'I KNOW You Can Hear My Thoughts'

This 'street person' who sleeps under a Walgreens storefront

described how, when her car broke down, an entire town knew of her

troubles because they 'tuned into' her thoughts. Otherwise cogent,

very nice and quite well-informed, she was photographed in

her 'living room' a nearby Burger King, stopped down at 1/5 of a

second with a 24~120 Nikkor ED-VR (vibration reduction) lens, in a

test of that lens's vibration reduction features. Your honest

ratings and critiques are invited and most welcome. (If you rate

harshly or very negatively, please submit a helpful and constructive

comment/Please share your superior photographic knowledge to help

advance my art.) Thanks! Enjoy! John

For those whom I promised that I would try to submit 'sharper' images taken at night, despite low shutter speeds, this is an example of the work I hope I can submit in the future, so long as my subjects are static -- this is a 1/5th second f8 or so exposure, taken under fluorescent lights with a digital camera and NO sharpening. As long as this lens is available to me for such photos, and other lenses for similar low-light work, I hope I can deliver similarly sharp work. John

superb detail. her gaze is full of emotion, and it is a powerful moment.

 

www.charlotteaberg.com

this is a "real" portrait...good shot.

Charlottte

Not only is her gaze full of emotion, as you call it, but if you look in her eyes, you can see some signs of athersclerosis -- signs of yellow on the inside of her arteries that is cholesterol which shows up as yellowness beside the redness of the aerated blood -- sure signs of coronary artery disease. I'm not a doctor, but I think an M.D. would back me up after seeing this photo. I don't think she's much older than I, and maybe younger, and it's a bit scary because my hair isn't even turned gray, although Clinton is younger and his is gray entirely.

 

But then Clinton has poorer taste than I, I think, at least in his approach to and choice of women -- he took any old woman who'd do what he wanted it appeared, and I troll around Burger King and look what I found!!!!

 

John

This photo certainly is 'gritty' if by 'real' you mean just that. I hadn't meant to be so 'gritty' but my new 24~120 ED-VR lens at 1/6 second f8 was SO SHARP and so contrasty even under fluorescents that I can recommend it to any night or low light shooter, bar none.

 

I had heard it was a 'soft' lens on a par with my three other 24~120 non ED and non VR (vibration reduction) lenses, and that Nikon hadn't changed the optical formula.

 

If they didn't change the formula, they certainly changed the glass and it's a standout. I'd recommend it highly, and won't be shooting much with my Sigma 28~70 f 2.8 except to stop action or my new Nikon 28~70 f 2.8 or Nikon 35~70 f 2.8 (both D) lenses both recently acquired, which are now consigned for stopping action in low light (which the VR lenses are NOT designed to do -- they're primarily designed to capture the image and 'stabilize it' under low light and allow for a longer exposure and keep the image steady.

 

Imagine a 24~120 mm f 2.8 VR lens with ED glass. It'd be heavy and big, but you could use it universally for everything on any Nikon command dial camera and the photos would be wonderful -- you could use it in low light for anything and stop action with it using highest shutter speeds possible. The possibilities would be amazing.

 

Nikon makes a 70~200 VR with ED glass that is one of their most fabulous lenses that just is begging for a shorter lens to fill in the gap.

 

I hope they make it.

 

I'll be first in line -- because I shoot in low light so much -- subjects don't just come out in the daylight -- and photographers who just come out in daylight and don't take chances in low light go home with 'ordinary' photos. They may have nice color and exposure and good saturation, but they'll be more like everybody else's. How many of mine look like everybody else's, especially the low light ones?

 

Addendum: Also, you can't take a use a VR lens with a Nikon camera that does not have 'command dial' feature which are present for control of the aperture from near the shutter -- for apparent 'ease of use' though I find it a bother and prefer the aperture ring of the lens instead as it is much more sure and much easier to use to use the aperture ring on a lens. Such VR lenses are 'G' lenses which do not have aperture rings at all, making them impossible to use with aperture control on a non-command dial Nikon camera, so 'beware' if you plan to buy one -- especially if you plan to buy one on an auction site and you are not informed about that.

 

Thanks for commenting and visiting.

 

John

The VR lenses are an item that are most surely on the top of my wish list.Thanks for the review.You do have an outstanding portfolio...best regards.

joe

I figure anyone who takes the trouble to comment as you did, may have interest in how a photo came about, if it was taken under difficult or interesting circumstances, as this one was, and I felt that it might help the low light photographers especially to learn how to achieve such a photo with depth of field under low light (f8 at 1/6 of a second) Usually one eye of the other would be out of focus due to a large lens opening if one used a moderate tele, as this one was set for 24~120 set for moderate tele considering the 1.5 multiplication factor for the APS size CCD (charge couple device -- image receiver that replaces film for the uninitiated).

 

I hope you get your lens(es)

 

Best wishes.

 

John

Great portrait!Regards

I was trying out a new lens, and said to the woman that fact, so she let me try it out on her; as was homeless, but not without considerable intellect, but also somewhat deteriorated mentally; an odd amalgam.

 

You could sense she had once 'been somebody' but it was slipping from her and she was beyond the edge and never probably would come back.

 

There probably also were places that would have taken her in on that stormy night but such people often refuse those services because of rigid rules, sometimes those places can be dangerous themselves and one gives up one's civil rights when one enters 'shelters'.

 

Even if one is slightly 'deranged' one can be aware of having a sense of 'dignity' as so many are that I photograph . . . as a prostitute I encountered once told me . . . 'I'm a prostitute . . . not a whore' which to her made a great deal of difference.

 

Dignity matters a great deal in this world to so many people, sometimes more than three square meals.

 

I have mixed feelings about this photo, but it's a good documentary shot; even if less a portrait.

 

Thanks for stopping by and commenting; it means much to me.

 

John (Crosley)