"No land in America is more sacred than the square mile of Arlington National Cemetery."

It’s hard not to be changed after seeing a years worth of tears shed over the caskets of American soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. As an editor I had to distill tens of thousands of photographs, taken over the course of a year, which resonated sadness, honor, pride, reverence but most of all loss, into a story that we published in June 2007.

Regardless of what I witnessed in that photographic coverage, I still can’t reconcile the personal sense of loss in the eyes of Capt. Lisa Doring of the U.S. Marine Corps as she buried her husband, Capt. Nathanael James Doring, at Arlington National Cemetery, June 14, 2006.

What I can share this Memorial Day is a link back to those images, which I hope, pay homage to our servicemen and women of these United States of America.

— Ken Geiger

Everyone who uses a digital point-and-shoot camera knows the feeling. You’re looking at the LCD display, all ready for that decisive moment - toddler about to take his first step, daughter about to blow out her birthday candles. You press the shutter-release button and . . . you get the moment after. This occurs because the camera has a lot to do to capture an image: It has to switch from LCD display to image capture, focus, determine white balance, and set exposure, which can take a quarter second, depending on the camera and settings. Newer models have reduced shutter lag, but until it’s eliminated completely there are a couple of things you can do.

In both shots my son, Cory, was in midair when the shutter-release was pressed. By the time the camera focused, processed, and shot, he was in the water (top right). You can reduce shutter lag greatly by prefocusing and locking exposure on your subject. Depress the shutter-release button halfway just before the action and hold it. Push the rest of the way when the action occurs, to nail the moment (bottom right).

To reduce the time between shots when shooting in continuous mode, overcoming small buffers, try choosing a smaller file size (from large JPEG to medium JPEG, for example). Smaller files take less time to process and write to your card.

From the National Geographic guide to digital photography.

— Ken Geiger

Almost all compact digital cameras come with zoom lenses. But there’s a big difference between optical zoom and digital zoom. When you use optical zoom, you take full advantage of your camera’s millions of pixels. When you use digital zoom, you’re reducing the capability of your camera’s sensor to a fraction of its maximum potential. One picture (bottom image) was shot with a 7.1-megapixel camera using 3x optical zoom. The other (top) was shot with the same camera using 12x digital zoom, effectively reducing the 7.1 megapixels of image data to less than 0.5 megapixels. The picture’s detail and color quality is greatly reduced, making it look softer. The lesson: Use digital zoom only as a last resort.

From the National Geographic guide to digital photography.

— Ken Geiger

James Bond would not be much of a secret agent without his supply of extremely lethal gadgets supplied by his man in the lab, the inventive Q.

National Geographic Photo Engineering is an entire department of Q’s, who invent, blueprint and build some of the most amazing gadgets that make impossible photographs possible. From their arsenal of lathes, milling and welding machines they have created custom submersibles diving 1,000 feet below sea level to a remote camera controlled through a pair of virtual goggles. 

In their quest to explore every avenue to make unique images, they are now turning to the spy market.  Technology has advanced to the point where GPS and computer controlled micro aircraft can carry video surveillance cameras for the military or search and rescue missions. That same technology, like the AirRobot, can also carry a 10 megapixel still camera to an altitude of 3,000 feet, creating a distinctive perspective on a subject where normal aircraft or a helicopter may be impractical to fly.

The stealthy AirRobot will fly for 20 minutes on field replaceable rechargeable batteries. Four carbon fiber blades supply vertical lift to the unit, which is stabilized by a combination of gyroscopic, barometric and magnetic sensors. AirRobot weighs only two pounds and breaks down in pieces small enough to fit in a backpack. The second generation of this amazing little aircraft is in production and we are hoping its larger payload will lift a digital SLR to vantage points yet explored.

— Ken Geiger   

When Leica rolled out the long awaited M8 digital rangefinder at Photokina last year, I’ll have to admit I was one of the throng willing to queue up at the Leica booth for 30 minutes just to get my hands on the prized piece of German engineering. Unfortunately that euphoria was dashed as press reviews revealed some of the shortfalls of the camera, extreme color shifts due to a lack of infrared filtering and poor image quality at higher ISO ratings.

Fortunately Leica seems to have taken these shortcomings seriously, releasing infrared filters and posting several firmware upgrades, including their most recent, M8 Firmware Update 1.107.

Through the combination of infrared filters and firmware upgrades the M8 image quality continues to move in a positive direction. This latest upgrade was released to address concerns over the auto white balance not hitting the mark and amount of digital noise showing when using the higher ISO range of the camera. A quick test of the AWB after upgrading displayed that Leica engineers still have a little more work to do, at least when dealing with florescent lights.

These firmware upgrades are highly recommended and continue to bring the M8 closer to the quality considered needed to be a serious replacement for the venerable M series film cameras.

— Ken Geiger