So, about a year ago, the Canon 40D I had been borrowing got reclaimed by its owner and I needed to make a choice about which DSLR platform I would commit to.  Boy, what a lot of variables in that decision!

For this comparison, the cameras I considered were:

• Nikon D700
• Nikon D300s
• Canon 5D Mark II
• Canon 7D

Here are the elements of my discussion, in (my subjective) order of importance:

1. Ergonomics
2. Low-Light Performance
3. Auto-Focus and Image Stabilization
4. Resolving Power and Available Lenses
5. Price
6. White Balance
7. Built-in Extras (Flash, Video)

So… a few words on each, and then my conclusion one year after I made the decision…

Ergonomics

In studio photography this matters less, but I work almost exclusively in the field, and I find that the accessibility of key functions often makes the difference between catching an opportunity and missing it.

Power Switch

On the Nikon line, for instance, the power switch is right by the shutter button, and if my camera is off I can flip the switch without taking my eye away from the viewfinder.  Canon puts it on the back face of the camera, in a location that requires taking my right hand off the grip.  They fixed this defect on the 7D, but the 5DmarkII still has the problem.  As silly as it may sound, that one issue bothered me a lot.   Nikon also puts the switch to illuminate the auxiliary LCD right next to the power switch (this is the external display that shows ISO, white balance, remaining memory, etc… not the big color LCD for live-view, picture preview, etc.)  Advantage: Nikon

White Balance, ISO, Image Quality, over-under expose, flash over-under expose

Nikon has dedicated buttons for WB/ISO/Quality, accessible on the top-left of the body, and places the flash-exposure compensation near the built-in flash (with the regular exposure compensation on a dedicated button near the right-hand controls).  Canon, in contrast has a row of four buttons which toggle between these various functions.  If my eye is looking through the viewfinder, I found it impossible to quickly feel which of the four buttons was for which function on the Canon… and then I had to look carefully at the little row of settings on bottom of the viewfinder to confirm whether I was using “function 1″ or “function 2″ on each of those buttons.  So, the net result is that, once again, I need to take the Canon away from my face in order to look at the body to figure out which button I’m pressing, and what mode it’s in.  Yuck!  Advantage: Nikon

Customization of UI

Both platforms offer extensive customization menus, so that you can quickly switch between different “modes” of your own design — for instance, I use one group of settings for “Nature”, a different set for “Extreme Low-Light”, a third for “Studio Portraits”, and yet another for “Architecture”.  Configuring these can take a while to think through, and I found both Canon and Nikon to be relatively flexible about it.  On the Canon platform, there is an external knob for switching between custom setting banks, while the Nikon requires digging through the menus a bit.  Advantage: Canon

f8 and be there

In case you don’t remember manual cameras, or they were before your time, “Sunny 16″ is a mnemonic for calculating correct exposure without a light meter.  If it’s a sunny day, then set the aperture to f16 and set the shutter speed to 1/ISO (for instance, if shooting ISO100, then use 1/100s exposure; if shooting ISO400 film, then use 1/400s).  If you prefer a different aperture, then every stop you move the aperture dial, the shutter speed needs to move a stop in the other direction.

When I was in college, I asked my photo professor for a clarification of the Sunny 16 rule… and he countered with a more important rule.  I was trying to learn about compensating for shadows and backlighting, and he said “Don’t worry about all that stuff, kid, it’ll come naturally with time… Instead of Sunny 16, use the Journalist’s Rule: f8 and be there!“ Of course I had to ask… and he explained, “Just pay attention to getting the damn shot, because if you’re not in the right place at the right time, it doesn’t matter how good your settings are.”

He meant that f8 has a reasonable depth-of-field and a reasonable amount of light; if you set the camera’s shutter speed to match the ISO and be fast enough for no hand shake, erring towards overexposed, then you’ll be fine just picking up the camera and going for it, in case there isn’t time to mess with settings.

Of course journalists are doing different work than studio photographers… a badly-exposed and grainy picture of a unique moment in history can be fine; an imperfect studio shot is an expensive disaster.  Personally, I tend towards capturing irreplaceable moments, so this is a long way of saying the ergonomics are super-important to me, even on simple stuff like the power switch.

