Freddy the Lion - Nikon D3s | Nikon AF-Nikkor 80-200mm ƒ/2.8D ED @ 200mm | 1/400th sec | ƒ/2.8 | ISO-400

On January 22nd 2012 we had the opportunity to visit the Catty Shack Ranch, a wildlife sanctuary in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Catty Shack Ranch’s mission is to provide a safe environment and home for the world’s big cat species that are endangered or threatened due to loss of natural habitat. Their primary focus is in the rescue of cats from very serious situations. Once the animals are rescued by the Catty Shack Ranch, they have a permanent and safe home for the rest of their lives. This allows these majestic and beautiful animals to live their lives in a loving, comfortable, safe and happy environment.

As we spent time with the animals, you could easily see their amazing personalities; it was wonderful to watch these cats interact with the sanctuary staff. There were several instances where a mature Lion named Freddy rubbed up against a sanctuary staff member, through a chain-link fence, as if he were a house cat, loving on his owner. I’ve never seen a big cat exude this kind of affection towards a human being. It was clear to us that Freddy and the other cats yearned for attention from their human counterparts – which was confirmed by one of the staff members, which stated that Freddy, for instance, was a VERY sweet cat. We could easily see this in Freddy as well as the other amazing cats at the sanctuary. Curt LoGiudice, the sanctuary’s Curator, is famous for the special bond he creates with the cats at the sanctuary. It’s not hard to see how happy these animals really are and for good reason. Their quality of life at the sanctuary is very high, which can easily been seen in the cat’s attitudes and personalities.

NIkon D7000 | Nikon AF-S Nikkor 80-400mm VR @ 180mm | 1/1600th sec | ƒ/5.0 | ISO-640

On New Year’s Eve 2012, the Catty Shack Ranch adopted 5 Siberian Tiger cubs from a South Florida breeder in exchange for a promise from the breeder that they would stop breeding tigers. The 5 tiger cubs are from 2 different litters and range from 6 weeks to 8 weeks old.

There are wildlife sanctuaries like the Catty Shack Ranch all over the country and they need our support to help them keep the animals fed and safe as well as allow the ability to rescue and care-for more animals in need. As photographers, we often get to spend time photographing nature’s amazing animals, so this is a subject close to our hearts. We plan on going back to capture more images and video of these wonderful animals and the amazing staff that care for and love these majestic cats!

If you would like to view all of the images we captured on our visit to the Catty Shack Ranch, please click here to visit the portfolio entry. If you would like to visit the Catty Shack Ranch or would like to donate to their cause, please visit their website here.

Work-flow: Your hard drive’s worst enemy

During your work-flow, you’ll develop the RAW files (if you shoot raw, like us) and most likely save the developed RAW image as a .TIFF file (which is a HUGE file extension – can be upwards of 75mb per image), a .JPEG or both. I personally develop my RAWs (.NEF) in my favorite RAW developer then save the developed .NEF file as a .TIFF. At this point, I open the .TIFF in Photoshop and perform my re-touching/artistic edits. Depending on who the client is at what the requirements are, I might save several copies in .JPEG format, .PNG or a host of other formats.

All of these replications of the original .NEF file can be taxing on your storage space. From start-to-finish, the whole work-flow process can eat-up well over 100mb of file space – for ONE image. Now, multiply this by however many images you have in your set. It doesn’t take long to reach well into many Gigs of storage space, for just one set. One wedding alone can put my total disk space usage for that set into the 75-100 GB range. This is using either a 12MP Nikon FX camera(D700, D3s) or a 16MP Nikon D7000.

As the new round of cameras are released with much higher resolution, the storage requirements are going to sky-rocket.

Storage is cheap?

Is storage cheap? Well, yes and no.

It’s cheap if you are:

1. Making money off the images the hard drives are storing and even cheaper if you’ve future proofed yourself and have a redundant system in-case of failure.
2. Have a large client base that requires safe storage of their images for future use/purchase.
3. Have other storage needs that require multiple redundancies and large file storage.

It’s not cheap if you’re:

1. Making money off your images and the cheap USB drives you’re using fail, causing a massive loss of data – trust me, this happens all the time.
2. Are only an amateur photographer, who can’t really justify the costs of a BIG expensive system that has multiple levels of redundancy.

But – what if I told you that you can have large storage capacity with several levels of redundancy for around $200-750USD for a decent system that anybody can use and appreciate, regardless of your personal storage needs?

