I miss my camera
≡ Category: Gear and tech, Photography, Semi-daily thoughts | ≅ Comments Off
Or more precisely I miss my daily dose of photoweenie. This Sunday, I strolled with my camera thinking I’d capture some street shots of Brooklyn. I got some crappy snow pictures and a so-so shot of my beer. I refrain from externalizing self-critique over at Photoweenie, but am thinking it may help my technique if I articulate some of my deficiencies in this precinct of Lunamania.My biggest beef here is the lack of primary focal point. Shooting with one of the sharpest lenses on the market, the fuzziness of the beer foam in the foreground is a technical failure. A reminder to 1) finally set my vision impaired compensation settings on my camera, or 2) wear my frakkin’ glasses when focusing. Lame.
Secondary annoyance is the way blown out window in the background. I tried adjusting in PS, but there’s only so much I can do.
On the upside, I like the curves in the foreground and the skewed reflections in the coffee beer.
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Sample shots: Nikkor 35mm, f/1.8
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I noticed that my lens quandary post generates the most traffic here. Something like oh…2 visits a day. Hey, I’m proud of Lunamania’s “exclusive” following.Anyhow, I thought I’d link to the long promised “sample shots” from the Nikon 35mm, f/1.8 lens.
In my humble experience, this lens works as advertised: fast, warm, light and captures well in low light and indoor settings.
A fixed focal length/prime lens demands nominal physical movement: moving in and out, round and about, up and down to capture optimal light and perspective on a subject. It’s occasionally frustrating, but mostly a rewarding challenge. Since it’s no fun to ask your friends and family to freeze indefinitely as you twiddle with manual settings, until you figure things out, I do suggest carrying back-up point and shoot to capture quick Must-Have moments.
As for the much anticipated focal length/”cool depth of field”/bokeh factor of this lens, it’s good times all the way. The lens delivers on shallow DOF for portraits and street shots. That said, methinks f/1.8 is too shallow for portraits and most landscape/cityscape pictures, but nice for macro-esque shots. The sweet spot is a slightly bigger aperture and of course, a subject willing to hold a smile or suspend blur inducing motions.
I was too cheap to shoot with anything other than the stock Nikon D70 DSLR lens for nearly 6 years and invested in a 18mm-250mmlens about 2.5 years ago. If the Older and Wiser Lunamania could say one thing it’d be…frakkin’ drop the ~$200 for this lens.
I’m curious to know if others have found the tones to lean a bit towards the warm side? The orange and red tones in tungsten light are quite saturated. Then again, that could be about the processor/camera?
As always, I recommend photo gear purchases from reliable vendors like: B&H and Adorama.
APIQWTC Team Dragon Fruit
≡ Category: Photography, Semi-daily thoughts, queer | ≅ Comments Off
A few weekends ago, I cheered on Dragon Fruit, APIQWTC‘s dragon boat team as they raced next to the cranes at Jack London Square. Not going to write much because as they say, a picture is worth…Check out the photo album here.
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Albums
News- Families Can’t Afford the Gender Wage Gap
- Nebraska to Limit Abortions Because of Fetal Pain - NYTimes.com
- Supreme Court: Lawyers must advise immigrants of deportation threat / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
- Pritzker Prize Goes To Japan's SANAA Duo : NPR
- The San Francisco Chronicle takes the honor for the worst "pharm party" story ever. - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine
- Tweetin’ @lunamania