Low-Light Performance

Monkey Portrait at ISO6400

The Nikon D300s was definitely the worst of the bunch.  Regardless of what settings are on the dial, the reality is that ISO1600 is all you get; 3200 is pretty sloppy.  Canon’s 7D came surprisingly close to the 5DmarkII, and is respectable at ISO3200, but I thought neither could keep up with the Nikon D700.  It uses the same sensor as Nikon’s flagship D3, and even though the technology is from 2008 (while Canon’s are 2010 releases), the Nikon D700 is the only camera that produced solid ISO6400 photos.

Since I often shoot candid portraits in extreme low-light, and I often use a compact telephoto zoom (f5.6 300mm), I am constantly fighting an intense battle to get the shutter speed fast enough to catch a moving subject without hand shake.  Each extra stop of ISO comes in very handy.  Even in circumstances where I can carry the giant f2.8 70-200mm lens, those extra two stops still go further with the ISO power of the D700. Advantage: Nikon (if full-frame), Canon (if crop-sensor).

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Auto-Focus and Image Stabilization

Focusing Speed

Without a doubt, Canon has the fastest focusing system.  With additional assistance from ultrasonic technology, it just snaps into place with lightning speed.  Even on continuous-focus settings, when the target is moving I can feel the faintest tremor, like a vibrating “bip bip bip” each time it refocuses.  Extremely cool.  Nikon’s focusing algorithm is purely optical, which takes a bit longer.  Advantage: Canon

Focal Point Options

On this one, I’m a bit mystified.  Nikon offers a choice of a 17-point grid or a 52-point grid, and you can “steer” the little rectangle around the viewfinder with a 4-direction controller on the camera back.  This makes sense to me.  Canon, for some reason, only offers a 9-point grid (in a diamond shape, three points per side plus one in the center).  Using one of the right-hand wheels, you can roll the wheel through the autofocus point choices (one of which is “auto-detect; use any or all”).  If you train your hand to remember which of the non-ergonomic four little buttons puts the camera into “AF point select mode”, then you can choose targets faster on the Canon platform than the Nikon.  Nikon has back-of-the-camera settings to switch between single-point and multi-point, which is a bit more annoying than Canon.

Despite the awesome speed of the Canon auto-focus, Nikon’s AF continuous-focus mode is pretty cool.  This is where they start to win using their purely-optical algorithms… Once you have a lock on a subject, if it moves then 3D software actually interprets the scene and will move the focal point to retain focus on the target initially selected.  For instance, the headlight of a car driving past you will remain in focus while you’re tracking it, even if it moves across the frame.  This blows Canon away.  Because of this, and the limited number of points offered by the Canon (sometimes I want to focus on a point other than one of their 9 choices), I have to call this one as Advantage: Nikon.

Image Stabilizers

The image stabilization is strong on both platforms, but I found that Canon would let me “get away with” about 2 stops, while Nikon’s “VRII” technology would solidly erase my hand shake from 3 stops+.  For instance, I took this photo handheld at 1/10sec, with a 300mm lens (!)

The usual guideline for hand shake and shutter speeds is that shutter speed should be 1/x seconds, where x is the focal length in millimeters.  So, for a 28mm lens, 1/28s shutter speed (probably 1/30 on a normal camera)… for a 120mm lens, 1/125s, for a 300mm lens, 1/250s or 1/500s to be safe.  If you right-click the sample image I provided, choose “Open in New Window”, and zoom in all the way in your browser, you will find a bit of hand shake — but only if you look closely at full resolution.

But bear in mind, I should have had to take that picture at 1/300s — I actually shot it at 1/10s, a handheld exposure 50x as long as “recommended”.  I squeezed 5 stops out of the image stabilizer!  Granted, there’s a bit of shake, but at 3 or 4 it would have been more solid.  I had trouble getting Canon past 2 stops of IS.

I don’t have a side-by-side comparison, for this, but my subjective opinion is that the Nikon system is better.  Advantage: Nikon

Resolving Power and Available Lenses

DP Review has a fantastic library of A/B comparisons on resolving power and ISO performance, which is part of why I’m not seeking to replicate it here.  But I will touch on a few important points I observed.  One is to do with the pixel count:

Multi-Mega Pixels

So, for super-sharp images, how many pixels do you need? It depends on a few things — most important is the final destination for the photo… A billboard showing jewelry or cosmetics, for instance, might require an an extreme pixel count.  (Although in that case, a larger-format camera like Mamiya or Hasselblad might be more appropriate, in the 50MP and $25k-$50k range.)  Anything viewed on the web will probably be less than one megapixel, so it’s less important.  Even in print, at 300dpi, a letter-sized page is only 2,550 x 3,300 = 8.4MP.

