How long will our photos last has been a question for many years. There is one man who began a research lab with the purpose of testing photographic prints. This was because he found his colour photos of the 1960's and 70's had faded. The research lab is well known in the photo industry and is named The Wilhelm Imaging Research lab. Their latest report on 4x6 photos has just been released. It covers photographic silver-halide paper like ours, as well as ink jet paper and ink used in the home as well as dye-sub used in instant print kiosks. Most home printers are ink-jet and with some using the right ink and paper can be the best in permanence. With the wrong ink these digital photos can fade in a few months. Home printers that don't need ink are dye-sub and use heat to transfer dye from a ribbon to paper. These are the same printers used in quick print kiosks and are the least permanent. They often have a uv filter laminated on top to help but this gives them a foggy look. The paper in photo mini labs is the traditional silver-halide and we use Fuji. If you look at the report there is a big difference with the permanence of Fuji, Kodak and Konica-Minolta. This info is about how long a photo will last before fading and is important to consider when digital files may not be around to print another photo. If you have been using a digital camera than you may know how easy it is to lose digital files with hard drive crashes and CD failures. Here is a link to Wilhelm Research If you would like to test your own photos, an easy way to do so is to cut a photo in half and put one half in a window with some sun. The last time I did this was with a dye-sub printer I was thinking of selling. There was a very large change in two weeks. I sent the printers back. Bill

Another photo from last year with water that you may not be able to see.

In the last few years with both the move to digital and with box stores using photo labs and printing as a loss leader the over all quality of printed photos has been lowered. To compete photo labs like ours often have had to lower their price and automate their process and by doing so offer their customers less quality. Last night my daughter was looking through our family photo album for a baby photo of herself for a school project and it made me look ahead 10 years and wonder how many well printed photos found easily in a family album might still be in the family home. I think the recent changes on how we value of our photos today will only be important when we find ourselves looking for something that isn't there. Bill

A new review of one of my favorite cameras is linked here. He does make one point I question about the Pentax K10d's JPEG image quality that I think can be looked at differently. It is true most people don't print their digital files and more get printed at home than in a Lab like ours. His point would be made on his printing or viewing on a screen but in a lab like ours our software and our skill provides a very good photo from this camera. He thinks the files lack contrast and saturation and need more sharpening. This is what our software does to match the files to the Fuji paper we print on. I think a image captured in camera with less contrast and more like film gives us the most detail to work with. Bill

Spring is in the air but catching a photo hasn't happened for a while. I was making some holiday photos for a customer the other day and asked if they had just returned, and to my surprise they told me it was a year ago. It made me think that photos do get better with age and looking back can be enjoyable, and with people slow to print digital photos they have already seen on a screen photos can age a long time before printing. Here some photos from a year ago that have been printed and are in the family photo album. Bill P.S You may have noticed I like to take photos of water, I am a Pisces with my birthday on Saturday.

Lens Review: 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR DX Nikon Zoom
This past December I had the opportunity to go to Vancouver and photograph a “PANIC! At the Disco" concert. As me and my friend arrived there was already a huge line of anxious fans waiting for the doors to open. The show was huge and must have been nearly sold out. Here, in amongst the thousands of people was me, with my Nikon D-50 and an 18-200mm Nikkor zoom lens.
This was the first big concert I had ever photographed so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. And of course, lucky for me, the concert was really dark and full of weird and tricky lighting situations. Haha. So what to do? Take out my camera and start shooting.
From the edge of the stage (and my subjects less than a meter away) using the 18-200mm Nikkor zoom lens, I was able to get really sharp, clear, photographs of the performers. No flash was allowed for any of the shots, but even without flash the Vibration Reduction of the lens took over and made it easy to keep the camera stable enough for me to come out with hundreds of clean looking photos. The lens also didn’t affect the colour and the photos came out looking as bright and vivid as they were the night of the show. With a time limit of only three songs to capture all the pictures I needed, I was thankful for the lens’ very quick focus time.
Looking around the stadium there was so much to take in: everything from amateur photographers with small point and shoot cameras to those hired by “The Province” paper with an assortment of camera gear worth more than the show probably cost to put on and weighing more than some of the musicians. This leads me to the size and weight of the lens, which is also something I think any photographer there (or anywhere) would appreciate. After carrying around my camera (lens attached) the whole night, I was thankful that the Nikkor 18-200 was so light and compact, as opposed to some of the other high end, quite massive in size lenses that were being lugged around.
After leaving the edge of the stage, I returned to my seat (some 50 rows back from the stage and off to the side.) I decided to see what this lens (being made for zoom) was actually capable of. I used the large focal length of the lens to zoom in close to the musicians and snapped a few shots right from my seat.

