The Case for Digital Contact Sheets

Whether I’m shooting digital or film, contact sheets are an important part of my editorial process. Taking pictures is only the first step in creating a new project: developing, researching, and editorializing all contribute to the final presentation of my work. While the workflow itself differs slightly when I’m working with film or digital, contact sheets are my favorite way to curate and annotate my photographs.

When it comes to the darkroom, contact sheets play a key role in determining what photos are worth printing. By exposing a sleeve of cut negatives directly onto photo paper, the photographer can view positives of an entire 35mm roll on a single sheet of 8x10 paper. Every enlargement costs materials and time to print, dry, and spot the final product. Contact sheets help the photographer craft their story and determine what photos are worth enlarging. The book “Magnum Contact Sheets”, which I reference frequently, gives a fascinating look into the mind and process of famous photographers like Robert Capa and Elliot Erwitt. The book shows contact sheets of Capa’s famous D-Day photographs and Erwitt’s capture of the “Kitchen Debate” between Nixon and Khrushchev, among many other famous photographs. I haven’t printed in the darkroom since college, but I still print digital contact sheets with my Canon PRO-100 at home.

The process begins in Lightroom where I import my pictures for the first round of review, immediately rejecting any photos with glaringly obvious errors like terrible lighting, poor framing, camera shake, or missed focus. I then start tweaking the development settings of the remaining photos, getting them to a point where I can print a contact sheet. I have two different Lightroom preset that print 5x7 (35mm) or 3x4 (6x6) contact sheets on 8x10 paper, which I then review and annotate with grease pencil. I like Sharpie China Markers, red for color photographs or yellow/white for black & white.

The scans below are of some contact sheets I printed for the blog post I put together on The Holmdel Horn Antenna shot on my RX100VA - a box denotes a favorite, x a reject, and just the corners a crop. I’ve found that printing contact sheets and looking at them over multiple days helps me visualize the story I want to tell, weave my photographs into a cohesive narrative, and be more critical of my work. After I finish annotating a contact sheet, I’ll use it as a reference to construct the webpage layout and make any final edits to my images. I think there’s something about physically printing and annotating your photos by hand that will help you see them in a whole new light - give it a try!

Marconi Tower

One of the many upcoming projects I have planned is focused on documenting what still remains of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company’s network of telegraph receiver stations in the United States. During my research I uncovered numerous sites which remain in various states of preservation, stretching up the East Coast from New Jersey to Massachusetts. I was driving around Binghamton, NY while working on a different project about IBM Endicott when I came across a rusted tower with an NY State Historic Marker nestled under it. Not far from the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western terminal, the marker reads “ERECTED NOVEMBER 1913 BY GUGLIELMO MARCONI TO TEST THE POSSIBILITY OF TRANSMITTED TELEGRAPHIC SIGNALS TO MOVING TRAINS ALONG THE LACKAWANNA RR”.

Patented by Marconi in 1900, wireless communication was still in it’s infancy in November 1912. Less than a year before Marconi’s experiment in Binghamton, Marconi Wireless Telegraph operators onboard the Titanic spent most of their time sending messages from the ship’s wealthy passengers back to shore as a novelty of sorts. The wireless telegraph later proved itself a lifesaving technology when the receiving station at South Wellfleet, MA relayed news of the Titanic’s sinking to RMS Carpathia, facilitating the rescue of survivors left stranded in the Atlantic.

Marconi built two sets of towers in 1913 to test the feasibility of receiving wireless telegraph messages at high speeds. Until this point, the radio telegraph had been used to communicate with ships across great distances, but never something like a train. On November 27, 1913, a 350 word message was successfully transmitted to a Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western railroad train traveling 60 mph using the two test stations in Binghamton and Scranton, PA.

While the experiment was a success, the system Marconi envisioned never came to fruition. Fixed stations were to be spaced every 50 miles along the track to combat poor reception onboard trains, thus incurring prohibitively high infrastructure costs. The railroad would completely replace Marconi’s equipment with radio telephony transmission towers in Hoboken and Buffalo, establishing their system in 1914. While almost all evidence of this experiment is long gone, the rusted remains of one tower that once supported the 150 foot aerial needed to conduct Marconi’s experiment still stands today in Binghamton.

Cayuga Preventorium

Sometimes history is hiding in plain sight, as is the case with with Cayuga Preventorium. Luckily for me there were a few handy plaques that tipped me off to the significance of the Cayuga Nature Center building. Even before seeing the signs, the building gave off an institutional tone. Built in 1939 as a retreat designed to help prevent tuberculosis in Tompkins County youth exposed to the disease, the old preventorium now houses the Cayuga Nature Center (and previously served as a dormitory for Cornell students, a summer camp, and a conference center until 1975).

