t you buy a G9

Still not convinced?
Magnum Photographer Alex Majoli also used Olympus point and shoots in 2005  and shot many assignments using an Olympus C-8080 in remote and dangerous places and won awards

Now back in 2005 that is considered very old technology for a digital camera compared to today’s G9 era, so when you here some one complain of shutter lag tell them to read this article
It’s the photographer, not the camera that is the important piece of the kit in the equation.

Rob Galbraith: Alex Majoli points and shoots >>

Strobist: On Assignment, Par for the Course >>

 

Ricoh GX100 Review

The people over at Luminous Landscapes have a review on the Ricoh GX100 another RAW shooting compact (which shoots in Adobes Digital Negative, .dng) There are some comparisons to the G9 in the article as well but as the GX100 takes 5 seconds to write the RAW file it’s not one for me

Go to article >>>

Tricks with the AF Illuminator on the G9

It may be a bit odd to consider how the AF (auto-focus) illuminator can be used as a creative tool to change the emphasis in your images especially with portraits, candid’s and street photography.

In Fine Art Photography, there is often a lot of discussion as to wether the subject is, or was, camera aware! Meaning; did they know they were, or might be photographed. Non of which maters outside the elite fine art schools however, so I am not going into a philosophical debate here as there is no right or wrong answer, but look at ways on how you can make the subject respond to your wishes.

Candid’s

AF Illuminator off: The idea with candid photography is they are ‘not’ aware of your presence OR intentions, so the AF illuminator should be off! The Canon G9 still focuses fine unless in low contrast situations like dingy, dark conditions or foggy, misty mornings as the AF illuminates and adds contrast to a scene.

Aware

AF Illuminator On: I discovered quite by accident that the AF illuminator light works constantly unless you turn it off. It’s not the same as my Nikon which automatically switches on, in low light conditions.

So there I am photographing people from the bus as it goes by, and realising they all keep looking up, puzzled, with some occasional angry glares. I only realised when taking a picture of myself in a mirror just how intense that green light is, and it was on! Oops… (well that will make my friend a bit happier over on ‘Adventures of an Idiot-occasional notes of a photo freak’ who writes about his photography mistakes, as it shows we all make them and it not just him, honest Mike!)

From that, now happy accident (a fine art term) I found the interaction is quite interesting as more random strangers were looking directly at me in a very natural way. So it has potential for some interesting shots. It also gets the attention form small children and the occasional pet when they are not expecting it and gets them to look at the camera, but don’t over do it all in one session, even pets and children will get bored of being dazzled with intense green light unless they are weird or are trying really hard to please you photographic endeavour.

Optical viewfinder

If you are wanting to use the optical viewfinder as a way of composing and shooting, it is hard to give advice as to wether the AF Illuminator should be on or off, that said if you are shooting dark subjects the AF Illuminator will show a little green dot on the subject (like a laser sight from the movies, but green and un-focused; OK, so its not like that at all!) but it is easier to see than the black un-illuminated cross hairs in the viewfinder against dark subjects. so it might be best to have it switched on.

Bad light

AF Illuminator On: As I mentioned above, if the G9 is struggling to focus like in a night club, a foggy day or even in macro shooting (you may be blocking available light) it’s best to leave switched on. The AF illuminator won’t help focus over very long distances such as landscapes and you may need to switch to Manual Focus (MF) That said if there is light the lens should focus at infinity, or if you can’t see well enough yourself set the lens manually to infinity and all should be good.

Torch

The AF Illuminator can also be used as an emergency torch as it always switches on when AUTO is set on the mode dial and the shutter button is pressed half way down, ideal for a quick search in your camera bag, or looking for the key hole. All you have to remember in the number 4 as its four clicks from the gap in the shooting modes on the mode dial going anti-clock wise, play with it and you will see what I mean.

 

The down side to all this is there is no easy method to change the AF Illuminator without going into the menu and scrolling through.

Setting up snap shooting mode on the G9

How to Set up snap shooting mode

Last week during my post on the ‘Bomb threat in Derby’ I mentioned about having my G9 set at hyperfocal distance in a “Custom Control so it is always available to me.” I have given the details on how to set it up and a whole range of options for you to choose bellow, to set the G9 up for your style of shooting using custom colours etc.

This makes the Canon PowerShot G9 very fast from power up to pressing the shutter; (about a second) reaching for my G9 and powering it on at the same time means as soon as it is at my eye, its ready to shoot as it does not need to focus, and yet the pictures appear very sharp and in focus, this is how street photography, reportage, war, documentary and landscapes were often done with manual focus, film rangefinders, like the Leica.

Note I say ‘appear’ very sharp and in focus, and that is because there is actually only one plane of actual focus! The rest is down to depth of field from the given aperture and its relation to the point in focus.

In the days of film, most interchangeable lenses had hyperfocal distance scales and Infra Red marker (IR light focuses at a different plane to daylight, so a set mark was often found on the lens to re adjust the distance, I will be doing a separate article on this for the G9) to aid in this matter and was often used a lot more than it is now, mainly because digital lenses seem to have this scale missing from their lenses.

This is even rarer in a point and shoot, but the G9 can be set up for hyperfocal shooting and IR shooting too thanks to the people behind DOF Master.com and I suggest you have a good read of their website page if you want a better understanding of what hyperfocal is and does.

The actual distance you set on the G9 varies depending on the sort of shooting you do. You might want it shorter if you do Landscapes and want more detail in the foreground for example or shoot candid’s from across the table but around 10 feet seems to be good for most people/subjects. The aperture you use also makes a difference; a higher f number will give more depth of apparent sharpness than a low f number.

Another factor to consider is the lens length, the longer the lens the shorter the hyperfocal range will be. Setting the G9 at its widest zoom gives the biggest scope for a given aperture and widest hyperfocal distance but you could zoom out the lens and set it as a custom option if that is what you need.

The distance you set and F number combination gives you the hyperfocal ability, which means you can set the G9 how you want for the style of shooting you do most and save it as a custom setting (C1 or C2) for a better understanding of how the focus and aperture affects the nearest point in apparent focus to the furthest go to DOF MASTER.com  and select the G9 from the drop down menu. (The focal length for the G9 is 7.4mm at its widest setting)

As an example my set up is 9 feet and set at f4.5 which gives me 3.84 feet to infinity. In practice this works out as a simple guide that anything more than arms length (and a bit) is in apparent focus, it is also easy to estimate! At f2.8 this is under 5 feet to infinity. I can alter the Aperture to adjust exposure using the Control dial on the back with my thumb

Setting it up