stephentrainor.com

Malhamdale, North Yorkshire

2012-11-07T19:50:11Z

A couple of a months ago (already – can't believe it), we spent three weeks back in the UK, visiting friends and family, running a half marathon, and attending a wedding in Cambridge.

With a few days to spare between the Great North Run and the wedding, we decided to stay in Malham, North Yorkshire. The last time I’d visited North Yorkshire was back in the 1980s to Swaledale on a school camping trip – an occasion that brings back memories of mud, rain and damp canvas more than anything else.

This time round we came better prepared in terms of waterproof gear, but as it turned out, we didn’t need it so much. A 5-mile loop walk past Gordale Scare and Malham Cove took us over some higher ground that provided some wonderful views (above).

Malham Cove’s limestone pavement photographs surprisingly well in midday light. On this trip, given the wide variety of clothing required for all our other activities, I didn’t bring an SLR. Instead, Alice brought along her Lumix GX1 – a Micro FourThirds camera, which I borrowed for the shots on this page. It performed very well indeed, although I didn’t challenge it in any low light situations.

On our second day hiking, we headed up to Malham Tarn, on what proved to be a slightly wetter and more blustery day. The weather was moving quickly providing some good opportunities to catch dramatic light on the limestone formations above Malham Cove:

A visit to Sedona [1]

2011-11-10T06:06:12Z

Alice and I planned a week in Sedona intended to be timed for peak fall colour in Oak Creek Canyon. As things turned out, we never really saw peak colour.

For one, we ended up working rather longer than planned (releasing a new product, finally). Secondly, we were simply too late.

While much of Colorado saw later than usual changes in the aspen (although the Cottonwoods were overall very disappointing), this trend did not appear to extend to Oak Creek.

Nonetheless, by the time the software was out the door, an early season snow storm arrived in town and dropped some very attractive snow overnight on Friday:

Sedona Snow (click image for larger view)

Red rock and fresh snow makes for an irresistible combination, and Airport Mesa had attracted a decent group of photographers by early morning.

Following a quick coffee, we headed up Oak Creek, parking at West Fork to take our first look at one of America’s most renowned day-hikes.

Snow at West Fork (click image for larger view)

While peak colour was past, there was still plenty of foliage on the trees to collect the snow.

We didn’t exactly arrive early (around 10am, I think), but the car park was mostly empty – something I found unbelievable. There can be only once in a year at most when there’s fresh snow on late autumn forest (and I imagine in some years, it doesn’t happen at all, with the leaves fallen before the snow arrives). Yet, the usual crowd decided to stay at home. I certainly wasn’t complaining however!

West Fork – Oak Creek (click image for larger view)

Some of the best compositions I found were close to the car park. There is a good variety of trees there and plenty of space to find different juxtapositions of rock and trees, including some colour hanging on the face of the snow:

Last Call (click image for larger view)

After a largely lazy afternoon, we hung around Upper Red Rock Road to see if the light would break over Cathedral Rock. It did not, but at the last, the sun escaped between the clouds and Woodchute Mountain to the west:

Last Blast (click image for larger view)

We made it to a suitable spot with seconds to spare. I think I ran a 400m personal best back to the car from my tripod, having chosen the wrong lens. I’m sure many people think of landscape photography as a sleepy pastime, but no, to paraphrase Steve Jobs, it exists at the intersection of art, technology and sport!

51 weeks and counting

2011-11-05T06:07:00Z

I figured I should post something here before the bell tolled on a full year of blog silence. It’s been, shall we say, an interesting year – one which provided few opportunities for photography.

Since settling back in Colorado in August, I’ve had a few opportunities to start shooting again. Alice and I took a road trip around Colorado to try and catch some of the fall colour.

Starting out in Aspen, we proceeded from there to Crested Butte then down to Ridgway and Telluride. Without at doubt, the San Juans of SW Colorado are my favourite part of the state.