I’m sure most of you have heard of NAS or Network Attached Storage. It’s a tailored file server built into a stand-alone computer appliance that’s purpose built for storing and serving files. Basically a small computer, it runs on it’s own OS, has a CPU and RAM and uses an array of hard-drives for file storage and storage of it’s small OS. A NAS can be configured across your whole home network – so every computer in your network can have access to the NAS, making it easy to share files, music and a whole host of other features such a print serving and even an iTunes server.

What makes a NAS so special?

Remember, a NAS is basically a small stand-alone computer that’s built to store and serve files. NAS systems can be bought in several different configurations, depending on the user’s needs. The NAS can have space for 2-10 (or more) hard-drives that are stored in “bays”. Most NAS systems utilize a hot-swappable system for removing and installing drives in their bays. A NAS can also be configured to run in the RAID array of your choice. For maximum redundancy, you’ll want to configure your NAS to run in a redundant RAID array, like RAID 5. (A list of the different kinds of RAID arrays can be seen here). In-other-words, if a drive in your NAS fails, you can easily hot-swap the drive (as long as your particular NAS allows it) with a new one without loosing any data. The NAS can also be programed to create scheduled back-ups of itself onto a USB drive, for off-site storage. Most NAS systems (like the NETGEAR ReadyNAS NV+) can even schedule and maintain back-ups of itself with an online back-up service like Carbonite, Mozy or DropBox.

The good NAS units can be upgraded with higher capacity drives at any time. If your NAS supports it (Like the NETGEAR ReadyNAS NV+), you can hot-swap each drive, one-by-one, with larger drives to increase storage capacity, while the unit is still running. This allows true future proofing and makes owning a good NAS much cheaper in-the-long-run.

Several years ago, a system like this would of cost THOUSANDS of dollars and would need a dedicated IT professional to set it up and maintain it. With a good NAS, there is very little that can’t be done and done with great ease. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to set a good one up and maintain it.

We personally use the NETGEAR ReadyNAS NV+ 4x1TB unit and it’s awesome. We chose the NETGEAR ReadyNAS NV+ for several reasons. NETGEAR’s proprietary  RAID-X array allows the user to easily scale the system upward as the need for larger capacity arises and as larger capacity drives become cheaper. Features like an iTunes server, print servers, easy access to all of our media through streaming services, a bit torrent client and the ability to easily schedule back-ups also went into our decision to use the ReadyNAS NV+. This particular unit came highly recommended by my best friend, who is an IT manager for a very large firm.

There are other great NAS products out there, too. NETGEAR makes some less expensive models as well as some more expensive models. Although, the The ReadyNAS NV+  is the best bang-for-the-buck. Other companies make great NAS systems; there are plenty of great systems to choose from. The key is to find the NAS that fits your needs and has the features you prefer.

Photo Credits “NETGEAR ReadyNAS NV+.” NETGEAR ReadyNAS NV+. ‘READYNAS NV+ (4TB: 4 X 1TB) RND4410′ 2006-2010. 8th Nov. 2011 [www.netgear.com].

You can view the Nikon F-Mount 50mm prime article here.

So, What’s Next?

I’m already working on my next review, the Nikon 1 Mirror-less Interchangeable Lens System w/ 1-Nikkor 10-100 VR PD-Zoom, 10mm f/2.8 pancake lens and 10-30mm f/4.5-5.6 VR. I also have another big lens review coming soon – six 85mm prime lenses for Nikon F-Mount. Once those are done, we’ll be moving on to the 35mm Nikon F-Mount primes and then the 24mm range.  Once Nikon finally releases their new round of DSLR bodies, look for hands-on reviews of those, too!

Big thanks to NikonRumors.com for publishing our articles and B&H Photo & Video for providing a lot of the gear. Without these two organizations, it just wouldn’t be possible to do these comprehensive reviews. Support them whenever/wherever you can!

-CTLG

Nikon AF-S prime lenses. (from left to right: AF-S 40mm f/2.8G DX macro, AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G FX prime and AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX prime)

Nikon is really committed to having the best APS-C lens line-up in the industry. When they announced the AF-S Micro-Nikkor 40mm f/2.8G DX Macro lens basically totally out-of-the-blue, there wasn’t a single rumor of the lens.  It turned out to be an amazing and very useful little lens, that I use a lot. I even did a full review of the lens on NikonRumors.com recently, in which I gave it great scores.

But, do we really need a new DX lens? Well yes, we do. There is a gap in the DX line-up and it’s on the short end of the stick. Currently, there are no fast DX prime wide-angle lenses. Sure, there is the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 UWA lens and although it’s not a Nikon, it is a amazing lens (I LOVE mine), as well as a few others from other third-party companies. It seems as though Nikon has let the third-party manufacturers  cover the fast Ultra-Wide to Wide Angle lenses, which seems a bit weird. I’m sure there are a lot of people that would rather purchase a fast Nikon UWA lens, instead of a third-party lens, even though it would cost them more. Unfortunately for the DX shooters, there are only a few choices in this category (the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro is my personal fave, since I treat mine as a prime lens).