So, for my purposes at least, it’s not really about the pixel count… it’s how clear each pixel can be. This means the price of the body, and the quality of lenses you can afford plays a larger role.  Not to mention the physical size of lens you can carry, if you’re doing telephoto work.

Price

Looking up and down the price range, it’s noteworthy that Canon offers very high resolution starting with its best crop-sensor camera ($1350 for the body-only), while Nikon stays at 12MP unless you go all the way up to a nearly $7k body.  The reason?  Well, a lower pixel count means that each pixel has a larger area on the sensor.  If you want images to become more sharp, it’s great to have lots of pixels, but each pixel needs to be large enough on the sensor to capture enough photons for a precise light-reading.

$600 Nikon D300s – 12MP (crop sensor)
$2400 Nikon D700 – 12MP (full-frame)
$4700 Nikon D3 – 12MP (full-frame)
$6750 Nikon D3x – 24.5MP (full-frame)

$1000 Canon 40D – 10MP (crop sensor)
$1350 Canon 7D – 18MP (crop sensor)
$2600 Canon 5D markII – 21MP (full-frame)
$4600 Canon 1D mark IV – 16MP (full-frame)
$6000 Canon 1Ds mark III – 21MP (full-frame)

The most accurate sampling comes from using the largest sensor area on the smallest number of pixels.  So, the Nikon platform makes the jump to full-frame before making the jump to high pixel count.  This is why the light-sensitivity rocks!  Advantage: Nikon

Available Lenses

Canon definitely has a much larger line-up of lenses, and they’re great.  Advantage: Canon

Unfortunately for me, one of my most important lenses is the compact zoom.  I use a 70-300 f4.5-5.6, although Nikon recently came out with a 28-300 f3.5-5.6 which looks nicer if its optics are as good.  Canon makes a 70-300, but its optics, stabilizer, and focusing elements are really junky while that particular Nikon lens is great.  Most professionals would scoff at such a slow lens, perhaps even saying “why use such a good camera without a pro lens f2.8 or faster?”, and perhaps they’d be right   I do love my 85mm f1.4… But I often can’t carry a fast telephoto zoom where I’m going, due to the size, so the compact happens to be really important to me.  Advantage: Nikon

Once I saw the difference in ISO performance on the Nikon platform, and the preferable ergonomics while shooting, Canon was swimming upstream… but it definitely didn’t help that the 5D Mark II is almost impossible to buy without Canon’s f4 24-100mm zoom… and I found that f4 is just not okay for an everyday lens… I bought my Nikon with the f2.8 24-70mm.  It’s slightly more expensive, but far more flexible in terms of depth-of-field, and the optics are enough superior to compensate for Canon’s higher pixel count, even at normal ISO ranges.  Canon’s high count will produce a sharper picture at ISO100 with a high-end prime lens in the studio, but that’s not where I shoot my pictures.  Advantage: Nikon (although maybe not if you do studio photography.)

For architectural photos and product shots, both platforms offer the essential shift/tilt lenses (Nikon calls them “PC-E” for perspective control, and Canon calls them “TS-E” for tilt & shift.)  Both are similarly priced around $2k, and I have only used the Nikon so I can’t offer a comparison.

For me, it doesn’t matter which brand has more lenses, it matters which brand has the lenses I need.  Somehow, Canon’s giant line-up is missing the ones I wanted.

White Balance

Figs, Canon 40D f2.8, 1/60s, 50mm, Auto-WB

It might seem strange I put White Balance so low on the list, when it’s so important to how a photo looks and feels… but the fact is that the best white balance will come from shooting RAW and calibrating with a neutral-grey card, or from manual settings.

On the Canon line, I found that “auto white balance” produced images much closer to what I saw with my eye.  It was definitely superior.  Advantage: Canon

Figs, Nikon D300, f5.6, 1/30s, 170mm (stabilizer gave 2.5 stops!)

However, when I manually set the Nikon white balance to a pre-set (outdoor, cloudy, fluorescent, tungsten, flash), it produced a better result than when I manually set the Canon.  Furthermore, the Nikon WB button is in a very convenient location I can access without taking my face away from the camera… unlike the Canon which once again required that I take my eye away from the viewfinder to make adjustments.  So, if using the Canon as a point-and-shoot, or if working with unlimited time in a studio, the Canon is better.

