Stone Mountain, North Carolina

There's good geometry in this one. It reminds me of "color-blocking" that is used in clothing. Nice!

Hi Lannie,

A picturesque scene.

No ExIF data supplied, but the softness of the image suggests an excessive f-stop was used or the focus was off a bit.

Best Regards my friend, Mike

 

Thanks, Mike.  The focus was off on several shots.  Time to recalibrate.  On the other hand, the AF has started squeaking a bit. . . .

 

--Lannie

Hi Lannie,

A squeaking auto-focus can sometimes be resolved by using canned air . I have done this many times on lens that come into my lab with such sounds from their assemblies.  A small grain of dirt , sand, or even internal blackening coatings can cause this.

I spray the canned air into my hand (hold the can upright) to be certain that no fluid deposits fly out out of the nozzle. Then blast the air into the rear assemble as move the lens to different zoom and focus  positions , too. If you dislodge the debris, it will often reside to a new location that will not effect the lens (sounds presently heard).

If this does not work, it is best to send it to a Nikon authorized dealer to have it cleaned and /or repaired.

There are other issues that can be the problem , like dirty contacts causing less power to the motor, the motor itself, or a drive mechanism alignment issue to name a few.

Best Regards my friend, Mike

Thanks so much, Mike!  That is exactly the kind of help that I have come to know you will offer, free of charge.  I appreciate it very much.

 

--Lannie

Hi Lannie,

You are welcome my friend.

One other point: you can try using the lens manually to focus. If you feel some small resistance or grinding type sound when you do use the lens , then this further points to debris inside the lens rather than an electrical (motor) issue.

On one of my older zoom lens, I actually ground up some small debris by just focusing the lens back and forth, as it felt as if focusing was getting smoother. The lens still works fine today.

Best Regards, Mike

This is a small granite exfoliation dome below the Blue Ridge Parkwaynear the Virginia border with North Carolina. Comments welcome.

 

--Lannie

It is very interesting to see this shot Lannie. I just watched a Video on Stome Mountain State Park and it was quite fascinating. It was the partial view of the 'dome' that caught my eye here Lannie, and the Video showed the whole Dome, very unusual. Sounds like a great place to visit!!!

Thanks, Gail.  Yes, for such a small rock (600 feet high), it is remarkably complicated--although from above it does show clear symmetry.  There are a lot of smaller areas of exposed rock set back from the larger rock, on other ridges in this area.

 

Here I am perhaps 300 feet below the summit.   There are some easy paths to the summit that do not require too much exposure on bald rock.  The face immediately in front of me here is more steep than it appears here, since I was shooting this at 17mm on a full-frame camera.  The approaches from left and right are much gentler.

 

When I see how complicated even this small mountain can be, I am reminded all over again of how larger mountains are always so incredibly much more complicated--and how it is that people often get lost on rather ordinary mountains.

 

--Lannie