Here are your “prime” wide-angle Nikon options, if you shoot DX:

• The Amazing Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.8G DX prime (52mm FX equivalence)
• Nikon AF 28mm f/2.8D FX prime (42mm FX equivalence)…..this lens doesn’t make much sense to me, in this day and age
• Nikon AF 24mm f/2.8D FX  (36mm FX equivalence)
• The BOSS Nikon AF-S 24mm f/1.4G FX prime (36mm FX equivalence)….. This lens is a little pricey for most DX shooters @ $1999.00 USD
• Nikon AF 20mm f/2.8D FX prime (30mm FX equivalence).
• Nikon AF Nikkor 14mm f/2.8D ED FX prime (21mm FX equivalence). This lens is way too expensive for DX shooters as well and isn’t that wide in FX terms
• Nikon AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED DX lens

Your “zoom” wide-angle Nikon options for DX shooters:

• Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G FX lens (too expensive for most DX shooters and not very wide on the short end, more of a “normal” range for DX)
• AF Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G ED-IF DX lens (Again, not very wide @ 25.5 FX terms. But, otherwise a great DX lens)
• AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 ED VR DX lens (not very wide and has a short zoom range as well as being somewhat slow @ f/4)
• AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G FX lens (The world’s best Ultra-Wide Angle zoom lens for FX, but not very wide on DX @ 21mm FX terms)

As you can see, there is a gap between 10.5mm(which has a TON of barrel distortion, as it should because it’s a fisheye) and 14mm. This gap is a large one in DX terms, because the actual range is 16mm-21mm in FX equivalence.

I intentionally left out the Nikon 10-24 and 12-24 as they are both slow and over-priced for most DX users, considering what you’re getting.

Nikon D7000 w/ Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro DX UWA lens

This leaves the FAST Ultra-Wide Angle gap wide open for DX in the Nikon brand, which is being filled nicely by some great third-party lenses and some not-so-great third-party lenses. It almost seems that Nikon wants you to upgrade to FX, if you want to go wide. In this case, there is only one real choice and that’s the crazy sharp AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G zoom coupled with an FX body and this kit will cost you. If you’re serious and make money with your camera, this is a no-brainer. But, not all of you can afford such lavish gear and that’s okay, too.

Maybe Nikon has re-thought their UWA DX lenses and will answer the great Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro? I know one thing – for DX, you can’t beat the Tokina 11-16 in the UWA category and I’m not planning on getting rid of mine.

Will this new Nikon DX lens fill the fast UWA gap, finally? In the coming weeks, we shall see. Your guess is as good as mine.

We’ve got some equipment coming for another BIG review that will get published on a major photography website, so we’re excited to have this website done and ready for the new gear reviews. We think you’ll be please with what we have in store. It will take us a few weeks to get everything finished, so stay tuned!

p.s. If you see anything wrong with the site or it doesn’t load correctly for you, please email us so we can fix the problem: TheJordanCollective@gmail.com

HDR taken with Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 UWA lens(@11mm) | ISO-100 | f/8.0

You must use a camera with an exposure bracket function, which allows the camera to take a fast burst of 3 or more shots, each one at a different exposure. Most high-end DSLRs will allow you to specify how many shots are taken in the bracket and at what exposure intervals. I typically will do three shots with an exposure bracket of +/- 2EV. This gives tremendous Dynamic Range(DR) when using a DR king like the Nikon D7000(+/- 2EV is about 18 stops of DR on the D7000).  I use Capture NX2 to edit levels and convert the RAW files to .TIFF format, then I de-noise each shot very carefully (especially the under-exposed shot), then use Photomatix Pro v4 to merge the shots. I then import the merged HDR into Photoshop and use my favorite plug-ins and techniques to bring the shot to where I want it. This takes lots of patience, as each merged HDR is totally different and takes on a different life.  Once I’m done editing in PS, I’ll save a .PSD file for later and convert the file to 8-bit and then Save As .JPEG for internet distribution.

As you can see, the D7000 is the Dynamic Range KING! As a matter of fact, for HDRs we always employ the D7000, due to it’s insane 14 stops of Dynamic Range @ Base ISO of 100(at 0 EV).

To view the full portfolio entry, visit: http://thejordancollective.com/?portfolio=mitsubishi-evolution-viii-in-hdr

More portfolio entries will be added daily. Enjoy!