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Ask an Expert: Digital on the Wild Side
Text and Photos by
Jad Davenport - Special to Popular Photography Magazine September
2004
A gutsy pro and his
DSLR take on sand, sea, sun, and whales.
It was an assignment
that seemed to demand film. Northwest Dive News, a small monthly magazine based
near Seattle, wanted me to join Terry Prichard, owner of Sea Kayak Adventures,
as he led 14 paddlers on a week-long, 50-mile expedition down the wild western
coast of Baja, Mexico. We would plow our 22-foot tandem kayaks through North
Pacific swells, soaked by sea spray and thunderstorms. Our campsites, tucked in
the lees of 40-foot dunes, would be sandblasted by offshore winds. With no
towns along the way, the only supplies we would have - including electrical
power - were those tucked into our dry bags.
The payoff was a rare
glimpse at the longest mammal migration on the planet. Every February and
March, more than 20,000 California gray whales arrive at this remote coast to
mate and calve after a 12,000-mile round-trip journey from the icy waters of
the Bering Sea.
If I had known then that
National Geographic Adventure magazine would need a cover shot for their "25
Greatest Adventures" issue, I probably would have packed my Nikon F5 and F100
instead of my new Nikon D1x. After all, the film cameras were the safer bet;
they had survived sandstorms in Egypt and cloud forests in Costa Rica. With a
dozen AA batteries and 60 rolls of film, I could have a reliable power source
and a nearly endless image canvas.
My decision to shoot
digital, however, was a practical rather than a tactical one - I had sold both
my film cameras to pay for the single digital SLR.
Having worked with other
photographers, Prichard suggested I bungee a carry-on-sized Pelican case onto
the middle deck of the kayak. If I paddled in the rear, I would have easy
access to the camera when I needed it, rather that fumbling around with dry
bags. The case would protect the camera from sand and water.
I packed my D1x, a
24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor lens for sweeping scenics and camp shots, an 80-400mm
f/4.5-5.6 VR Nikkor for wildlife and landscapes, and a spare battery. Two
1-gigabyte memory cards would store 120 TIFFs. Pinched by my recent D1x
purchase, my budget precluded sensible accessories, such as more batteries,
memory cards, and a digital wallet.
Less
is…different
There was a certain
freedom in a slimmed-down camera bag. It took me back to my days a broke,
freelance war photographer when my rig consisted of a Nikon N8008, a 50mm lens,
and 20 rolls of film rationed over a month. Once in El Salvador, I voiced my
jealousy of another photographer's setup-two shiny Nikon F4s, and arsenal of
lenses, and Ziplocs bulging with film. He looked at me and gave me the best
photographic advice I've ever received: "It's not the gear that makes you good.
It's the connection you have with the subject."
I discovered that
magical connection early in the Baja kayak trip. As we fell into the rhythmic
days of kayaking, I marveled at a primeval landscape that seemed more like
Namibia's Skeleton Coast than Mexico's Baja. I popped off telephoto shots of
paddlers silhouetted against range after range of burnt-orange dunes tumbling
to the sea. Together with my kayak partner, I paddled ahead of the group to
catch them gliding into a labyrinth of mangrove channels, past odoriferous
heron rookeries.
I soon found that
something all editors request, a new point of view, was inherent in sea
kayaking. Low and quiet, the kayaks brought me into the wilderness and let me
shoot from the water instead of land. Bracing my elbows on the Pelican case, I
had a stable, almost water level platform from which to shoot shorebirds,
fellow kayakers, and the spectacular wilderness around us.
Digital
discipline
Apart from dealing with
sand and spray, which the D1x handled just as well as the film bodies, there
were other-more digital-issues to work around. As the days passed, I watched
the battery indicators flicker and the memory cards fill. Instead of hindering
me, though, these obstacles forced me to become more precise. Conserving power
has its pluses. There are few things more distracting in close-quarters than
the mosquito-like whine of an autofocus lens. Catching smiles and laughter
around the campfire became easier when I switched to the silence of manual
mode.
Another benefit of
digital came into play as the bright light of midday burned into foggy
evenings. With a press of a button, I could dial up my ISO and warm the white
balance to better match changing light conditions. Before digital, I would have
had to switch off rolls of film-a delicate task under the sandy, wet
conditions.
Despite my limited
storage, I still fired off a dozen frames of a coyote trotting along a dune.
With the ability to instantly review them, I quickly discarded all but two.
Stock-image possibilities decreased, but the overall quality of the images
increased. I made every shot count.
Whales, however,
continued to elude us early in the trip. We caught glimpses of silver plumes on
the horizon, grays still on the move south, yet they were always just out of
sight. It wasn't until the last day of the rip, when we hired local fishermen
to take us farther out to sea in their dories, that we were able to see the
once-endangered leviathans up close. Even after a week of shooting, I still had
plenty of space and power to get lots of images.
Proof is on the
cover
Several months after my
feature ran in Northwest Dive News, I received a call from National Geographic
Adventure. The magazine was doing a feature called "25 Trips of a Lifetime,"
and wanted to include the Sea Kayak Adventures trip. It was also looking for a
cover shot.
The magazine wanted a
slide of my image, but I explained that it was shot digitally. The photo editor
was surprised, and cautious. "If we have to crop the image, I'm not sure we'll
still have the 300-dpi resolution we need for the cover," she said.
A crop it turned out,
was unnecessary. They ran an image of two kayakers against sunset dunes, and it
became the magazine's first digital cover.
I asked the photo editor
later if the fact that the image was digital played a role in her decision.
"No!" she said. She was looking for a cover shot of an international
destination that showed outdoor activity, something that was visually
arresting. Whether I had recorded the image on a digital card or roll of chrome
didn't matter to her. "What mattered," she said, echoing words I'd heard over a
decade ago in the guerrilla-held highlands of El Salvador, "was that it was the
right image."
Card
tricks
Shooting TIFFs gave me
just 60 shots per 1GB card. Next time, I'd shoot in JPEG Fine. That would give
me 318 images per card. Still, with the equivalent of less than four rolls of
film, I captured campsites, a coyote, encounters with gray whales, and
portraits of my fellow paddlers.
Jad Davenport's
photos appear regularly in Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure, and
other travel magazines. Based in Denver, the 37-year-old currently shoots
exclusively in digital with a Nikon D1x and D100. His lenses (all Nikkor)
include a 12-24mm f/4g, 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6D, and 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D
VR.
Click here for Baja's Desert Whales trip
description
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