Take a look for yourself:
From my seat, using full and partial zoom respectivly:


From my seat I could capture frames that easily compared to the shots I was getting from right at the bands feet. That’s impressive. Keeping the camera stable again was no problem, even from a far distance. I’d love to take this lens out in a few different scenarios. I see it being a great versatile lens for shooting a wide range of places and subjects.
Overall, the lens was enjoyable to work with, everything moved smoothly and its size made it something I think any photographer would consider for some of those “take only one lens days.”

No matter who you are, amateur photographer or pro alike: I think this is defiantly a lens worth adding to your collection.

By Desiree Mark

One more photo from the Pentax K10d. Getting to know stabilization is like learning to use auto focus, it takes time to develop trust in the system and to think of new possibilities. This photo is taken because I could use a slow enough shutter speed to show the snow falling but still hand hold the camera. Click on the photo to enlarge if you can't see the snow falling. Bill

For Nikon fans we will have another 18 to 200 VR on Tuesday. Please see earlier posts for info if you do not know of this lens.It is very hard to get, I always have them on back order this one has taken 3 months for me to receive and of course they sell very fast. Bill

More photos from Pentax K10d

More photos from Sunday. The one of the heron walking 1/60 sec iso 800 300 mm lens. The photo of him standing on one leg 1/350 sec iso 400 as it was getting brighter.

This week I plan on posting photos taken with the Pentax K10D. These are meant to show how well the stabilization system works in the Camera. We have a full page ad in this weeks Weekender magazine featuring Pentax Digital SLR's. The Pentax K10D is a very fun camera to use and I find I can take photos I thought not possible before.The first is a heron I spotted right in front of our house early Sunday before it was very light. The photo is hand held taken through the window at 1/8 of a second iso 800. Also the Christmas tree is gone. Bill

Christmas tree and duck

update for the Christmas Tree

Spring is coming fast and to make it more fun I put our Christmas tree out on the river to watch for break up. I think I heard someone say they do that in White Horse so why not in Grand Forks. So here are the photos to tell the story but it may not last long with today's rain. Bill

Just the time you don't have your camera ready you may find you need it. I thought I knew this but I wasn't ready for these playful river otters running and sliding down the ice. I did get this photo but the the ones I missed were them running and sliding right passed me. They were having so much fun I thought of joining in. Bill

Canon G7 is a very nice camera. We have them in stock again. The photo of the deer running was taken while panning, Jill my cat was taken by my daughter Ann. In our house if you leave a camera laying around some one will pick it up and use it. Bill P.S I will have more Pentax K10d's soon see the last post for photos.

Pentax K10d This weekend I was able to use one for a few photos. This camera makes taking very difficult photos fun and easy. The deer was about 200 meters away. The far shot is with a 70mm focal length the close with 300. To convert in your head to 35mm film this about a 105 to 450mm or about 9 times closer. This is because the sensor in the DSLR is smaller than 35mm film and has a normal focal length of 28mm. The cropped photo is to show the detail of the hand held photo taken at 1/90th of a second at iso 400. Bill

Merry Christmas to everyone reading this blog, and good wishes to the 105+ people with new cameras this season that I have helped put under the tree. The last month has been very busy with no time to update . There is lots of news and reviews to post so I'll try and catch up in the new year. For me this Christmas, the next shipment of Pentax K10ds have been shipped and will be here soon. Again Merry Christmas and good wishes for the new year. Bill and the people at Contact Photo Arts

A photo of my Mother, receiving her award of Freeman of the Municipality of Alert Bay from Mayor John Rowell. She is a regular viewer of my blog and enjoys her digital camera. Congratulations Mom, Bill

They are here Pentax K10D Link