Fall Colour on Last Dollar Road (click image for larger view)

The picture this year was very mixed – some very poor conditions (particularly around McClure Pass – I’ve seen shots from here in some years that are amongst the very best aspen images you’ll find), but also some very intense, bright colours in other parts of the state.

The reds and oranges along Last Dollar Road were the best I’ve seen them (in four years of visiting):

Full Spectrum (click image for larger view)

Dallas Divide did not disappoint either, with some glowing leaves mixed with cloud and snow (although not as much as was to arrive a couple of days after this shot):

Full Spectrum (click image for larger view)

I’ll post a few more in the coming days.

Back on the road [2]

2010-11-13T02:27:06Z

For the first time in a long while, the camera had a chance to come out and play on a recent, brief trip over to Utah. With our friends Doug and Terri, we headed over to Zion National Park hoping to catch some peak autumn colour. While we were around a week early for that, things were still looking very pretty in the Narrows:

Virgin River Narrows (click image for larger view)

On the day of our hike, the river was running at around 52 cfm (cubic feet per minute), less than half the max allowed by the park service for walkers to enter the Narrows. Water temperature was a chilly 46F, so I was glad we hired dry-suit pants from the Zion Adventure Company. (We saw a couple of parties wading up-stream in bare legs and running shoes – they didn’t look happy and didn’t stay very long. Quel surprise.)

Wall Street (click image for larger view)

We ventured as far as the Wall Street section before heading back out. The day was perfect – blue skies overhead (giving a very cool feel to the canyon) and perfectly still – great for foliage shots (unlike my visit last year where things were moving way too much in the wind).

The next day, we explored a couple of other areas of the park on the hunt for some decent colour. At higher elevation, the maples were turning nicely:

Mixed Maples (click image for larger view)

We headed back to Colorado via Scenic Byway 12 and Route 24 – one of the great drives of the American West – passing through Capitol Reef National Park just in time for sundown:

Chimney Rock (click image for larger view)

…then onward to Moab for the night. The next morning, we briefly explored Negro Bill Canyon, located off the 128 road that follows the Colorado River back towards I70. Some nice scenes in the shady parts of the canyon (sadly, not too many shady areas left by the time we got there):

Autumn cactus (click image for larger view)

Wish we could have spent longer, but it’s still possible to see a ton of great stuff in just a couple of days.

Blooming Arches [4]

2010-05-11T22:30:26Z

Spring is sprung in Arches National Park. The image above is from this morning, right by the roadside at Courthouse Towers, minutes from the park entrance.

I shared this spot with Joe Zinn who I’d previously run into at the Pawnee Buttes last June.

Joe told me that this particular plant has been around for at least the last ten years. So long as you’re equipped with a suitably wide-angle lens, it is perfectly situated for this shot (as other, more famous, photographers have long known!)

Off to the Fiery Furnace now.

New images posted [21]

2010-05-07T06:43:34Z

I’ve reprocessed and uploaded a selection of images to the New Mexico and Arizona Galleries. Please feel free to take a look around…

It was chilly in New Mexico [1]

2010-05-02T02:51:22Z

Sand, Snow, Sky (click image for larger view)

Courtesy of the Icelandic volcano, our friend Jim from the UK ended up staying for an extra week. Thinking what best to do with the additional time, we decided a brief trip back down to Santa Fe was the thing to do.

Santa Fe has great food and interesting architecture, and the prices for accommodation at this time of year were fantastic! I hadn’t expected to wake up to snow there last Friday morning however. Not too surprising I suppose, given that Santa Fe lies at 7,000 ft.

On the way back north we stopped for one night at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. They had received 18” of snow the previous night and much of it was still left. We headed out for dawn the next morning.

Sunrise was blocked by clouds, but there were still some interesting shots to be found. The image above shows the snow blending into the wind-blown dunes. The patterns and gradients contrast well with the clearing skies above, I think.

