ken_i_h

<p>Pedro: be easy on <em>Wasabi</em>! But they looks soooo well made! I am so impressed that I myself would want to taste it. My compliment to the chef. If you should ever come to New York, I will treat you to a good Japanese restaurant :-)<br>

Ken</p>

<p>Wednesday already. <br /> A shot in the Central Park past weekend.</p><div></div>

<p>Monika Espefas, Joseph Leotta (how are your eyes?), Ian Rance, thank you so much for your comment. As an East Coast early riser, I post early in the morning of Wednesday and hurry to office, then I can't have much time to look through well the rest of the thread - my apologies for being lazy and not really participating. I certainly am not qualified to make comments on those wonderful photos but let me put what I felt with plain English (not my 1st language, pardon me). I will just mention the ones I REALLY like. Needless to say, I like many, many more of the photos.<br>

Jose - the low light capability of D700 and the roughness of high ISO actually gives nice touch.<br>

Pedro - very well done night scene.<br>

Lil - reminds me of, I don't know why, "Pan's labyrinth."<br>

Anish - I really really like this series of yours.<br>

Monika - I once tried the similar scene, but couldn't do quite well.<br>

Ian Rance - Interesting and funny composition with dog at the end of leash I don't know how long :-)<br>

Ton - Somehow, very impressive photo.<br>

Jeannean - you get better and better every week. Nice work.<br>

Richard - I haven't tried, but I got attracted to these insect /flower shots.<br>

Lex - reminds me of my mother who just lost her husband.<br>

Alejandro - nice bee, very sharp.<br>

Leo Laski - the inverted building in the water drop... Nice.<br>

Aguinaldo - beautiful sunflower and sky/cloud.<br>

Carey - wonderful, very, very detailed shot.<br>

Dieter - beautiful blue beach.<br>

Matt - very nice b&w silhouette shot<br>

Mike McDermott - for some reason, very impressive profile.<br>

Kim Senior - like painting!<br>

Thomas Burden - beautiful colors!<br>

James Kazan - nice interior shot of a designer building. Nice white wall and blue chair combo.<br>

Cees Maas - nice b&w sky. Beautiful.<br>

Filip Lucin - I, too, like this time of the day and nice shot of the moment with the ferry.<br>

Steve Lyon - I like the composition and pink air.<br>

Tony Hadley - nice view with beautiful color.<br>

Steve Belden - so nice color and bridge.<br>

Wouter - interesting and impressive "foot" :-)<br>

Dave Walsh - intersting composition. Good color.<br>

Zoltan - I can feel the warmth of the candle. Background stained glass is also nice.<br>

Gary McGhee - Very nice, mysterious surrounding of the light house.<br>

Jonas Fjellstedt - wonderful take of the street.<br>

Yuriy Granov - nice timing and I can see how much she loves you.<br>

Ertugrul - interesting. Half fine, half cloudy (stormy is coming?).<br>

Jill Bingham - ah, so fantasic.<br>

Ty Yang - so funny. Well done!</p>

<p>Thank you all. I always look forward to the next Wednesday, and I will go out and take photos this weekend to take something worth posting here. Practice, practice, practice....</p>

<p>Quick web search in Japanese will tell you a few places - seemingly reputable - renting topline lenses. If you have someone over there to help you in Japanese, you can find one. Haven't checked the price, though. I can help with Japanese, but I am not in Japan. Still, if you need help, let me know.<br>

Best,<br>

Ken</p>

<p>D700, 24mm PC-E, 1/400s, f/8, ISO200....</p><div></div>

<p>Second and last try.<br>

Justin - either eye was "sharpened" so that both get equally sharp?<br>

I gotta get ready to go to office!</p>

<p>Good Morning! I love Wednesday. I couldn't do much activity due to poor weather the last weekend, so this is from a few weekend ago, a night at Times Square....<br /> Justin, is it the girl's eye color? I don't know, I just thought that in that lighting and the DS in front, the girl's eyes may reflect some other color... Nice photo anyway!</p><div></div>

<p>Good morning! As usual, all good and inspiring.<br>

This, I tried to capture the "heavenly (I hate to use this word, though)" radiation of light before sunset..... I tried!</p><div></div>

<p>Lil, your comment every week is really encouraging and makes me want to practice more. Thank you! Yours is, belatedly, so telling the relationship and inner thoughts of the two, even makes me happy, too :-)</p>

<p>That is so interesting. Thanks for sharing the info. Thanks!</p>

<p>Good morning! Already great photos (it's 5 am here) and it gets harder and harder to post a decent one on this ever climbing standard. This week I tried a night out with my camera and here is one of them - crazy Times Square. Quite impressed by f/1.4's speed and Times Square's ridiculous brightness at night.</p><div></div>

