Nikon WedNEsDAy PiC #23 - Old Thread, June 3 2009

<p>There are some nice pictures this week<br>

Thanks to Monika E, Gert Van E, Bruce M, Hamish Grey, Susan W for the comments :)<br>

Thanks to Richard as well. I'm getting used to the lens and hopefully should take some good photos in the future.<br>

Jose: You always get some nice DOF<br>

Joseph L: Where's that?<br>

Monika E: That's a great shot!<br>

Lil Judd: Nice one<br>

Kris B: Nice shot of Chicago Skyline.<br>

Nina Myers: Like this one - very peaceful<br>

Darren Shipley: Like the colour of the sky<br>

A lot of good pictures in this week as well - great work everyone!!</p>

 

<p>Jay Poel, thank you! No, I used neither a tripod nor flash. I had followed the bee from one side of the house to the other and fortunately it landed in the flower bed and stayed put for a few seconds. It was a sunny day so the shadow is from direct sunlight only. I had the camera in shutter priority at 1/2000s as I was afraid it would move it's wings and they'd be blurry. I had hoped the aperture would be a little smaller than wide open, to increase sharpness, but I didn't want to go over ISO 800 so I had to live with f5.6. Fortunately the result was ok. It is slightly cropped of course, as the 70-300 is no macro lens and I was about 4.5 - 5ft from the bee. I like your photo too. Kid shots are great! You can see he's really into the game :-)<br /><br />And here's a funny story... Later that same day during a photo shoot a friend of mine who was with me lifted and moved my camera bag, which wasn't properly zipped up. Out rolled my 70-300 and hit the ground with a thud and a crack. The UV filter smashed and the VR went all wonky. I think a few elements may have moved too. Fortunately he's the type of friend that orders me a new one. If the postal service does it's job right it'll be delivered to me at work tomorrow :-) So I'm happy again!</p>

 

<p>Sike in downtown !<br>

D300 & nikkor 70-200 2.8 vr<br>

f/2.8<br>

1/500<br>

iso 200</p><div></div>

<p>WOW! This must be one of the best Wednesday pic's ever?? This time I do not want to pick any favorites - thank you everyone for giving me so much inspiration. See you next week!</p>

<p>Tony, how is that Summilux working out for you on the D700? Have you converted any others? Great colors/sharpness</p>

<p>Some very nice shots, as usual. I found this guy hanging from a tree branch. I whish I had a macro lens with me. But, I tried to make the best of it.<br /><br />D300, Sigma 30mm, f/4, 1/125, ISO 160<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/9266912">http://www.photo.net/photo/9266912</a></p>

<p>Hello to all. Nice crop of photos once again.<br>

I chose not to submit this week for lack of fresh appealing digital captures. However I did manage to load up the old F5 with some Tri X to shoot some Chicago skyline shots on Tuesday. Haven't had time to go downstairs and process the film yet but will try to find the time over the weekend. If a get any keepers I'll scan and upload next week. I did want to point out some of my favorites though:<br>

Dieter: looks like an example of the Zone System in a textbook. Nice!<br>

Ton: your picture and that face could tell many tales I'm sure. Congrats!<br>

Ian: I'm sure that photo will someday become a family heirloom! Great pose.<br>

Gary: Nice and sharp! I like the idea of some seed to make the model comfortable.<br>

Nina: I'm drawn to the sea by the mossy lines in your photo. Good job.<br>

Bruce: WOW is that all natural lighting? Great contrast.<br>

Hamish and Rodeo Joe: I give you both B+.........get it?<br>

Keep those shutters clickin...........John</p>

Ryan, the Summilux is a fine partner with my D700, and I love them both.

 

Interestingly, I have to be very careful not to turn the aperture ring beyond f/1.4, you know how you do sometimes when you're cranking it wide open in a hurry. If I do, it locks the lens at f/1.4 by forcing a lever in the lens to a locked position. I'm sure the is the automatic diaphragm mechanism in the lens at work. The only way to reengage the ability to stop the lens down is to dismount the lens and move the little lever out of its locked position. I ruined (over exposed) a few shots thinking that I was stopping down when I wasn't. You can't often tell on the fly that the lens really isn't at f/4 or f/5.6 on a bright day.

Sorry, forgot to finish my response. I converted my 180/2.8 lens, and it doesn't have the same issue as my 'lux. It is really a fine lens, too, but I haven't used it that much.

 

Also, with the 'lux wide open I have made great use out of the "in focus" indicator in the viewfinder of the D700, and it is wonderful. Take a bit of practice, though, when moving quickly.

 

I wanted to convert my Leitz Bellows-R so that I could mount several of the lenses for macro use, but the mount on the bellows is slightly too large in diameter for the conversion. That's strange.