The image was converted using Nik Silver Efex Pro, which does a wonderful job at this sort of thing. I pulled the brightness down a little, increased contrast and structure before applying a red filter to darken the skies and then going further and reducing the blue sensitivity to add a touch more drama. A small amount of grain emphasized the textures found in the lower half of the shot.

Medano Creek was flowing with a wonderful mix of ice shelves and frost all being gradually eroded away by the continuous surge waves that make this such a unique place to visit.

Wave Goodbye [3]

2010-04-16T16:37:42Z

A quick update on the last few days activities:

Having successfully procured an online permit to visit the wave at 6:45am on January 1 (in Edinburgh, with a hangover), the appointment finally came around last Monday. Jim Talaric and I trekked in, arriving mid-morning and found ourselves almost last to arrive, but also last to leave.

The light was pretty decent, but things soon started to cloud up and the wind picked-up as forecast. We had planned on hanging out until late afternoon in order to shoot the Second Wave, but the deteriorating weather convinced us to high-tail it out by 2pm. Sure enough, by the time we got back towards the sandy stretch beyond the saddle, the wind was blasting us with sand and the temperature was falling. (We also encountered a grimly determined Frenchman and his young family just heading out to the Wave as all this was picking up – nuts, if you ask me.)

The temperature had fallen by around 35 degrees Farenheit by the time we got back to the car, all the way down to 39°. On the drive out along House Rock Road, it even started snowing. Not quite what I had expected. Not sure when I’ll be back to the Wave – the permit situation makes it tricky and you need to have plenty of flexibility in your plans and dates.

Things cleared up the next day and we headed out up the tricky sandy roads to White Pocket, somewhere I hadn’t planned on going by myself given the risks of getting stuck. However, Jim’s Jeep Rubicon ate up the sand and we got there with ease.

Very glad we did as the area is spectacular, although somewhat overwhelming to shoot when it’s the first time you’ve seen it – so much to point the camera at!

Next it was on to Coyote Buttes South, the last stop on my tour (as it turned out). Sunrise was clear with some nice light, but things blocked up for sunset. However, the subdued light still allowed some flattering tones to be captured in the rock formations:

After camping out two nights, it was back to Page for a fat-boy breakfast, then time to hit the road. In the end I drove the full 635 miles back to Boulder, awaking this morning to my first overcast skies in two weeks. (I needed to get back – after all, I have a product to launch tomorrow…)

Around Page, Arizona

2010-04-12T00:23:24Z

I hit a couple of the Page “classics” last night and today, Horseshoe Bend and Lower Antelope Canyon.

I’d guess that on an average non-winter’s day, on the basis of this morning’s attendance, there are probably at least 3000 photographs taken in Lower Antelope Canyon per day, so taking something original is going to be a challenge. But that’s not really the point – it’s such an amazing place, that, original or not, it’s well worth the visit.

Lower Antelope is far less of a circus than Upper. Fewer visitors and no need to be shepherded around, if you pay for a photographer’s pass.

Horseshoe bend – again, originality isn’t the theme here, but, what a view:

Off to Stud Horse Point with Jim Talaric now…

Monument Valley revisited [3]

2010-04-11T06:07:48Z

A couple from Monument Valley. I was here once before a couple of years ago, but we didn’t have enough time to do it any justice, photographically.

This time round I hired a guide for a sunrise tour of the valley (well, in fact, I booked a sunrise and sunset, but it transpired that only the morning was going to be possible…). It was an early start, but worthwhile – there’s no way you can get to these locations on the self-guided drive, nor at the right time of the morning.

The nice thing about the tour was that for the available light, the sequence of stops was carefully worked out to ensure that you could maximize the number of worthwhile subjects. After shooting the silhouette of the totem pole (above), there was a nice view back across the dunes to the west…

…before driving to catch the totem pole once again, side lit:

I must admit, I’ve have been quite happy just shooting the totem pole front side and getting some even better light on it, but still, I’m quite happy with the results.