The new building opened in 1939 and closed only a short time later in 1942. Staffing shortages caused by the war and the advent of antibiotics to combat tuberculosis infections made the “sunshine and fresh air” method of recovery obsolete. The camp’s first home was across Cayuga Lake at Estey’s Point, and only operated during the warm months. The land donated for the new building was gifted by Mr. & Ms. Ernest T. Paine in the 1930s, and construction completed under guidance of the Works Progress Administration.

Walking through the building, some of the materials start to look familiar to someone who has an affinity for WWII era structures. The ubiquitous wood chip board, made of bonded wood scraps, sawdust, and glue, is tacked to the walls of the second level. This reminded me of the Amache Internment Camp in Colorado, which was constructed of like material. The building is laid out in a C-shape, with wings for patients flanking the central dining room and sun porch. Finding out more specifics regarding the preventorium’s original role has been tough - despite being nominated for the National Register and speaking with folks at the nature center and county historical society, details are sparse.

One feature that caught my attention was the familiar looking ridge vent with the star on top - something I’ve seen before at Fort DuPont. Given that the Cayuga Preventorium was built by the Works Progress Administration, a government entity, it would make sense that building materials used in the war effort show up here. I’m going to keep researching this site and add additional details here if I come across them.

The George Eastman House

I’ve been spending an increasing amount of time in Rochester between visiting the George Eastman Museum, working on my upcoming Kodak series, and exploring the city in general. The George Eastman Museum occupies the original mansion George Eastman lived in until his death in 1932 and is one of my favorite places to visit in Rochester. The mansion was bequeathed to the University of Rochester but was turned over to the George Eastman House museum and became it’s permanent home in 1949. The mansion was built in the Georgian Revival style by Mr. Eastman with all the modern conveniences of the day: electricity, telephones, a central vacuum system, an elevator, and a massive Aeolian pipe organ. Fun fact about the organ - the Aeolian Organ Company’s manufacturing plant was just down the rail line from where I grew up. Located in Garwood, NJ, it was torn down recently for apartments as part of the building craze that seems to be impacting all towns along NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley line. The castle-like facade with the carved stone “Aeolian Organ Company” signage looks to be preserved though, while the apartments themselves haven’t made much progress.

George Eastman, worth millions at the time of his death, spared no expense in the construction of his estate. While he never married, he was incredibly close with his mother Maria and she lived with him until her death in 1907. Given she spend the last two years of her life in a wheelchair and Eastman himself suffered from debilitating pain late in life, the elevator was an undoubtedly useful feature. Small details like the ornate inlaid stained glass depicting different modes of transportation including cars, steam ships, and hot air balloons adorn the windows of the billiard room. Painted murals of animals seen on Eastman’s exotic hunting expeditions trim the built-in bookcases of the library. I found the conservatory, flooded with natural light, particularly spectacular. The space consumes both floors of the building and is notable for a mounted elephant head, likely a trophy acquired by Eastman’s himself. Outside the mansion are multiple gardens, which I hope to visit when the plants are in bloom and the renovation of the east lawn are completed.

Review | Sony RX100VA

I’ve been toying with the idea of a more compact alternative to my D810 for about a year, and over the summer I found this used Sony RX100VA for a good price at B&H. Broadly, there are two categories of compact cameras available today for the prosumer market: full-frame fixed lens cameras and 1” compact cameras, the latter category including the RX100 series. There’s a lot to like about this little camera, but I’d describe my experience so far with the RX100VA as love-hate. A common saying in photography goes “the best camera is the one that’s with you”, which was one of the primary drivers behind picking this thing up. While I appreciate everything this camera can do, I think the #1 lesson I’ve learned is to temper my expectations - it’s not my D810 after all!

Lens & METERING

With a 24-70mm equivalent lens and a wide f/1.8-2.8 aperture, the camera encompasses focal lengths that I use most often. I specifically chose the VA variant because it’s the most recent model with the 24-70mm lens included - all models since the VA have a longer 24-200mm f/2.8-4.5 lens. The extra reach might be great for other photographers, but given my use case I chose the wider aperture for the benefit of lower ISO in difficult shooting conditions. Given the 1” sensor, you’re unlikely to notice much of a difference in DoF regardless of which lens you choose.

Coming from my D810, chromatic aberration is an issue with this camera which Lightroom struggles to correct automatically. I often have to manually tweak the defringing settings in Lightroom as the eye dropper fails to sample what I’m seeing. The built-in lens profile does a good job of correcting distortion, however I automatically add +10 vignetting on import to Lightroom as the corners tend to come out a bit dark across all focal lengths.

