For Photographers

Eclectic Sunday

I took time this morning to shoot a little around the house. The trees in the forest were so beautiful and I took the time to do a little walk about in the yard to capture the ice as it began melting as the sun broke out. Here are some shots that caught my fancy. I love living up here in the mountains of north Georgia. Barbara and I are fortunate that a great diversity of wildlife visits our little 8 acres. With all the feeders and bird houses our property is a real sanctuary for all types of birds, raccoons, squirrels, deer, ground hogs and we even have some unwanted feral cats. Across the road our neighbors have horses and our next door neighbor has horses as well.

Most of my time behind a camera is spent photographing wedding and portrait clients. I love shooting people, especially couples in love and preparing to spend their lives together, but my first love in photography was nature and wildlife photography and it is always a real joy when I have a chance to have a session like the one I had this morning.

New Tool for the Tool Belt - Nikon D3x

I am a Nikon shooter. It's not a religion or anything and I will not engage in the my camera is better than yours arguments that develop online; so please, just say no to pointless debates if you are so inclined. The reality is there are very few cameras sold these days that are not great tools. Any camera has the capability to capture a gorgeous image; of course, the person pushing the shutter has just a little something to do with those images.

I am a big fan of most camera brands; in fact, I have drooled over the images some of my friends shoot with their Canon 5D Mk II and Canon Ids Mk III camera bodies. The 21 megapixel resolution gives you so many options and the gentle tonal gradations are just awesome. Like I said earlier, I am a Nikon shooter.  I love my Nikon D3 bodies; these are my workhorse cameras. Awesome dynamic range with native ISO range of 200 to 6400, unmatched speed with an ability to shoot 14bit RAW images at 9 frames per second in burst and a fantastic sensor that creates beautiful images at 12.1 megapixels. I also like my wife's D700, lighter weight, without the speed of the D3, but with the same sensor, dynamic range and creates the same beautiful images. Heck, I even still have warm feelings for D2x even though she's getting a little long in the tooth, never had a great dynamic range, but was fast in its day.

However, when Nikon announced the release of the D3x last December with its 24.5 megapixel resolution my heart skipped a beat and I think I stopped breathing for a few moments. I was immediately in complete and total uncontrollable lust. But, and this was a huge but, the retail price was set at $7,999 - ouch!!! So, I waited for numerous reviews, and then I waited for long term reviews from real professionals using the camera in the field. OK, so the reviews were awesome and the pros absolutely loved it. Alright, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of being a fantastic camera, a superb tool for portrait work, fine art photography, nature photography, etc... not as fast as the D3, not even close, doesn't have the ISO range either, native range is 100 to 1600. But, wow, the images are the best I have ever seen and the resolution is just icing on the cake. Want to print really big? Well, then this is the camera to use.

Ok, so I talked to Kelly Bonsack at Showcase Camera in Atlanta and finally broke down and ordered one. It took about a month for Nikon's distribution system to deliver, but man was it ever worth the wait. Here are some early test shots from the new stable mate of the Nikon D3s. A quick aside, I broke one of my D3 bodies and it's currently in the shop. I broke the small LCD screen on the back of the camera, not the large screen; that would have been very expensive, whew, I guess it could have been a lot worse. On the same camera, I also managed to crack the top of the body near the strap stud. Yep, my gear gets used. I am not sure what I did, but I definitely zigged when I should have zagged. Here are just a couple of walking around the yard shots. You really have to see the images blown up to 400% in Photoshop to really appreciate just how sweet this sensor truly is.

Exotic Glass

Here are a few shots that were taken with what I term exotic glass, or lenses that are not mainstream. The lenses I am talking about is a 16mm f/2.8D Fisheye-Nikkor that is a full frame fisheye with a 180° field of view and a 28mm f/2.8 PC-Nikkor that tilts and shifts 11° and the lens then rotates 360°. Here are some unique shots.

28mm f/2.8 PC-Nikkor

16mm f/2.8D Fisheye-Nikkor

16mm f/2.8D Fisheye-Nikkor

24-120mm f/3.5–5.6G VR Zoom-Nikkor

 

Frozen in Time

Temperatures dropped to 10° F and didn't climb above freezing for the past couple of days as an arctic air mass dipped all the way into South America.

This shot shows a brass floor standing bird bath that my wife and I have on the deck for the birds. The cold made the water freeze solid and it made such a beautiful and natural subject to photograph. I have a few shots I took late in the evening just before sunset.

Artistic rendition, post processed in Photoshop CS3 using various actions, filters and application features. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Click on the image to open a larger version in a separate window.