I’m now in Page, Arizona in preparation for the “big three”, Coyote Buttes North (aka the Wave), Coyote Buttes South and White Pocket, starting Monday. Better empty those compact flash cards…

Chaco and Bisti

2010-04-08T06:04:25Z

Quick update after an excellent couple of days. I visited Chaco (or, to give it its full name: Chaco Culture National Historical Park – what a mouthful) yesterday, and spent the night in a chilly campsite.

I checked out Pueblo Bonito before setting out on the Pueblo Alto hike. Rather than do the full loop, I headed straight to New Alto, then Pueblo Alto, then returned to the overlook to try to catch the good light.

This afternoon was Bisti, around 40 minutes south of Farmington. It’s an unbelievable place with endless photographic possibilities. In one visit you can really only scratch the surface.

There are a few characteristic rock types to be found (I’m no geologist, so apologies to anyone reading this who is) and they can be found in very close proximity. The dark brown hard layer that still sits as a capstone in some places is, in others, fragmented and scattered around the pale softer rock.

Some more shapes:

Off again tomorrow, headed west…

On the road: New Mexico

2010-04-07T19:10:32Z

I set off on a road trip for a few days on Sunday, driving straight down to Taos, New Mexico. I figured that I could pay a visit to the San Francisco de Asis church in neighbouring Ranchos de Taos for sunrise.

The church above features in photographs by Ansel Adams and Paul Stroud and in paintings by Georgia O’Keefe (who lived around 60 miles away in Abiquiu). I’m sure they were attracted by the fat curves and textures of the adobe work at the north-west end of the structure.

The colours in Taos are great – bright and intense, especially on a fine April morning.

Later in the day I headed over to Farmington through what turned into a pretty unpleasant dust storm, stirred up by an approaching pacific storm system. Farmington doesn’t have that many architectural attractions, it must be said, but it does have some great signage:

More to come…

Spring Snow [2]

2010-03-29T03:51:28Z

This blog has been as bleak and barren as a harsh winter for over two months now.

Photography has been firmly in mind but my trips outdoors have not really materialized. Partly that’s the weather. Partly it’s work (it’s been busy…) and partly it’s been because I’ve been spending a high proportion of spare time hacking my way through TPE for iPhone, now happily on the cusp of being submitted to our friends at Apple.

However, with the spring storms very much in evidence the past few days, I got out to Rocky Mountain National Park last weekend for a quick morning snowshoe up to Dream Lake the day after a large dump of snow.

After the storm (click image for larger view)

Things didn’t quite go to plan. First off, I set my alarm thirty minutes too late. No idea what I was thinking, as I’d planned everything out, of course. Must have been the wine.

If it hadn’t been for Error #2, I would still have made it in time, just. Heading for the usual spot, Dream Lake, I followed the trail up to Nymph Lake and crossed over to the North. The trail heads up to the north west before cutting back south up the side of a steep slope and turning west again to Dream Lake.

Except not this time. It turned out that the usual trail was not open in winter this year (it has been the previous three years that I’ve been here). Instead, I should have headed straight west from the south side of Nymph Lake – a much more direct route, as I later discovered (an hour after sun-up). Nonetheless, once I’d reach the point of giving up on getting a sunrise shot at Dream, I explored some other options around Nymph Lake.

I think this one turned out OK:

Nymph Lake Trail (click image for larger view)

Big changes ahead for me in the coming days and weeks (more of which later), but, with luck, I’m going to have some significant time to dedicated to photography over the next couple of months, so I hope there’ll be more to post.

A message from Steve? [7]

2010-01-30T18:53:04Z

So with suspicious timing, on Wednesday, day of the launch of the iPad, my venerable MacBook Pro (born circa 2006) decided to succumb to a seizure and is currently in a hard disk induced coma. A message from Steve to buy his latest toy?

Somewhat more suspiciously, Alice’s much younger MacBook Pro decided to do precisely the same just yesterday. We’ve had to dust off the old PowerBook G4 12” – the screen of which looks pretty much identical to the size of the iPad.

