[little laker]

Congrats Marc
It all sounds fun, and I know that you'll do good at it.

[Marc Langille]

Thanks Stu! They seem to be pretty excited about me coming too!

Some more excellent news: the Chairman of the events contacted a specific ranch in order to ensure I was assigned to it! Evidently another photographer wanted that ranch in part because of it's size at 15,000 acres, but the main reason is that it's one of the best ranches there for photography in the region. I suspect he wanted to level the playing field as much as possible, since I am one of a few photographers from outside the state.

They really want me to succeed... !

[Peter Zack]

Again this is excellent news. Any chance to get a little 'leg up' on the competion is good. I'm sure you'll bring back the Gold for us, we're all rootin' for you Marc! Hopefully Ned B will see the opportunity as a good one for Pentax as well and get you a 600.

I can see it now. We can all say, "we knew him when...." after the big Pentax magazine ads featuring your mug.

[pbrock]

Congrats Marc! I just browsed your website and I love your pictures. I really like the hummingbird pictures because they appear to freeze in mid-air -- great quality.

What a great challenge to be involved in. I can't wait to see the images you capture. Good Luck!

[Marc Langille]

There is a bobcat at the ranch housing I'll be staying at, and get this: there are Ocelot on the property!!!! What an opportunity! A nice aside is that maybe I will have a chance at the Rare Cat contest of $5000 for first place....

Again this is excellent news. Any chance to get a little 'leg up' on the competion is good. I'm sure you'll bring back the Gold for us, we're all rootin' for you Marc! Hopefully Ned B will see the opportunity as a good one for Pentax as well and get you a 600.

I can see it now. We can all say, "we knew him when...." after the big Pentax magazine ads featuring your mug.

Thank you Peter! We shall see what happens, and hopefully the fates will smile on me regarding the lens...

Ha, I don't know if anyone wants to see my mug... LOL...

Congrats Marc! I just browsed your website and I love your pictures. I really like the hummingbird pictures because they appear to freeze in mid-air -- great quality.

What a great challenge to be involved in. I can't wait to see the images you capture. Good Luck!

Thank you and you are very kind. You should see the full sized image of Mid-Flight Capture - it's crystal clear: the eyelashes and pupil have wonderful detail. The head and beak is almost 6 inches long at 100%! Perhaps someday I will post it.

Cheers,
Marc

[Ron Boggs]

Great, bad, great news for you Marc! This is a wonderful opportunity for you and you need to seize the moment and not let equipment be a hindrance. You know various people who own RV's,fishing boats, pedigreed animals, hot rods, Harleys, second homes or cabins or who take wonderful international vacations. They spend way more than the cost of the 600/4 and in the end, you can always resell the lens--and current market conditions would suggest at a profit too! I'm not in the lens business, but you'd think it by my comments. Get a loan from your bank, or heavens to betsy do the dirty deed on a low or no interest credit card. Again, if you can't pull it off after a year, sell the lens, pay off the remaining debt and take your wife to dinner with the equity or maybe even profit. How many of these high profile competitions have you been invited to in the past? If these are the first, then you really need to go for it--isn't this something you've always dreamed of? Don't let anyone or anything stand in your way. Have insight and vision and it's going to come out for the better--win or lose.

[Marc Langille]

Great, bad, great news for you Marc! This is a wonderful opportunity for you and you need to seize the moment and not let equipment be a hindrance. You know various people who own RV's,fishing boats, pedigreed animals, hot rods, Harleys, second homes or cabins or who take wonderful international vacations. They spend way more than the cost of the 600/4 and in the end, you can always resell the lens--and current market conditions would suggest at a profit too! I'm not in the lens business, but you'd think it by my comments. Get a loan from your bank, or heavens to betsy do the dirty deed on a low or no interest credit card. Again, if you can't pull it off after a year, sell the lens, pay off the remaining debt and take your wife to dinner with the equity or maybe even profit. How many of these high profile competitions have you been invited to in the past? If these are the first, then you really need to go for it--isn't this something you've always dreamed of? Don't let anyone or anything stand in your way. Have insight and vision and it's going to come out for the better--win or lose.

I may approach a local bank for sponsorship... one day at a time!

I do not disagree with anything you say, but remember it's over $7000 for a new one from Japan, or $8295 from the Ebay seller. Life has obligations too...

More details:

I'll be located on a 6,000 acre section of ranch, approx. 15 miles from South Padre Island for the photo competition. Ocelots are present on the property, but extemely difficult to capture, since they are normally nocturnal. The raptors are unafraid of humans, because no hunting of them is allowed on this ranch.