In terms of autofocus, I find myself using Wide or Expand Flexible Spot modes most often depending on what I’m shooting. Quick trip out with the family? Wide more for fast focus. Shooting a blog post? Expand Flexible Spot for accuracy. I’m a proponent of focus and recompose, which I’ve accomplish by disabling AE Lock on the 1/2 shutter press. I focus on my subject with a 1/2 shutter press, recompose, and take the shot (I have AE Lock mapped to another button on the off-chance I need it). It’s EXTREMELY easy to miss focus at infinity for some reason, and I stopped using Center mode because it would often grab the foreground vs the building off in the distance I was aiming for. If you think you’ve missed focus, use the zoom toggle to quickly zoom in 100% and check critical focus. This feature is also handy if you think there might be some camera shake in your picture.

Information on the RX100VA’s lens is sparse online, but through my own testing I’ve been able to nail down the sharpest apertures and focal lengths.

One quirk of the RX100VA is it’s minimum shutter speed calculation. The old adage “1 / focal length is the minimum shutter speed to avoid camera shake induced blur” holds true, however I’ve found the minimum shutter speed calculated by Sony to be optimistic at times. Don’t try shooting one handed with the EVF as you’re bound to get some camera shake in the resultant image. You can always adjust the ISO AUTO Min. SS from Standard to Fast if you want to be safe. I first did this when I realized 1/4 of my shots were blurry from camera shake and have since improved my technique enough to revert back to Standard.

Not specifically lens related, but the RX100VA has a handy built-in flash that I’ve used a few time for pictures of the family in not-so-great lighting conditions. It works well and isn’t too harsh when set to “Fill Flash”. I’ve certainly appreciated it when there just wasn’t enough light for the ISO/Aperture combination I needed.

Ergenomics

For a compact camera, the RX100VA has some great quality of life features I’d expect coming from a DSLR. For one, the pop-up EVF is ingenious. It retracts into the camera body when not in use and allows you to get into that classic camera shooting position, which affords extra stability for longer shutter speeds. There’s also a tilting LCD (not a touch screen, which I think is a drawback given Sony’s atrocious menu structure) which makes getting low angle, high angle, or selfie style shots a breeze. I don’t love EFVs in general as someone who stares at a screen for a living and shoots lots of film, however I have nothing but praise for the Sony engineers who managed to fit one into this tiny camera!

Another great feature is that you can assign the ring around the front lens to act as a stepped zoom, offering the focal lengths of 24, 28, 35, 50, and 70mm. One of the first things I learned in photography is to treat your zoom lens as a collection of primes. I like to zoom with my feet, and the stepper zoom makes it easy to quickly select the focal length I need. There’s a menu setting which allows you to change the zoom speed from normal to fast - while you might hear the mechanical zoom with the onboard mics when recording video, you’ll appreciate the faster speed if you primarily shoot stills like me.

The one thing this camera should’ve come packaged with is the optional accessory grip. It’ll run you an extra $15 but will make this tiny camera a bit easier to hold. For a simple adhesive grip that you slap on the front of the camera, it really made a difference in handling to me.

Image Quality

In terms of image quality, this camera packs a punch with its 1” ~20 megapixel sensor and surprisingly flexible ISO range. Unlike my D810 where I use dedicated command dials to control ISO and aperture, I leave the RX100VA on Auto ISO (lower limit 125, upper limit 3200). In really dark situations I can find a nice ledge to set the camera on, adjust my settings manually, and take longer exposures with the self-timer to get a clean image. I also like that the high megapixel count leaves plenty of room to crop without sacrificing resolution. I’ve found the sensor to struggle most with highlights and the meter to tend toward overexposure. I have a permanent -1/6 exposure adjustment programmed into the camera which has mostly solved my issues. Areas around highlights (think bright sky or windows) are prone to wash out. Lightroom’s Auto White Balance function doesn’t seem to work well with this camera either. I usually adjust the tint slightly by hand or use the eye dropper to get things looking natural.

There was a STEEP learning curve in Lightroom to produce final images that hold up against my D810, but with a good amount of editing it can be done. I’ve been a Nikon shooter since my first camera, a D5500, and I’m used to the way Lightroom renders my Nikon’s .NEF RAW files. After lots of tweaking, I finally created a Lightroom import preset that I’m happy with. I’ve found the .ARW files my RX100VA produces have a slightly green tint (I’ve tried everything to fix it), need a ton more sharpening, and need a hint of clarity and dehaze to look good. You can see my default import settings below:

  • Develop Module

    • Clarity | +10

    • Dehaze | +8

  • Lens Correction

    • Vignetting | +10

  • Detail

    • Sharpening | +40

    • Radius | 1.3

    • Detail | 25

    • Masking | 15

Calibration (I used this to get rid of the terrible green cast I was seeing):