Having watched the various “how to” tutorials on replacing the hard drive yourself, and recalling my sadly failed attempt to repair a Fuji FinePix camera (which ended with a puff of smoke) and my over-industrious attempt to repair a Dell laptop on the fly floor of the Chicago Lyric Opera some years ago (which involved me removing 27 microscopic screws only to find that I needed only to have removed six), we decided to let the pros at Boulder Mac Repair do the job instead.

Hence, am slightly behind plan on all things virtual this week. However, assuming I can get working on my desktop this weekend, I should still be on track to distribute TPE for iPhone beta during the first part of next week.

Resurfacing [2]

2010-01-11T01:17:56Z

Stormy St. Abbs (click image for larger view)

It’s been a while. Since my last post here I’ve been back to the UK twice, once for a very enjoyable wedding in London and again for a couple of weeks at Christmas and New Year with family. Opportunities for photography have been limited, unfortunately, however I did get out briefly around New Year.

Alice and I had the pleasure of spending New Year (or, I should say, Hogmanay) with friends in Edinburgh. On the drive up from Newcastle where we were staying we took a brief diversion to St. Abbs Head, a prominent location on the Berwickshire coastline.

As many of you will have heard, the UK has been in the grip of one of the most severe winters in years for the past three weeks. On Dec 30th when the image above was taken, temperatures were slightly milder (just above freezing), but a strong wind was blowing from the northeast, bringing with it some high seas on north eastern coastlines. Some hints of some really great light here, but we sadly didn’t have time to linger to see how it would develop.

Skiddaw from Derwent Water (click image for larger view)

After New Year, we drove over to the Lake District for a brief overnight stay in Keswick. Last time I’d been here was in October 2004 as part of our honeymoon. With the recent snows, all the mountains were covered white, something I don’t think I’d ever seen before.

I was intrigued to see what impression the peaks of the Lake District would make after three years living next to the Colorado Rockies (54 peaks over 14,000 feet; compare England’s highest – Scafell Pike at 3,209 feet). Despite their fractional size, the setting of these peaks, surrounding snaking sculpted glacial valleys, allows them to tower above visitors. There’s no doubting you’re in the company of real mountains.

One location I’ve long wanted to visit (having driven straight past the signs countless times as a child) was Castlerigg Stone Circle. Located close to Keswick, the well-loved contours of Blencathra form a stunning backdrop to what is one of the largest and best-preserved neolithic sites in the area.

Blencathra rises up behind Castlerigg Stone Circle (click image for larger view)

I hadn’t expected to catch it covered in snow. Dawn was perfectly clear, so no great skies to shoot. However, when the sun cleared the ridge around 9:25am, the stones lit beautifully. The only thing more you could wish for would be fresh snow free of visitors’ footprints. Oh well, maybe in twenty years next time there’s a winter like this one.

Fall trip to Utah [6]

2009-11-07T20:20:17Z

The Narrows (click image for larger view)

Alice and I took a six day trip to Utah last week specifically to visit Zion and Bryce National Parks in autumn. We’d visited both before, in 2005, but that was before the camera bug had bitten.

We hit a good few of the major highlights:

Caught a good sunset at the Watchman
Hiked the Virgin River Narrows in canyoneering boots and drysuit pants (above)
Saw a spectacular sunrise at West Temple
Hiked to the Subway – exhausting, but unmissable
Missed getting stuck in line behind two coach loads of tourists at the restaurant at Ruby’s Inn (Bryce City) by seconds (this was perhaps the highlight of the trip)
Drove Scenic Byway 12 – a truly spectacular road through remote Utah
Saw the almost full moon rise over the strange landscape of Goblin Valley State Park

Bryce Sunrise (click image for larger view)

I figured this might be one of longest road trips to date, but at 1600 miles over the best part of a week, it felt pretty relaxed. (Certainly better than the 1800 miles in three days going to White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.) Must try harder!

You can see all my Utah images over at the gallery.