Details: http://www.valleylandfund.com/contest.php

Competitors: http://www.valleylandfund.com/photographers.php

Cheers,
Marc

[barondla]

For the night creatures you might be able to use one of the Lepp/Better Beamer flash extenders at night. It is amazing how far they will shoot. Night vision monocular could be useful also. Helps locating them in the dark.
$7000 is a lot of Pillsbury. No word from Pentax yet? Would seem, if they want to start a pro "care" department, they must offer lenses a pro would need. Like a 600 f4. The one on this forum is still on sale for less than $7000. Can't imagine asking the banker for a loan on a lens that expensive. Did get her help to wire money to Singapore for the A*200 macro.
Good luck with the preparation and shooting.
thanks
barondla

[Ron Boggs]

You are going to need business expense deductions to offset your prize earnings anyway!

I'm kind of weirded out about how cheap most photo buffs are relative to other hobbies. If your neighbor's kids ride dirt bikes, they spend more than the cost of a 600/4 annually! RVers and boaters commonly spend 10x that (and the average turnaround time to buy a new boat or RV is less than 5 years). Scuba divers, 4-wheelers, skiiers, wine enthusiasts, those who live in a big city and follow theater and symphonies, I'm not sure I can even think of a hobby that is less expensive than photography (oh, I'm sure somebody out there will help me--he said sarcastically).

An additional point here is that you are no longer thinking about spending for your hobby. You are now investing in your business. Having seen many of the past winning images from the contest you are in, I can tell you that you are kidding yourself thinking you can compete in the bird and wildlife categories shooting only up to 300mm (well, add 1.4x plus crop factor...ok maybe you can compete, but with a handicap--not good for a first timer). All good businessmen are careful about what they spend, but all good businessmen also don't hesitate to secure the necessary assets to make their business boom. As a businessman, I don't think you have a choice but to invest. To fail to do so is to fail to follow your dream and to fail to ramp up your business. If these contests are just a fun lark for a photo hobbiest, then do whatever you want. If the upcoming contest is truly important to you, and you intend to grow as a professional photographer, then do what you need to to compete!

My recommendation is to be careful not to waste too much of your shooting time praying for cat photos. I live with lions and bobcats, I've followed lion tracks within 100 yards of my front door on several occasions, but I NEVER see the lions and see a bobcat about every 2 or 3 years, but that's usually after dark or in poor shooting light. I've only twice in my life seen a cooperative cat--a bobcat outside the Redwoods in CA a couple years ago. He hung around at close range for about 2 minutes. Of course, I was using 67II with macro lens and got no shots whatsoever. Second one was on my front porch and I got a photo of it under my picnic table and another in the grass. Neither shot would have come close to winning any contest. Cats are the coolest--thus the $5K special purse--but they are also the most difficult to photograph in the wild--thus the $5K special purse.

Regarding getting a loaner 600/4 from Pentax. I wouldn't hold my breath. The odds that they even have a discontinued lens in a "demo" pile is pretty slim. I doubt that they want to promote something they don't even sell anymore? Plus, this is way outside their business norms--even assuming they will have a pro program--nobody is promising that they'll ship lenses around for people to try. And by the way, three weeks of field work is more than a demonstration tryout, so I'm skeptical. On a more positive note, Pentax did send me an FA*80-200/2.8 as an exchange for a very early copy that wasn't working correctly for me. Initially, they just loaned for a trip I was leaving for in a few days. In the end, they exchanged their lens for my bad one. The lens they sent me had to be "taken" from one of the management personnel's own kit. So it wasn't even a demo lens, but their willingness to work with me was commendable and is one of the reasons I'm such a Pentax freak. At the time of my "lens exchange" (mid to late '90's) I was told that Pentax only worked with one pro--they didn't say who but I'm guessing Robert Glenn Ketchum who has always used 67 stuff. Now since then Tim Fitzharris did all those articles for Pop Photo using Pentax 645. I'd presume he was somehow compensated--but he did drop the brand to go with Mamiya digital medium format the past few years, so maybe he was "on his own"? He didn't appear to have loyalties...nor patience to wait for Pentax's digital medium format camera.

[Ron Boggs]

Flash concentrators can really fire the flash for long distances--I've used both Better Beamer and the Flash Extender--heck I think I have a couple extras I could loan if you need them. Careful of eyeshine with animals--especially cats. Really Right Stuff sells systems that get the flash farther off camera axis to reduce eyeshine. I have the RRS system, but haven't really tried it on cats--not many opportunities! The best use for these flash products for me is daytime to fill shadows or to create catchlights. Honestly, I've ruined lots of decent work by flashing animals and causing the animal version of red eye--often green in animals. Make sure you test on animals with flash before leaving for Texas. Try a local zoo perhaps.

Also, several past winning shots in the Texas contest have been taken around water holes. If I were you I'd buy a trail camera--a remote camera for photographing animals on trails or at waterholes. An inexpensive digital one that isn't intended to capture award winning photos, but only to do night survey work for you so you know if you should set something else up too. They are available at hunting stores...

