michael_chuang1

<p>From the World War II memorial. </p><div></div>

<p>Pixel-level crop. Don't know about you guys, but I'm kind of impressed to see the reflections on the light bulbs.</p><div></div>

<p>Church steeple with star added in preparation for Christmas.</p><div></div>

<p>So. This weekend was the 82nd Photographica show in the Boston area. Among other things, I was looking for a tripod collar for my FDn 200/4 macro lens. I found a collar, but it was (figuratively) inseparable from a nice looking boxed 300/4 FDn. So I bought the whole thing at what I considered to be a good price. (Thanks, Ross!)</p> <p>Inspired by the indefatigable Bill C, I mounted the lens on a Sony A7 (via a generic Ebay adapter) and took some random photographs at the Wakefield, MA town square where there are a number of war memorials. I have to say that I'm provisionally quite pleased with this lens. All shots were either wide-open at f/4 or closed down one stop at f/5.6. Everything was handheld because I'm lazy that way. Plus I did not have a long-lens Arca style plate with me despite having tripod in the back seat of my car. Anyway, here are the photographs. The first commemorates veterans of the Philippine-American War, 1899-1902.</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks for posting the link, Lannie. There seems to have been great reaction to the D750, at least anecdotally in these here parts (eastern Massachusetts and southern NH). Both the Boston(ish) and New Hampshire locations of my local camera store suddenly have multiple D700's and D800's in the used case, traded in within the last two weeks, as well as a few D800e's and the odd Df or two. D300s' have also been disgorged. Apparently the replacement cameras are a mix of D750 and D810, weighted toward the former. Interestingly, no D600/610's traded in, so far as I can tell.</p> <p>We bitter clingers to the D700/D300 chassis seem to be coming to terms with the state of Nikon. In various ways; personally I went Olympus E-M1 about a year ago, though I must have had a transient ischemic attack today: bought a DX lens.</p>

<p>John,<br> Nice photos and great presentation as usual. I have one of the Koni-Omegas (forget which model) that to my shame I have not yet put film through. So this serves as inspiration. In the first thread linked by JDM Peter G. notes that the advance sounds like racking the slide on a pump-action shotgun. I have to concur that it sounds a bit ominous and wonder what would happen if forced to demonstrate/operate the camera at the airport during our ritual security kabuki.</p> <p>>an ill conceived team building excercise<br> Has anyone experienced a good team building exercise? Not saying it's not possible, but boy, there sure are a lot of artificial, contrived and annoying ones out there.</p>

<p>Elephants!</p><div></div>

<p>At the Topsfield (Massachusetts) Fair. D300 and Tokina 16-50/2.8.</p> <p>@Steve Murray: What a wonderful portrait!</p><div></div>

<p>At the garden shop.</p><div></div>

<p>Ocotillo, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.</p><div></div>

<p>As a counterpoint to John Harper's night photography done well, here is my night-photography fail* (or crappy self portrait, depending on how you look at things) at a "scenic viewpoint" just off of the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire. For those wondering about the mechanics, my shadow is actually from the moon which was behind me, the light streaks are of course from a passing car which drove through the scene while the shutter was open.</p> <p>*Come to think of it, this was probably deliberate, since I can think of no other reason I'd have had the camera pointed this way. That said, certainly a few other night-sky shots were ruined by cars passing through.</p><div></div>

<p>Gordon, what an amazing salamander portrait! Fall colors have come along nicely here in some parts of New England. But for some reason the nice maples outside my office building seem to be going from green straight to shedding this year, alas.</p> <p>Anyway, this is from August. I was stopping by my dad's place to take him out for lunch, noticed this hurt cicada on the sidewalk and got a few shots with the Fujifilm XF1 I had with me. As I was entering the building I heard someone exclaim, "Eww! What's that?" Followed by her companion confidently asserting, "That's the biggest fly I've ever seen."</p><div></div>

<p>I've gone on about the Topsfield (Massachusetts) Fair before, so I'll spare you all except to note that the 2014 edition started today. This shot was taken at the 2013 Fair with a plain-prism Nikon F and age-appropriate (pre-AI) 50/1.4 Nikkor probably wide open, but it might have been f/2. Fujicolor 200 print film, Noritsu scanned.</p><div></div>

<p>#3</p><div></div>

<p>#2</p><div></div>

<p>Three photos taken during an evening walk with an FDn 50/1.4 on a Sony NEX-6.</p> <p>#1</p><div></div>