TPE 1.0 Released [12]

2009-10-12T04:12:58Z

Brief update to say that The Photographer’s Ephemeris is now officially out of Beta!

The new version is available for download now and current users will be prompted to auto-update.

The desktop version of TPE remains free of charge and the program will not expire.

Fall 2009 in Colorado - Part 2 [5]

2009-10-07T01:13:49Z

Dolores River Aspen (click image for larger view)

Alice and I just returned from four days down in the San Juans in southwest Colorado, again on the hunt for autumn colours. Unfortunately, a storm beat us through there last Wednesday and, as with Aspen the previous weekend, blew much of the best foliage to the ground.

However, we didn’t suffer from the incessant blue skies that plagued the trip to Aspen (remember, this is a photographic trip – blue skies = bad). Instead another low pressure system rolled in on Saturday evening, unfortunately blocking sunset, but setting up some great weather conditions for Sunday.

As you can see from the image above, there were some good spots to be found, but they took some finding. The best foliage that remained was either in sheltered corners, such as in the canyon below the turn off to the Alpine Loop off the Red Mountain Pass road, and towards the Telluride end of Last Dollar Road, or was a lower elevations, such as the Dolores River some 60 miles to the southwest.

I’ve posted a selection of images under the Colorado - Fall category. Here’s a small selection:

Sunday morning up on Dallas Divide offered some dramatic skies and there was sufficient colour in the remaining foliage to make a decent image:

Dallas Divide (click image for larger view)

Next we drove Last Dollar Road for the first time from beginning to end – wish we’d done that before, as it’s a wonderful place, and not a particularly challenging drive (as long as it’s not slick from rain, I read). This side road is rutted and gathers the falling aspen leaves creating some wonderful lead-in lines for a photograph:

Forest Road (click image for larger view)

Finally, these aspen groves on the road towards Telluride from the airport (not Last Dollar Road proper, but many will think of it as such) still retained some decent colour and the cloudy light was suitably soft:

Aspen Study 2 (click image for larger view)

I’ve read elsewhere that this was the worst fall colour in a decade. While the famous vistas weren’t really in condition to shoot, there was still much to enjoy.

Fall 2009 in Colorado - Part 1 [4]

2009-10-06T03:39:13Z

Alice and I are currently in Ridgway, at the end of Colorado’s Fall photographic season. Nothing better than having a Monday off and nothing else to do buy enjoy the scenery. I heard that my boss said at this morning’s staff meeting, from which I of course was absent, that I was “off somewhere shooting trees and leaves and shit”. Yes, that’s about it.

It’s been something of a challenging year in terms of autumn colours. The leaves haven’t generally been close to the levels of 2008, often appearing dull or affected by black leaf mould, or instead changing immediately from green to dead brown, or gone altogether.

Maroon Bells 2009 (click image for larger view)

The main lesson, of course, is that you simply have to work a little harder to find suitable subjects, i.e. beyond the Bells…

We spent the last weekend of September in Aspen. A storm had come through mid-week before causing many of the other upper stands to lose their leaves. Nonetheless, with or without perfect foliage, the view remains spectacular.

Independence Pass offered some decent opportunities on the way home:

Golden Aspen (click image for larger view)

Aspen Boles (click image for larger view)

As did Castle Creek Road:

Backlit Aspen in Castle Creek (click image for larger view)

In other circumstances, the weather for our three days in Aspen would be nothing short of perfect – crystal clear blue skies and temperatures in the eighties. Of course, for photography, it’s rather a nuisance.

Theories for the below average fall colours this year that I’ve heard include:

A wet spring – stops the leaves drying out in autumn and encourages black leaf mould
A June frost, damaging the foliage
Early autumn storms

Likely some truth in all of those.

Nikon D700 Custom Control Settings [1]

2009-09-27T14:37:31Z

I never blogged it, but a few months ago I upgraded to a Nikon D700 from my trusty D200. Excellent image quality aside, I think the singular winning quality of the Nikon SLRs is their handling and overall usability. The camera hardly ever gets in the way of what I want to do with it.