But I’m not; I’m in a hurry, on-the-go, and wanting to get the best picture I can while adjusting settings really fast.  Advantage: Nikon

Caveat: Both platforms offer the ability to customize and fine-tune the WB settings.  Looking at the two pictures above, which is “better”?  The one on top is warmer and more yellow, while the colors seem truer on the bottom… but I might like the color on the top picture more.  Regardless, if it’s just warmth that’s making my impression, I could probably custom-adjust the hue on either camera to be more to my liking.  And if I use photo software to calibrate the above picture to the pure-white on the patterned blanket, the image above looks a lot closer to the image below.  This stuff is really subjective; part of why I put it lower on the list of priorities.

Built-in Extras (Flash, Video)

The crop-sensor cameras in both line-ups have built-in flash and built-in video.  Personally, I think if it’s important enough to use a flash or to shoot a video, then get a good flash or get a good video camera…

Once I saw the difference in image-quality offered by full-frame cameras, I stopped considering crop sensors. That meant that I was really only seriously considering the Nikon D700 vs. the Canon 5D mark II.  Of those, the Nikon has a built-in flash, but no video.  The Canon has built-in Full-HD video, but no flash.  For me, it’s possible that I’m sometimes in an “emergency” where I unexpectedly need a flash… but I really don’t care about video.  So for me, this one is Advantage: Nikon.

But many photographers are finding it’s sometimes to their advantage to offer clients video clips instead of only still images.  The Canon 5D mark II’s video is absolutely amazing! Some network television shows have actually switched from the $25-50k video gear, to the cheap little 5D mark II!  There’s nothing amateur about this camera; its flexibility and beautiful performance, including detailed control over ‘shutter speed’, ISO, and all the other settings you would expect, make it a serious rival to equipment many times the price.  If there’s even a small chance you will shoot video, then the Canon is too good to ignore.  Advantage: Canon.

Conclusion

After using the 40D for a year, I bought the 5D mark II, thinking the 21MP would be godly, and I might make some extra money shooting video.  And even though I couldn’t get the range of zoom lenses I wanted, I said, “Well, Canon is a major brand, and maybe if they don’t offer certain lenses, it’s because I should learn to shoot differently.”

But I hated it.

I almost never got to take advantage of the awesome 21MP power, because of the trouble I had with getting enough light or something else.  Or missing a photo because of the awkward power switch.  And the fact is that I don’t shoot video.  But I do sometimes find myself without a flash after the sun starts to set, and I would much rather have the crappy light from a built-in, than nothing at all.

The faster focusing on the Canon is great, but I found that the Nikon’s auto-subject-detection is smarter than Canon’s, and its ability to track moving subjects is far superior.

So I returned it.

One year and 15,000 photos later, I absolutely love my Nikon D700.  Currently I shoot with Nikkor lenses: a 24-70mm f2.8 (wide-angle to slight close-up), a 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 (like a sniper scope with the image stabilizer), a PC-E 24mm f3.5 (for amazing perspective correction), and an 85mm f1.4 AF-S (the ultimate for extreme low-light, razor-sharp portraits, and beautiful bokeh!).  When not using available light, I rely on a Quantum flash and power pack: T5D-R with Turbo SC battery.  But at f1.4 and ISO6400, I can shoot handheld in the dark and still get the images I want without firing a flash.  Ooh-rah.

-Aaron Sylvan

9/30/2007, Canon IXUS950 IS — Anyone expecting to find the centerpiece of World Peace and Unity will be sorely disappointed by Geneva.  Some streets are alternating series of Rolex, Tag Heuer, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Rolex, Vacheron Constantin, Rolex, etc…  Others are alternating between Swiss banks and stores where heads of state and ambassadors’ spouses can spend money at a rate 10x what New York’s Madison Avenue has to offer… $80,000 furs, $300,000 wristwatches, and the like.

The streets lined with flags and NGOs from around the world do little to ameliorate the constant thought of “well maybe this shopping mall is why some nations need so much help — and the money is never to be found.”  Maybe this is why the cherubs are fighting:

As a capitalist and an entrepreneur, I’m all in favor of limitless wealth… and as an evolutionary realist I recognize that Leaders have had vastly greater resources than the people who are their property since, well, the first critter realized that it could take stuff from another. But somehow I found it particularly obscene in Geneva, because I arrived with a naïve expectation that this was a place where people who want to care for the world’s poor come together to see what can be done to help.