<p>@Bob H: Wow! <em>The only lenses not usable for digital are the FD's</em> .... How about a NEX body to put them on? The local (well about a hour away) camera shop sold me a bunch of FL and FD-mount glass at excellent prices; I saved so much money I was compelled to get an A7 with which to shoot them. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.</p> <p>In terms of Nikkor bargains, about a month ago I found a Micro-Nikkor 105/2.8 at my favorite charity shop. Externally it was very dusty and the lady at the counter said it was "priced accordingly at $5. Do you want it?" The lens cleaned up nicely and the glass is in great shape. Probably my best find in ages. I like the OOF rendering and the long manual-focus throw is a nice contrast to my AF macro.</p><div></div>

<p>Mamiya.</p><div></div>

<p>The electronic shutter is silent. No rabbits were disturbed in the making of this photograph; taken in the evening at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Northern Virginia after business-related travel to Washington DC, as it happens. Sure, it's not FX quality, but not bad either, IMO. This was a straight OOC JPEG, and could doubtless be improved if I weren't too lazy to play with the raw file. </p><div></div>

<p>Martin, it would be good to know what you consider acceptable in terms of noise, as that would help to constrain the search space. My standards may be lower than yours, but here's a sideways solution to the <strong>reach</strong> and <strong>bird-scaring mirror noise</strong> problems: Nikon One camera and FT-1 adapter. I've found the V1 surprisingly adequate in many situations. I sometimes bring mine on business trips where I might be able to have half-day to go pester the local wildlife, but couldn't justify bringing the "real" camera, big lens and tripod.</p> <p>Some high ISO examples follow. The rabbit photo was with a 70-200 VR (I) at ISO 1600, 150mm (405 mm-equiv due to the 2.7x CX format crop), 1/250 handheld. The Mamiya TLR detail is heavily cropped. I was playing around with handholdability: Nikkor 55-200 VR @ 116mm f/6.3 (~313 mm-e), ISO 3200, 1/25.</p> <p>For better images, you might want to check out <a href="http://www.naturalart.ca/artist/fieldtests/fieldtest_NikonV1.html">Brad Hill's excellent review</a>, and <a href="http://malcolmfarrowphotography.wordpress.com/2013/12/12/using-the-nikon-1-series-cameras-for-wildlife-photography/">Malcolm Farrow's comments</a> are interesting as well.</p> <div></div>

<p>Louis, wonderful portrait (as usual). John, looks like you and I are both posting images from a series to Nature and MM ;) I like the web photos here as well as the one on Mondays in Nature. Emir, that is terrific! Lex, I really like the slow-shutter images you are doing at the plaza fountain. I have not been a fan of that sort of thing, but your work is making me seriously reconsider. Charles, the composition and the light make that Brughes house look wonderfully inviting.</p> <p>This is our sole moonflower so far this year. Another shot/view is on M-in-N, taken with a NEX-6 instead of the Fujifilm XF1 used here.</p><div></div>

<p>Although perfection would be way too strong a descriptor, I'm pretty happy to have seen this moonflower (<em>Ipomoea</em> sp.) last night at home after spending all day in New Hampshire. The fall colors are coming along nicely in Crawford Notch and along the Kancamagus Highway. Due to the Chicago air traffic debacle I had to take my partner to Manchester, NH to catch a 5:40 AM flight, as the original BOS-MDW-XXX flight had been canceled (weirdly, the MHT-MDW-XXX flights were intact). So we left the house at an ungodly hour, and after seeing her through security (MHT has a little glassed-off section where you literally can watch the screening process) I was up MHT-way at 4:30 AM and thought, "What the hell, I'll catch the sunrise over Russell Pond in the White Mountains," about another hour north. Didn't make any great photos, but had a nice outing in the White Mountains playing with a variety of gear. </p> <p>Anyway, I got home well after dark and was pleased to see the moonflower. Every year we stress (she stresses) over whether we will get moonflowers before the frosts kill the plant. So of course the day she goes away we get our first bloom! (A previous promising bud was pulled off the plant by someone or thing, a second bud opened only part way then shriveled. Such drama.) This was a grab shot with NEX-6 and kit 16-50 zoom. I have to admit, the moonflower blossoms <em>are</em> delicately lovely.</p><div></div>

<p>Fall colors are coming along nicely in northern(ish) New Hampshire. Crawford Notch area, yesterday.</p><div></div>

<p>Cape May, New Jersey (USA) in May, as it happens.</p><div></div>

<p>@Les: I like the meters and pipes as well.<br /> African crowned crane grooming. At the Detroit Zoo (so <em>captive</em>, duh) almost exactly one year ago. Nikon V1 and kit tele-zoom @ 110mm, 1/250. Still not fast enough to freeze the head motion.... <br> ETA: Ach! Screwed up the caption. Nikon V1 and 30-<em>110</em>. Would have been a feat to shoot a 100-mm lens at 110. That said, image is quite extensively cropped.</p><div></div>