Nikon Wednesday 2018: #31

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A busy week in other pursuits, so you know what THAT means: Wayback Wednesday. Here's a hard-working bird dog bringing home dinner from a cold Maryland pond. Shot with a D300 at ISO 800 and 1/320th with a 70-200/2.8 at f/7.1 and 200mm. Sent into B&W-land via Nik's Silver Efex Pro. Let's see some photo archive time traveling, folks!

Also going back a couple years; D810 24-120 f4

 

2 1/2 years ago, D7200 with 200-500 at 200mm, f/8, 1/2500s, ISO500

2 1/2 years ago, D7200 with 200-500 at 200mm, f/8, 1/2500s, ISO500

Love it Dieter.

 

A storm moving in off the Gulf of Mexico in Infrared.

High up, up close. Taken in the Swiss Alps near the Italian border.

Nikon D800E, PC-E 85/2.8D

Fuel Dock, Breakwater Cove Marina, Monterey. D300, 18-200mm Zoom

Cowdog watching for the Boss. D750 28-300

Last Saturday with D750

From 2015 and 9,741km away, Green Frog w/duckweed. D7100 Sigma 150mm macro.

A little more desktop cleaning for wayback day. Here's a barn from winter:

 

Winter's over but traces linger:

 

This little fellow appeared on the lawn this morning.

 

 

Oh by the way, all D7100, last one with 85/2.8PC

Did dawn patrol on Sunday morning. D750+24-85

D90 80-400 Back in 2012. Elephant seals being friendly

Sunset at the lake. D810,16-35 @16mm, f4, 1/50, iso 200.

Shots taken last Saturday with Nikon D200, Nikon 80mm-200mm f4.5-f5.6 D lens, 1/350 at f10.0, ISO 200.

Strong week this week, and I'm not going to keep up very well with quality. These are from last Thursday rather than the ancient past, but they caused me so much trouble (several hours over three days) that I'm determined to share them. I've never met such a recalcitrant subject.

 

These dragonflies only seem to fly around dusk, I estimate they're doing about 15-20mph, and they're mostly hidden behind foliage (either reeds by the lake or trees over my head), rarely appearing for more than two seconds at a time and usually about 2-5m from me. It was getting dim enough that I had trouble even seeing them, sometimes. My first attempt with a 200-500 managed to focus on exactly nothing, despite having the grip on the D850. I went back with the 70-200FL (a relatively fast focus lens)... and I have a few blurry dragonflies out of hundreds of shots, with absolutely nothing in focus. I can try again with my 200 f/2, but I didn't trust its short focus distance.

 

So, I went back with an SB-600, and freaked out all the people enjoying the birds on the lake and the sunset, and tried to use a small aperture to zone focus. And manual exposure, so I wasn't reliant on waiting for the preflash to happen. First attempt, 1/250s, f/16, ISO 800, flash at 1:1. This is how I discovered that the SB-600 flash lasts nearly 1/250 of a second, not the "nearly instantaneous" that I had thought, because it's blurry.

 

FP sync it was. But that meant the range was severely reduced, and I couldn't pull the aperture down as much, so more was out of focus. 300 attempts, and this is the best I've got. Maybe next time I should go back with all three SB600s radio wired...

 

ISO 2000, 1/4000s, f/4 and 1:1. There was still some light on the lake in the background, not that you can see it.

 

One more go. I should go back to something easy, like swooping swifts...

 

ISO 2000, 1/4000s, f/5.6, 1:1. I would, by the way, like a "please scale the aperture with focal distance so my flash has the same power" exposure mode.

 

I know its Thursday already, but I just noticed how big Mars was in the sky this evening so I took a photo of it with my 18-105 Nikkor lens. This one hand held at 125 sec, f 8, iso 1250