These thoughts completely overshadowed my ability to appreciate the otherwise charming old-town streets.

9/29/2007, Canon IXUS950 IS — On a lighter note than the Red Cross, I noticed something bizarre while walking through Geneva.  First was the statue, perhaps commemorating the patron saint of scoliosis? (Holy-Osis?).  And then the unfortunate gentleman who appeared to be an elder of the same sect, or perhaps the living incarnation of the saint himself?

Perhaps it’s something in the fondue that causes this? Far be it from me to take Schadenfreude, pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others (that’s more of a German thing, I believe, which is why actually needed a word for it.)  But I did find this duo amusing.  And the water fountain in the background behind the old man brought a smile.  Yes, I’m still 12 years old, at heart.  At least I didn’t post the photo of pigeons getting intimate.

2/1/2008, Canon IXUS950 IS — Thinking of the Holiday Season reminded me of the Red Cross / Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.  (Note: The organization Westerners know as the “Red Cross” is non-denominational, and goes by the name “Red Crescent” in Muslim countries so that the cross isn’t misinterpreted as a Christian bias.)

The haunting exhibitions bear testament to a history of almost 150 years of service to injured soldiers, regardless of who they may be.  This particular sculpture, depicting a nun tending to a wounded officer in the American Civil War, was only one of many.

Near the entrance, a memorial to all prisoners everywhere showed them as blind, faceless, and mute, with hands tied behind the back… far from an exaggeration or metaphor, this is often the plight of those captured during times of conflict.

Apart from the obvious denial of mobility, many prisoners derive even greater despair from the lack of a voice.  They are kept in mystery as to where they are, where they may be going, and what else is going on in the world.

Time and again prisoners have been detained after their conflicts have ended, and even convicted felons are at least granted the right to know the expected times of their release.

Even when there is the very least degree of freedom, somehow the human spirit finds ways to carry on an active life of dreams.  The mind transports itself to faraway places, and the hands develop new skills with the materials available, such as they may be.

A collection of “prisoner art” showcased extremely elaborate constructions, made from tiny bits and pieces of materials that drifted into the prisoners’ cells over the years of captivity.

When time is the only resource, we find things to do with that time, lest the despair or insanity that beckon so strongly manage to take hold.

A man from Russia was able to twist individual threads from clothing garments to construct a scale miniature of a traditional ?????????? ?????, lúkovichnaya glava (“Onion Dome“) from his native Kiev.

Another managed to fashion a working guitar entirely from papier mâché, complete with a cardboard capo and strings made from waistband elastic and rolled up sausage casings.

Walking through the museum, there were inspiring moments, such as an installation highlighting enlarged passages from every major religion in the world, excerpts of the passages imploring mercy and tolerance.

And haunting moments, such as seeing the rows upon rows of card catalogs, in which each card represented the name of a missing soldier.  I asked about whether the file was active or hypothetical, or if they had given up, and the guide explained “This old list is merely 100,000, and the only reason we have given up on them is that everyone here would be over a hundred years old; they are certainly dead.  The current list is over 1,000,000.”

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My photography on this website is available on a royalty-free basis for unlimited use, with two requests: (1) please give credit to Aaron Sylvan, and (2) please post a comment below.

8/23/2005, Canon PowerShot SD500 — Iceleanders refer to their pony-sized breed as “horses”, and one of the most spectacular annual events I hope to participate in soon is the “running of the horses”.  There are communal grazing grounds to the north of the island (“Iceland” is spelled “Ísland” in Icelandic, which means “island”, so the story about Iceland being ‘Green’ and Greenland being ‘Ice’ in order to deceive foreigners is a misconception.)

Anyway, each year after first thaw, thousands of Icelandic horses are allowed to roam free in sparsely populated regions to the north, and then they are collected and brought back to the south to spend winters at their owners’ farms.  Hundreds of local horse owners and enthusiasts take a week or two to participate in collecting the horses and bringing them to the city, where they are distributed to their respective owners according to brand.  Foals which have not yet been branded tend to stay with the mares who sired them, and the local populace adjudicates ownership in case of dispute.