Do you have any remote systems that work out to more than 50 yards? A pop up blind? Multiple tripod sets so you can leave gear in the field at multiple locations? You might be able to talk me into loaning items to help. I have a couple remote systems for Pentax film cameras. It appears that Zigview now has remote capabilities for early Pentax digi cameras, but maybe not for K10D yet?

I also noticed in your photo that you had an old pan and tilt head under your 300. You may want to spring for the Wimberly Sidekick or one of the copies to help your lens work on moving targets. I personally use the Arca Swiss B2's which are massive ballheads with bidirectional lockable articulations--so they can be used to pan with flying birds etc. Not unlike the Wimberly capabilities, but the B2's are short enough to work well from a window pod when using my vehicle as a blind. The Sidekick Wimberly turns a normal ball head into a gimbal head and works on lenses up to your 300 size. Your new 600 will require a more substantial system like the full-sized Wimberly or maybe I can loan you a B2?

[Marc Langille]

For the night creatures you might be able to use one of the Lepp/Better Beamer flash extenders at night. It is amazing how far they will shoot. Night vision monocular could be useful also. Helps locating them in the dark.
$7000 is a lot of Pillsbury. No word from Pentax yet? Would seem, if they want to start a pro "care" department, they must offer lenses a pro would need. Like a 600 f4. The one on this forum is still on sale for less than $7000. Can't imagine asking the banker for a loan on a lens that expensive. Did get her help to wire money to Singapore for the A*200 macro.
Good luck with the preparation and shooting.
thanks
barondla

The silence is deafening... Better Beamer was already on the "must have" list...

Thanks for the props!

Cheers,
Marc

[Marc Langille]

You are going to need business expense deductions to offset your prize earnings anyway!

You honor me Ron - thank you for the vote of confidence. I would like to break even - anything more is icing on the cake...

I'm kind of weirded out about how cheap most photo buffs are relative to other hobbies. If your neighbor's kids ride dirt bikes, they spend more than the cost of a 600/4 annually! RVers and boaters commonly spend 10x that (and the average turnaround time to buy a new boat or RV is less than 5 years). Scuba divers, 4-wheelers, skiiers, wine enthusiasts, those who live in a big city and follow theater and symphonies, I'm not sure I can even think of a hobby that is less expensive than photography (oh, I'm sure somebody out there will help me--he said sarcastically).

An additional point here is that you are no longer thinking about spending for your hobby. You are now investing in your business. Having seen many of the past winning images from the contest you are in, I can tell you that you are kidding yourself thinking you can compete in the bird and wildlife categories shooting only up to 300mm (well, add 1.4x plus crop factor...ok maybe you can compete, but with a handicap--not good for a first timer). All good businessmen are careful about what they spend, but all good businessmen also don't hesitate to secure the necessary assets to make their business boom. As a businessman, I don't think you have a choice but to invest. To fail to do so is to fail to follow your dream and to fail to ramp up your business. If these contests are just a fun lark for a photo hobbiest, then do whatever you want. If the upcoming contest is truly important to you, and you intend to grow as a professional photographer, then do what you need to to compete!

I've never kidded myself on the limitations of 300mm - it's barely enough for wildlife (such as Elk), which are much, much larger. You are being very helpful with your suggestions, and I sincerely appreciate it.

I've already got a quote for the Sigma 500/4.5. However, they are built to order, so it could be up to a month (confirmed by Sigma rep.). Understandably my wife Sharon is resisting the purchase, even though I've already explained the very same points to her last night. I told her that I can expense and/or deduct much of the costs for this under the business. She has lots of faith in my abilities, it's just a difficult thing to justify to a non-photographer when other obligations in life could be met...

My recommendation is to be careful not to waste too much of your shooting time praying for cat photos. I live with lions and bobcats, I've followed lion tracks within 100 yards of my front door on several occasions, but I NEVER see the lions and see a bobcat about every 2 or 3 years, but that's usually after dark or in poor shooting light. I've only twice in my life seen a cooperative cat--a bobcat outside the Redwoods in CA a couple years ago. He hung around at close range for about 2 minutes. Of course, I was using 67II with macro lens and got no shots whatsoever. Second one was on my front porch and I got a photo of it under my picnic table and another in the grass. Neither shot would have come close to winning any contest. Cats are the coolest--thus the $5K special purse--but they are also the most difficult to photograph in the wild--thus the $5K special purse.

I agree - I'll not hold my breath on that one! If luck is with me, fine. Otherwise I have plenty of subjects to photograph, and barely enough time to do it.

