My favorite mirrorless feature so far. 

After a long wait, I finally upgraded my Nikon D850s to the Z8 just before the beginning of the high season. I would be fibbing if I said it did not come with a steeper learning curve than expected. I have been using the Z7 mirrorless for my IR photography for five years, but there seem to be many more buttons that are easy to hit, and your whole world crashes while you figure out what you have done NOW! 

One of the main reasons I was so excited to switch to mirrorless for my color work was live exposure; the other was corner-to-corner focusing points. It was a game-changer in my IR work. When I look through the viewfinder, I see the scene in infrared! With a DSLR, you see it in color, take the photo, and then you can review it in IR on the screen on the back of your camera. The entire experience is completely and fabulously different with mirrorless. 

Therefore, it is not a far stretch to understand why I love how easy it is to push one button and turn one dial without moving my eye away from the viewfinder, and I am instantly seeing and shooting in black and white. I found myself shooting in black and white a lot throughout the season. I have always been an emotional shooter, reacting more to what I am experiencing through the viewfinder than later in post-processing. 

I was on two safaris with Vicki Jauron this past season. During the first one, I sat and observed more moments than I photographed. I struggled to feel inspired to click the shutter.  Before our next safari, she showed me a collection of images she had edited, and they were exquisite, particularly the ones in black and white. It occurred to me that I should try shooting in black and white, which is precisely what I did, and it changed how I saw my subjects. Over the years, behavior and scenes that had become ordinary took on a fresh artistic appeal. In color, the images below probably would not have sparked my interest enough to click the shutter, but viewing the action in black and white took on a whole new appeal. 

Next, I returned to the Omo Valley with Greg Thomason and a small group of talented photographers. We spent an entire week with the extraordinary Suri tribe, giving us plenty of time to be highly creative. It has been many years since I have used Flash, at least since I switched to Nikon, because it was more complicated than I wanted to deal with, and I have enjoyed the freedom of keeping it simple. However, Greg is a talented studio portrait photographer, and I wanted to take advantage of his knowledge and brush up on the flash skills of my early years. I purchased the Profoto A10 Flash, and it was worth every penny!! It was so simple I turned it on and was up and going without peaking at a word in the manual. 

I began the week shooting with natural light in color and infrared. However, using fill flash, especially on dark skin, makes a significant difference. Using it with back and white is an entirely different wow factor.   

The real magic is that I see it in black and white, but the raw file is in color. I use photo mechanics for instant and fast culling as part of my workflow. This program allows me to see the images in black and white, just as I saw when I captured the image, but when I double-click and open it in Photoshop, it is the color image in raw where my post-processing begins. 

The best of both worlds. 

Once again, technology has brought more possibilities for artistry to our fingertips. Go and explore it!