Icelandic horses are known for their great strength, diminutive size, and additional gait.  Quoting from Wikipedia:

The Icelandic is a “five-gaited” breed, known for its sure-footedness and ability to cross rough terrain. As well as the typical gaits of walk, trot, and canter/gallop, the breed is noted for its ability to perform two additional gaits. Although most horse experts consider the canter and gallop to be separate gaits, on the basis of a small variation in the footfall pattern,^[11] Icelandic breed registries consider the canter and gallop one gait, hence the term “five-gaited”.^[12]

The first additional gait is a four-beat lateral ambling gait known as the tölt. This is known for its explosive acceleration and speed; it is also comfortable and ground-covering.^[7] There is considerable variation in style within the gait, and thus the tölt is variously compared to similar lateral gaits such as the rack of the Saddlebred, the largo of the Paso Fino, or the running walk of the Tennessee Walking Horse. Like all lateral ambling gaits, the footfall pattern is the same as the walk (left hind, left front, right hind, right front), but differs from the walk in that it can be performed at a range of speeds, from the speed of a typical fast walk up to the speed of a normal canter. Some Icelandic horses prefer to tölt, while others prefer to trot; correct training can improve weak gaits, but the tölt is a natural gait present from birth.^[12][1][13] There are two varieties of the tölt that are considered incorrect by breeders. The first is an uneven gait called a “Pig’s Pace” or “Piggy-pace” that is closer to a two-beat pace than a four-beat amble. The second is called a Valhopp and is a tölt and canter combination most often seen in untrained young horses or horses that mix their gaits. Both varieties are normally uncomfortable to ride.^[13]

The breed also performs a pace called a skeið, flugskeið or “flying pace”. It is used in pacing races, and is fast and smooth,^[2][4] with some horses able to reach up to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h).^[10] Not all Icelandic horses can perform this gait; animals that perform both the tölt and the flying pace in addition to the traditional gaits are considered the best of the breed.^[10] The flying pace is a two-beat lateral gait with a moment of suspension between footfalls; each side has both feet land almost simultaneously (left hind and left front, suspension, right hind and right front). It is meant to be performed by well-trained and balanced horses with skilled riders. It is not a gait used for long-distance travel. A slow pace is uncomfortable for the rider and is not encouraged when training the horse to perform the gait.^[12] Although most pacing horses are raced in harness using sulkies, in Iceland horses are raced while ridden.^[10]

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My photography on this website is available on a royalty-free basis for unlimited use, with two requests: (1) please give credit to Aaron Sylvan, and (2) please post a comment below.

9/23/2010, Nikon D700 — After yesterday’s post about Bennington, where I earned my BA, I feel a bit nostalgic already for IMD, where I earned my executive MBA.  I first interviewed in October of 2007, immediately loved the place and started classes just three months later!  Two years after my first visit, I graduated (November ’09), and this past September I took these keepsake photos at a class reunion.  I still find it amazing that three years ago the concept of business school was just a twinkle in my eye, and already it’s a fading memory.

Avenue de Rhodanie

Conversation Benches

Circular Window Well and Spiral Staircase

Building for PED and Executive Education

Building for EMBA and MBA programs

Executive MBA classroom

Restaurant

At the end of the day, back to the Mövenpick

Banner-dimensions image of cafeteria, downloadable for headers/footers on websites/slideshows.

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My photography on this website is available on a royalty-free basis for unlimited use, with two requests: (1) please give credit to Aaron Sylvan, and (2) please post a comment on this site…

I know this is ridiculous, and it’s an endorsement of a product I don’t even like… but it was a bit of a thrill to be up in giant lights in Times Square…

Aaron Sylvan on Times Square Billboard

12/27/2007, Canon IXUS950 IS — Visiting the college where I spent three of the best years of my life always brings fond memories.  The first image is of a place called “The End of the World”, because the row of rocks at the edge of the Lawn is before a steep hill.  It’s not actually a cliff at all, but from anywhere you might stand, it appears that way.  Far in the distance rise the other nearby green mountains, and at night the lights of a few homes twinkle through the thick trees.  On this winter day, the distant hills vanish into the fog.

Like most schools, the student Commons was a central meeting-place, with a late-night snack bar that fueled many of my evenings with bagels, cream cheese, cucumbers, and tomatoes.  Somehow, at college age, that was something I could eat daily without lethargy or weight-gain.

One of the bathrooms in the Commons was prone to graffiti, somehow on a campus of students who were normally respectful of their surroundings, this particular bathroom was the sole outpost for those motivated to anonymous literature.  And commentary.  Long before there was such a thing as a “blog”, many of the comments people wrote on the wall would be answered – often by lengthy discourse and many follow-ups by other writers.