  • Shadows

    • Tint | +10

  • Red Primary

    • Hue | -10

    • Saturation | +5

  • Green Primary

    • Hue | +15

    • Saturation | -5

  • Blue Primary

    • Hue | 0

    • Saturation | +9

My Travel Kit

The RX100VA is a camera I aim to always have with me when traveling, and as such I have a go-bag with everything I need for a day of shooting. Here’s a list of what I carry:

  • Sony LCS-CSJ Carrying Case

    • Op-Tech USA Strap | I keep a set of clips on my RX100VA and the case itself so I always have the strap with me. The camera won’t fit in the case with a neck strap attached.

    • 2-3x NP-BX1 Batteries | This camera absolutely eats batteries. You can expect about 220 shots per battery, in my experience. Expect less shots if you extensively use the EVF.

    • Sandisk Extreme Pro 64 GB SD Card | This will get you a ton of shots - 1,761 in RAW + JPG (fine) to be exact. No need for a bigger card unless you plan to shoot lots of 4k video.

    • Microfiber Cloth & LensPen Micro

    • Lens Cleaning Wipe (for LCD)

    • WhiBal G7 Keychain Card | Like I mentioned above, getting the white balance right can be tricky. This little card fits neatly within the carrying case and comes in handy when I want to shoot an 18% gray target in tricky lighting situations. I leave my RX100VA on Auto White Balance: White.

  • Tom Bihn Zipper Pouch

    • Sony BC-DX2 Charger + USB Wall Adapter | While you can charge batteries in the camera itself, this handy little charger comes dirt cheap in a kit from B&H. Worth it for charging batteries on the go while leaving your camera safe and sound in it’s case.

    • Apple Lightning to SD Card Reader | I often leave my heavy 2021 MacBook Pro at home when traveling, so this adapter allows me to browse a day’s work from my iPhone or iPad.

Test Shots

I purchased the RX100VA to have a camera that could easily travel with me on my trips downstate, to be used for blog posts when I didn’t have time to haul my D810 with me, and to capture more moments with my family. The RX100 series also excels at video but I haven’t had much experience with that aspect of the camera. I’ll be sure to update here if I ever dive into it. You can see some of the blog posts I’ve made which were shot on the RX100VA linked below:

The Verdict

In an age where content is increasingly being consumed on the small screen and iPhone photography prevails, I think there’s still a place for a compact camera in the photographer’s pocket. The main benefit I find with the RX100VA is it’s ergonomics which make it such an enjoyable little camera to use. While I’ve repeatedly considered fixed lens alternatives like the Sony RX1 and Fujifilm X100 series, I think the flexibility of the RX100VA’s zoom lens is too valuable to pass up. What probably matters most is I now have a high quality camera with me when I would’ve been empty handed, enabling me to shoot more blog posts, get out in the field, and live up to the tagline of my site: History | Exploration | Photography.

Fort Stanwix

Fort Stanwix National Monument, managed by the National Park Service, is a modern day recreation of the circa 1762 Revolutionary War fort. The reconstruction was completed as part of urban revitalization efforts in 1974 atop the original fort’s location, then the historic downtown section of Rome, NY. It was a unseasonably hot day in early fall when I visited, and there were few people at the fort. I had the opportunity to speak with a ranger about the fort’s construction, and she explained how the city of Rome, NY asked the NPS to come in and reconstruct the fort. Congress authorized the National Monument in 1935, but the real push for its construction came with the Revolutionary War fervor of the bicentennial. The National Parks Service, not in the business of bulldozing historic structures (of which downtown Rome had many examples), politely declined the city’s initial request to bulldoze the site and reconstruct the fort. The city used eminent domain to demolish the dilapidated downtown section anyway, and a 3 year archeological survey of the property commenced before construction began. The fort was opened in 1976 for the bicentennial and construction was wrapped up in 1978.

So why is Fort Stanwix a National Monument? The story begins back in 1777 when Continental forces occupied the fort and repelled the British, earning the nickname of “the fort that never surrendered” after enduring a prolonged siege. The fort was eventually abandoned after the war and razed as the city of Rome expanded with the success of the Eerie Canal. While I was only able to poke my head inside recreated areas of the fort like the barracks and officers quarters due to COVID-19 precautions, I was impressed by the craftsmanship put into the reconstruction. I wonder if there will be another resurgence of interest in the Revolutionary War when the tricentennial rolls around. I’ll be 80 in 2076, so hopefully I’ll still be around to experience it. With so many historic sites from that time period in the tri-state area, I’d be curious to see what other projects might gain traction if there is a resurgence in Revolutionary War interest.