Regarding getting a loaner 600/4 from Pentax. I wouldn't hold my breath. The odds that they even have a discontinued lens in a "demo" pile is pretty slim. I doubt that they want to promote something they don't even sell anymore? Plus, this is way outside their business norms--even assuming they will have a pro program--nobody is promising that they'll ship lenses around for people to try. And by the way, three weeks of field work is more than a demonstration tryout, so I'm skeptical. On a more positive note, Pentax did send me an FA*80-200/2.8 as an exchange for a very early copy that wasn't working correctly for me. Initially, they just loaned for a trip I was leaving for in a few days. In the end, they exchanged their lens for my bad one. The lens they sent me had to be "taken" from one of the management personnel's own kit. So it wasn't even a demo lens, but their willingness to work with me was commendable and is one of the reasons I'm such a Pentax freak. At the time of my "lens exchange" (mid to late '90's) I was told that Pentax only worked with one pro--they didn't say who but I'm guessing Robert Glenn Ketchum who has always used 67 stuff. Now since then Tim Fitzharris did all those articles for Pop Photo using Pentax 645. I'd presume he was somehow compensated--but he did drop the brand to go with Mamiya digital medium format the past few years, so maybe he was "on his own"? He didn't appear to have loyalties...nor patience to wait for Pentax's digital medium format camera.

Agreed - I shall not hold my breath. I was given specific info by Ned B. about things (still under NDA), and I suspect the merger has changed that. Oh well...

Regards,
Marc

[Marc Langille]

Flash concentrators can really fire the flash for long distances--I've used both Better Beamer and the Flash Extender--heck I think I have a couple extras I could loan if you need them. Careful of eyeshine with animals--especially cats. Really Right Stuff sells systems that get the flash farther off camera axis to reduce eyeshine. I have the RRS system, but haven't really tried it on cats--not many opportunities! The best use for these flash products for me is daytime to fill shadows or to create catchlights. Honestly, I've ruined lots of decent work by flashing animals and causing the animal version of red eye--often green in animals. Make sure you test on animals with flash before leaving for Texas. Try a local zoo perhaps.

Also, several past winning shots in the Texas contest have been taken around water holes. If I were you I'd buy a trail camera--a remote camera for photographing animals on trails or at waterholes. An inexpensive digital one that isn't intended to capture award winning photos, but only to do night survey work for you so you know if you should set something else up too. They are available at hunting stores...

Thank you Ron for the offer - I do plan to have a Better Beamer or something similar before I depart. I'll definitely have to test it. They do not allow for any removal of animal "red-eye" in the images.

The plan is to scout out the watering holes - they have more than a few of them!

Do you have any remote systems that work out to more than 50 yards? A pop up blind? Multiple tripod sets so you can leave gear in the field at multiple locations? You might be able to talk me into loaning items to help. I have a couple remote systems for Pentax film cameras. It appears that Zigview now has remote capabilities for early Pentax digi cameras, but maybe not for K10D yet?

Remote system: no remote for that range.... suggestions?

Pop up blind: plan is to get the Ameristep dog house with high back stool (from Cabelas): Cabela's -- Ameristep Doghouse Blind with High-Back Stool
do you have any other suggestions?

Tripods: 3 (might get a better head as you suggest)... two of them are nothing special though. My Giottos MT9360 is designed to exel at macro work (which is a division in the competition), but it's a good all rounder too.

Honest, I am not trying to solicit anyone for anything...

I also noticed in your photo that you had an old pan and tilt head under your 300. You may want to spring for the Wimberly Sidekick or one of the copies to help your lens work on moving targets. I personally use the Arca Swiss B2's which are massive ballheads with bidirectional lockable articulations--so they can be used to pan with flying birds etc. Not unlike the Wimberly capabilities, but the B2's are short enough to work well from a window pod when using my vehicle as a blind. The Sidekick Wimberly turns a normal ball head into a gimbal head and works on lenses up to your 300 size. Your new 600 will require a more substantial system like the full-sized Wimberly or maybe I can loan you a B2?

Would that sort of setup be overkill for a lighter lens like the Sigma or the 300/2.8?

Ron, you have been most helpful in giving suggestions! I shall contact you about some of them via PM.

Regards,
Marc

[kent vinyard]

Marc,
Looks like the planning of the trip has begun. I have a lepp flash extender that you are welcome to use as I hardly ever use it. I also have a portable blind like the one Tom Lusk uses that you can use unless you just want to buy one. Reminds me of the days in the past when my brother and I would plan our photo trips--Florida Everglades , Yellowstone , etc. No matter how it turns out you will have a life time of memories (and hope fulley some prize money too.)

[MRRiley]

Marc,

Just wanted to add my congrats and best wishes to the pot. We all have confidence in you and look forward to seeing the results and the photo of you with one of those great big checks.

Hey Ned B, if you're readin this help a guy out and sponsor that big ole 600mm... Marc won't let Pentax down.