The fireplace was warm, and the leather chairs comfortable.  Whether discussing philosophy, or gossip, or collaborative projects, or dreams of the future, conversations were often joined by passers-by.  I miss that sense of a private community — in which even enemies were welcome, if the conversation was good. (Or if not, it would be written about in the designated blogroom/bathroom).

Music students were afforded access to private practice rooms, mostly with pianos, and I used those for the Classical Composition component of my degree.   But I was primarily an Electronic Music major, studying with Joel Chadabe of the Electronic Music Foundation, who remains a friend.  eMusic people tend to have lots of equipment, so the Music Department graciously gave me and a few friends/classmates access to an abandoned room in the basement of the old Jennings manor house that was used for most music classes.

The room smelled strongly of mildew, as any space in the basement of a 150-year old stone building might, and I absolutely loved the space.  It was like having our own lair, in the creepy basement of the old building, with a special entrance in the back… enough room for sofas (also no doubt infested), and with all our computer equipment we could use it as much for collaborative composition as for playing games and watching movies.  How excellent, to have a private “clubhouse” for me and my three best friends!

Looking outward from Jennings towards the main campus, there was a gentle hill before a large dandelion field, a pond, and the other buildings obscured behind trees.  Just a few feet down the hill was a tree whose branches hung so low they nearly reached the ground.  In Spring and Fall, the leaves gave the tree a hidden space underneath, which was one of my favorite spots for being alone and writing music.

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I was recently at a great Carnegie Hall event, sponsored by the Notables (under-40 patrons), called Redemption Song.  When the email announcement came, I signed up instantly, because of the fantastic list of artists who were going to talk, perform, and hang out afterwards: the original drummer from Guns’n'Roses, the original guitarist from KISS, “DMC” from Run-DMC, and moderated by the frontman for Black Flag.  All bands that I liked, so I was psyched!

Until the first 2 minutes, when I realized that they were there to talk about sobriety.  How alcohol and other substance abuse affected their careers, how long they had been sober (for one of them I think it was about 10 minutes), and how they found Redemption.

“Aaaaaah,” I said to myself, “this is what happens when you don’t read the fine print on the invitation…” But much to my surprise, these people managed to make an otherwise dreary subject both hilarious and inspiring.  I guess having that ability is part of what made them superstars in the first place.

After the stage performance, I got a bit of time to speak with Darryl McDaniels (“DMC”), and was truly blown away by his tenacity, and current dedication to a not-for-profit helping to bring children together to mend the conflicts between nations.  Even more impressive after hearing his stories about falling offstage from drinking too many 40′s of Olde English 800… hearing himself the next day in the studio and realizing how the thing he thought made him “the king of rock” was actually destroying his career… And then becoming suicidal after learning about his own adoption (the guy actually was not born in Hollis, Queens, like he thought when he cut those songs)…  To turn that all around, and still have energy to give to others, I think makes a true hero.

Aaron Sylvan and Darryl McDaniels (DMC)

When I was 12, my family moved me from suburbs of Long Island to downtown Manhattan, and in the new urban environment I took a strong liking to rap music.  At the time, I felt very much “city” — I had lived in Brooklyn when I was a baby, and even today I can’t go for long without the intensity of New York.  On Long Island my classmates were listening to Led Zeppelin, Rush, Queen, and The Who… but the second my feet landed back in the city, I felt that Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC, Sugar Hill Gang, and later LL Cool J, NWA, and Ice-T were the ones who were “telling it like it really is”.  Plus you can dance to it.

But back in ’83, before Run-DMC did their crossover cover of “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith, white kids weren’t supposed to listen to black music.  (Yes, they called it that.)  I got teased in the 9th grade for liking rap, and until mainstream pop artists like Peter Gabriel started putting backbeats in their songs, and Sting did a thumping drum interlude in Englishman in New York on 1987′s album “Nothing Like the Sun,” it just wasn’t considered okay for white people to like rap.  Obviously now Eminem, with >$1B revenue, has changed that, but at the time it was hard.  Even the people of color said, “hey man, why are you listening to this, it’s our music.”

How far we’ve come!  It’s good to see the world has evolved to the point where one of the most traditional of classical venues, Carnegie Hall, opens its doors and its stage to greats like DMC, who continue to touch so many lives.

“Music is just music, man; I feel sorry for anyone who only listens to one type of music.”

-Ice T.