Jim Richardson: Travel & Adventure Gear Guide

Snapshot
A 30-year career of dramatic, insightful, elegant travel photojournalism.

Point of Focus
"I want you to be able to see through the picture, right to the people and their lives."

Cameras
D3
D700

Favorite Lenses
AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED
PC-E NIKKOR 24mm f/3.5D ED

Why
"The superb quality I can get from the D3 and D700 at high ISO. The amazing ability to make pictures in situations that I'd once have walked away from—like the streets of Arles at night with a wide- angle lens and no tripod, doing urban night-street scenes off the cuff; or in a street café or a pub. All of a sudden the other half of the world has been opened up—the night is open.

"Second thing, the D3 is quick, responsive. Not just a high frame rate, but more on the shutter release—no delay. It's brought the digital camera up to the point where you feel you can really be there with a subject. The numbers don't show what I’m talking about—the milliseconds, the time for the shutter to fire; what I’m experiencing is a responsiveness that seems to go beyond the test measurements.

"The lenses? Because they cover the variety of shots I'm likely to make...and like to make.

"The 24mm [PC-E] tilt-shift...well, I use the shift to keep things straight in a lot of my architectural stuff. I grew up with a twin lens reflex, so I’m always wanting to get down low, and I like wide-angle, too, and I like the way images lay out when everything can be kept straight—that's the way I see them when I anticipate them being on a two-page spread in a magazine.

"The tilt capability I rarely use to get more depth-of-field—I often use it to get less. It's absolutely wonderful to be able to do a large scene, with a sense of space, atmosphere and context and still be able to focus the viewers' attention right where I want it. I did a picture in Provence of a marching band in a bull ring that's like that. These are non-lethal bullfights, by the way; they run in front of the bull and try to grab a string off its head."

Big Plus
"Virtual horizon on the D3 and D700—that thing is so valuable. I set the camera's function button to turn it on in the finder and the top LCD. It's not only great for keeping pictures level, but it's also wonderful if you want to set the camera down on the ground, or at water level to get really good reflections. You can look at the top LCD and see that you're level. Or hold the camera over your head, upside down and you'll see if you're level."

Non-Photo Essential
"First, my iPhone. Then mystery novels set in the locale I'll be visiting. They give me a sense of the place, the people, the atmosphere.

"The good ones really involve the local peculiarities, the local places and the people—all the things that make photography interesting.

"On a recent trip to Scotland I had some of Ian Rankin's Rebus novels.

"And there's L.R. Wright for British Columbia, James Lee Burke for the Cajun country of Louisiana and Stuart Kaminsky's novels set in Russia."

Advice Given
"When you go into something that's terribly exciting and looks absolutely wonderful, it ought to set off a little warning bell that tells you that if it seems too easy, it probably is."

The Beginning
"My dad was a farmer and truck driver whose hobby was photography. He was always stopping at pawn shops on his drives down to Texas and coming home with Zeiss Ikons and Voigtlanders.

"So photography became a hobby for me. My first darkroom experience was setting up at night in the kitchen on the farm and hoping nobody would drive by and shine the headlights in.

"I entered the county fairs and delighted in the judges pronouncements on my blue ribbon pictures before they went on to judge the big ears of corn and the best preserves."

More About Jim Richardson
www.jimrichardsonphotography.com