<p>Monika - love the mood<br>

Michael Ferron great photo.<br>

Here's a capture from yesterday's photo shoot! What do you guys think?</p><div></div>

<p>hot and humid...indeed Jose. Thank you for all the wonderful posts. This one is the start of a recent shoot. Most of the time was spent getting material for a piece I have been pondering for months. I also wanted to give her some straight up portraits for her generous time and the wonderful relationship that she established with my camera. See ya next wednesday!</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks for the quick response Hamish - I'll give it a try when we get some sunny weather.<br>

That's a shame about your lens but what a great friend to replace it so quickly!</p>

<p>Colin Mangan, by any chance was that photo taken in New York? My wife was in New York and thought she recognized the photo shoot.</p>

<p>Great Pictures as usual everyone - I love Wednesdays. This was taken at Polesden Lacey in Surrey, England on Sunday.<br>

D80, Tokina 12 - 24mm @ 24mm, 1/80s, f5, iso100. Slightly cropped, a little work enhancing colour/sharpening</p><div></div>

<p>Anish - Town of Sommerset in Vermont USA. Southern Vermont by the Mount Snow Ski Area <br>

only 7 weeks ago.</p>

<p>Lots of amazing shots<br>

Jose Thank you for starting this thread<br>

I am not going to choose my favorites it's just too hard they are all gr8 :-)<br>

Thank you for my photo. I am looking forward to next Wednesday ya'll have a great week </p>

<p>thank you for your kind words susan and gary :)</p>

<p>per-christian is right--this thread is getting ridiculously awesomer every week, to the point where picking faves becomes more and more difficult.</p>

<p>instead of making any sort of subjective distinction about "quality", i'll just list a few which gave me inspiration this week. no doubt the longer i look at the rest of the shots i'll be further inspired.</p>

<p>lex--nice to see you post a pic-- great bokeh shot.</p>

<p>speaking of bokeh--definitely a theme this week: jose, anish, bernard, gert, shamsaldin, waldemar, denis, jonathan, ryan, rodeo joe, pedro, both garys, hamish, sjoerd, richard, kent, ilkka, sujoy, and robert (whew!) -- nicely defocused compositions.</p>

<p>wayne, love that shot. very expressive, good documentary-style pic.</p>

<p>monika -- nice low-light capture. reminds me of a scene from the sci-fi thriller Logan's Run.</p>

<p>alejandro and bruce--excellent 18-200 work. those pics are among the best i've seen from that lens.</p>

<p>michael s.-- very creative. love that angle of view you captured, the use of shadow area, and the way the red bag stands out. makes a normally boring subject look very interesting.</p>

<p>keerthi--that's one colorful thumb!</p>

<p>ton--another amazing portrait.</p>

<p>some beautiful landscape stuff too, especially darren, kurt, nina, and joe w.</p>

<p>time to start thinking about next week...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>To keerthi s r<br /> <br /> hello, that day I was at the racecourse with my photography teacher and the rest of the class practicing different techniques. in this shot we were trying panning at/100. (although not exactly perpendicular at the horse as should be "by the book"but I have to avoid the officials Photographers and TV cameramen inside the track, just in front of the finishing line)<br /> then we try at lower speed as /80 and /60, but those were awful!! not even the VR could save those. I need to practice a lot more at those speeds, bye bye </p>

<p>Shot and had fun with on Monday.<br>

D200 17-55, - processing a little bit of Lightroom 2,a little bit of Capture NX2, and fun with layers , eraser, and brush tools in Photoshop Elements 6.</p>

<div></div>

<p>I've said this before guys but one of the rare pleasures of living in this timezone is the way it works with this thread. I get to post (Sydney time) just as I leave work on Wednesday, then after having enjoyed my evening I wake up on Thursday morning, come to work early, and spend a good 30 minutes enjoying a hot coffee and marvelling at the ~100 or more image posted while I have slept. This is an enormous treat and a realy source of happiness! So thankyou all.</p>

<p>Impossible to do justice to everyone in terms of recognising all these great images so I'll just pick 10 that particularly speak to me, for whatever reason, amongst this amazing crowd. (Dieter the only reason you don't get a mention is that I've already gushed at yours!). Ton, Matthew, David, Michael, Wayne, Chris, Darren, Carey, Colin, Tiffany.</p>

This is my photo for today.<div></div>

<p>keep looking and now a flower for your wonderful work. Thanks.</p><div></div>

<p>Helping my daughter with a macro photo assignment.</p>

<p>Flowers in Water</p><div></div>

<p>Happy WedNEsDay all. I didn't get out to get any new shots, so I'm posting a shot of an illconceived project for my van which is occupying most of my time. It's a couch... don't ask. I hope it will be done soon.</p>

<p>D90, 16-85mm @16mm, 1/200, f/8 (should have been f/5.6), ISO 320, internal flash</p><div></div>

<p>South Asian Wedding festivities prior to wedding.<br>

Nikon D-3 with 70-200mm lens ISO 1000</p><div></div>