A significant part of the usability for me is the custom control settings on the camera. Here’s how I have things set currently:

FUNC Button

The FUNC button sits comfortably under the fourth finger of the right hand on the front of the camera. Custom Setting #F5 allows it to be assigned to a number of functions in two separate modes – button press and button + dials (i.e. press and hold while you move the command dials).

Given that the D700 is missing a dedicated bracketing control, you’re pretty much forced to assign FUNC Button + Dials to “Auto bracketing”. With the button held, you can move the command dials to set the number of bracketed frames plus the relative exposures you’d like to capture. I normally leave it at five frames (0, -2, -1, +1, +2) but there a number of other options.

For the Button Press setting, I use “Spot Metering”. I find this incredibly useful. The camera is left in Matrix metering mode by default, allowing initial exposure settings to be dialled in quickly (I almost always work in Manual mode). But if you have the slightest concerns about dynamic range (i.e. is it too large, such that I either need to use an ND grad filter or to bracket my exposures for subsequent blending or HDR), it’s very useful to have the spot meter at hand to determine that.

Holding the FUNC button down, I’m able quickly to check where the sky or the dark trees sit relative to dialled in exposure settings. For example, if I matrix meter the scene and dial in exposure such that the meter reads 0, I can then point at the sky (or select focus point in that region), hold the FUNC button and obtain a spot meter reading instantly. If the exposure for the spot meter reading is several stops higher, I know that I’m likely to blow the highlights in the sky area with my current selected exposure.

The great thing about this setting is just how quick it is to use – you don’t need to take your eye away from the viewfinder (which you otherwise would if you had to switch back and forth between metering modes using the selector switch on the back of the camera).

One word of warning however: you need to be disciplined not to change exposure settings with the FUNC button pressed. Why? Because you wouldn’t be changing the exposure settings, you’d be changing the bracketing settings (if you’ve followed my choices so far). Believe me, that can get very confusing…

Preview Button

The Preview button lies above the FUNC button (under the third finger of the right hand). Custom Setting #F6 allows it be assigned to a number of functions again, just like the FUNC button.

In this case, there’s only one choice really and that’s to leave it at its default assignment of DOF Preview. Depth of field preview, when activated, stops the lens down to the selected aperture so that you can evaluate… the depth of field. Invaluable for landscape photographers (assuming your eyesight is good enough to determine precisely what’s in focus and what’s not through the viewfinder – not sure mine is any more).

You can’t always combine settings for Button Press and Button + Dials, so in this case DOF Preview is the only thing this button does.

AE-L/AF-L Button

Custom Setting #F7 determines what the AE-L/AF-L Buton on the back of camera does. Given that I generally want these controls accessible while looking through the viewfinder, I tend to think of them in terms of musical instrument fingerings – in piano terms, this is like reaching from C down to A with your right hand thumb.

Despite periodically re-reading the manual on what this button was originally intended to do, I must confess I never really got it. I can only assume others didn’t either and that’s why Nikon made it assignable to other functions.

I have it set to Virtual horizon. There’s a virtual horizon that you can display on the rear LCD, but that involves moving through the menus so, for me, is a complete non-starter in the field.

The Virtual horizon you get with holding AE-L/AF-L is in the viewfinder – the metering graph turns into a virtual spirit level indicating whether the camera is perpendicular to the ground or not. Accuracy isn’t perfect, but it’s definitely better than nothing. I have a tendency to think I have the camera level when I don’t, especially for those more awkward shots close to the ground in portrait mode where you have to twist to bring your eye to the viewfinder.

Setting virtual horizon precludes you setting anything for Button + Dials, so that’s it for this one.

That’s all. AF-ON isn’t an assignable button – it’s one of the ones that prety much only does what it says.

Remember, my settings are but one combination of a wide array of choices you could make. You may not be shooting the same material as me or with the same approach, so these choices may not work for you as well as they do for me.