Stephen Nigl

Bio

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Hey. I'm Steve. Thank you so much for visiting my Utata page!

Picture any group of gathered friends or family. Imagine them wherever you like: at home, a coffee-shop, out hiking. Whatever. Do you have the image? Ok. See the guy who always brings the camera? Hi there!! ::: waves ::: That's me!!

I've been a photographer for over 15 years. Hobbies have come and gone, and sometimes I consider myself a flake when it comes to seeing things through! But photography has always been more than a hobby, and it has survived many of my life's changes.



In today's world, it seems that everything has been said and done. There is always someone out there who has done it 'better' than you. But photography turns this idea upside-down. It's a record of how you: see your world. Of who you are. Flickr has taught me that there will always be somebody who finds your unique world-view interesting. My greatest challenge in photography is getting the finished image to live up to my memory of the scene. Many of the shots that I am most satisfied with, go on to become my highest-rated on Flickr.

Thank you for the outpouring of wonderful comments! It really gives me hope. I have just begun to print and frame my work, and plan to display this year.

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My kit:
Body: Canon 30D
Walk around lens: Canon EFS 17-85 I.S F4-5.6
Telephoto: Tamron 70-300 Di F4-5.6/Macro
Portrait: Canon EF 50mm 1.8 II
Fun: Lensbaby 2.0
Tripod: Manfrotto 3001 legs w/ 488CR2 ballhead

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My digital darkroom:
Macintosh Powerbook G4 12" with desktop monitor.
Dual external HD's for my photo library and backups.
Spyder Express for monitor calibration.
iPhoto
CS2
AutoPano Pro
Graphic Converter
MacOSaiX (mosaic maker)



Workflow:
Typically I shoot in dual-mode. Capturing in RAW and a smaller JPEG. The 30D can use in-camera algorithms to alter the JPEG on the fly. Some of my black-and-white images are shot as BW 'in-camera'. Where the RAW is by definition, an unaltered color image. Over the past few months, more of my Flickr images start as RAW's.

The photos are first brought into iPhoto. I use iPhoto as both my digital light-table, and for basic tone, sharpness, and crop functions. The images bound for Flickr go to Photoshop for batch size-reduction, and to add copyright.

For panoramic and mosaic works, I use AutoPano Pro and MacOSaiX.

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Cameras past and present:
Polaroid Square Shooter (my very first!)
Kodak Ektra 1 (my first film cam. 110)
Canon AL-1 SLR (still own)
Olympus Stylus Epic 35mm (still own)
Panasonic PalmCam PVDC1000 (first digital. still own)
Minolta Dimage F100 4mp (lost)
Olympus S600 6mp (my wife's cam. loaned to me for a time)
Canon 30D 8mp (current)

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Still thirsty for more? Read my ramblings at my blog, "Adrift"!

Like my work? You can buy selected prints here!

VOTE for my images on JPG Magazine.