<p>Thank you, folks. Sorry for my ignorance.<br>

Dan, I will take the route (1). I learn something every day!</p>

<p>Oops. Like I said, sorry for my ignorance :-)</p>

<p>I have been playing with this lense with the aperture ring set at "L" and found something. Taking two photos of the same object from the same place (inside the apartment almost dusk - no flash), same ISO (non-Auto at 3200), A mode set at f/2.8 - one with tilt up and another tilt down. Tilt up, D700 chose 1/160s and tilt down D700 chose 1/500s (and no tilt at 1/320s). The result is tilt down photo is far darker.<br>

Next, switch the camera to M mode and set the shutter speed at 1/160. So, everything is on manual mode in this camera. Took photos with one tilt up and another tilt down - the brightness is almost the same. Why does camera computer bother to change the shutter speed between tilt up, non-tilt, tilt down while aiming the same object and thus end result brightness are totally different?<br>

Can someone explain why and how this is happening? If this is too obvious, sorry for my ignorance.... Thanks!<br>

Ken</p>

<p>Jeannean, I have 105mm f/2.8 micro with D700 and it is great for table-top kind of subject. For that purpose 60mm macro, which I used to own should be better with DX body. But for the kind of work you aim, you may need longer one.... 200 or 300 macro must be great but I have never tried either. 105mm VR happens to work with TC II teleconvertors and may be worth trying. I wish I could be of more help. I do macro, but only in room, not outside :-) Good luck!</p>

<p>Jeannean, thank you for your comment. I appreciate and admire what you did for many, many photos. Very encouraging and another reason to strive for the next week!</p>

<p>Let me thank those who mentioned mine last week. I didn't do much photo activity this week due to heavy jet lag. So, I decided to post again one from the trip which caused this jet lag. At the airport lounge - the very beginning of the trip.<br>

I must say that this thread is getting better and better every week and they are all insiring to me! Very good place to learn. Thank you everyone!</p><div></div>

<p>Like other posters say, it depends on what you need it for. As for me, I have both 70-200 f2.8 and 70-300 VR. The former is more serious work and the latter is for more casual walkaround and/or trip. And I tell you that 70-300 is as good as 70-200, except it isn't with less light or lower F number(wider F).</p>

<p>They are all wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing.</p>

<p>I socond Kent. Lense should come first - depending on what you intend to shoot most. As for the body, since I am not a pro, the weight does matter. I have a D700 and do weekend shooting walking around with a few lenses in a big bag. It is getting tough for my aging shoulder and hand. I can't do that when traveling with family. So, I got D90 and light zoom for that purpose. D90 is really good body - much better than I had expected. With that spec, you can take photos with single hand. Very, very good quality. From D40, I would pick D90, so that I could have extra funds to explore, experience, experiment, and extend the lense variety.</p>

<p>Just came back from Japan. Rene, I didn't have enough time to enjoy fireworks there (July 4th fireworks was great from my apartment here, though :-)! Here is one of the shots in Tokyo, near the Gundam exhibition. Very Tokyo background, but still has good old/nature atmorphere.</p><div></div>

<p>Thank you, Richard and Lil for mentioning. Practice, practice, practice... The castle is to be closed for cleaning and renovation/retrofitting this fall for a while.</p>

<p>And I have to give special mention (belatedly, sorry..) to Rodger Baker's GUNDAM. Nice shot with the flying airplane. I went there yesterday and was sooo impressed by its size and looks. I grew up with the 1st GUNDAM and this life-size one almost brought tears to my eyes :-) Those who don't know, please see here <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundam">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundam</a>.</p>

<p>My apology for many mishaps.<br>

<br />This week I am in Japan and here is The Himeji Castle. Didn't have my usual software and did some re-sizing and a bit of re-touch with my mother's PC and the photo info has been somehwo tampered. Wish I had better photos, but continuing is important, I thought. Already many, many wonderful and inspiring photos here as usual.<br /><br />D90, 18-105 @70, 1/250s, f/8, ISO200.<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/lh/photo/sQm12HH07apXglkjKYDwIg?authkey=Gv1sRgCLPbgqn1xrPOiQE&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kwoecUwgMh4/SnBRJUTXK2I/AAAAAAAAGkk/3C6Q0hWLnyE/s800/DSC_1543.JPG" alt="" /></a></p>

<p>This week I am in Japan and here is The Himeji Castle. Didn't have my usual software and did some re-sizing and a bit of re-touch with my mother's PC. Wish I had better photos, but continuing is important, I thought.</p>

<p>This week I am in Japan and here is The Himeji Castle. Didn't have my usual software and did some re-sizing and a bit of re-touch with my mother's PC. Wish I had better photos, but continuing is important, I thought.</p>