Cycle 61 Photography

Hunting for a Christmas tree

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:09:00 +0000

Getting some shoots lined up over the next couple of months. For now, a family picture from this afternoon. Nikon D200, 35/1.8 near wide open, lots of rain and natural light.

Letters to a young photographer

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:33:00 +0000

From Joe McNally's blog. Go check it out if you haven't already. Thought provoking, and inspirational.

Q&A

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:20:00 +0000

From some discussion on a local photography website, with a couple of friends.

C61 : Speaking of lenses: D40x on the back of a 70-200.

And some shots with the combo:

VM : I love it.

Those look fantastic! The bokeh is, naturally, excellent. Noise looks good at ISO 800. Did you shoot the whole event at 800 with VR and no flash?

C61 : Thanks. And whatchoo talking about no flash? Plenty of flash in all of those pictures. They're on lightstands, as always. Shot most of the event with this camera at ISO 800, F2.8-4, and 1/200th. Ambient light was ugly (and dim) fluorescent, so ramped up the shutter speed to totally squash it. I didn't dare go above ISO800 with the D40x, 1600 comes out pretty crunchy from what I've seen.

VM : I guess that's a compliment in disguise.

...and one question leads to another. What kind of light modifiers are on the strobes? The light looks nice and soft. Also, yeah, 1600 looks pretty gross, from what I've seen, too. Good idea on killing the fluorescent lights. Couldn't you just use a green gel on the strobes or was it hard to match?

C61 : I'll take the compliment. Light modifiers? None. The indoor pics, the strobes are bounced off the ceiling, with a slight forward tilt and the bounce card extended to provide just a touch of direct light. In the outdoor pic, I have one light set up high and off to my right. If you look closely, you can see a little catchlight in their eyes. Without that strobe, they're in the shade just like the wall behind them.

Regarding gelling the strobes to match the ambient, I probably could, but I'm lazy. And the gel absorbs some light, maybe 1/2-2/3 stop? Lighting a big room with a pair of speedlights like that is already a delicate balance of flash power (=lower ISO or smaller aperture) and recycle time/battery life. I ended up with one flash at 1/2 power with PW attached and the other at 1/4 power using the optical slave. This let me put a PW on each camera, but it meant that my 2nd flash was triggering off of everybody's flashes. Went through three sets of batteries in that one before the night was over. Adding gels would have meant slowing my recycle time OR shooting wide open OR bumping up the ISO to 1600. Not compromises I was willing to make.

VM : Since your photos with the 40x and pro glass look great, tell me: what do you miss the most about the D700?

High ISO and AF speed?

...and maybe FX? (does it really matter much?)

(I'm resisting the Ken Rockwell mantra, "all anyone needs is a D40")

C61 : 2 out of 3, right there. The last one would be the external controls. I would really love to have a second control wheel again, as well as ISO and WB adjustments that didn't involve a trip into the menu system.

And it really should use CF cards. I don't like SD.

VM : And I bet things like dynamic range is better, etc. But eff, 5x the price and no lens! Doesn't the D90 get you 95% there?

I should really just shut up and reflect on the principle of diminishing marginal utility.

C61 : Actually, I don't have a lens now, except the 85/1.4 that doesn't autofocus on the D40.

Edit : Wait, I've got another one somewhere. Lemme go poke around and see what it was.

Edit 2: Damn, it's a screwdriver lens too. Needs the focus motor in body. Oh well, time to work on my manual focus skills.

Choosing a direction

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:10:00 +0000

I've been busy. Very busy. And most of it has not been photography related. Cycle 61 Photography is still in operation, but on a very low-key basis. I've been picking up gigs here and there, but mostly been working at the regular job. As much as I'd like to make this a full-time gig, it's just not a reality for me right now. But I do plan to start ramping things back up, hopefully including this blog.

Which leaves me with a decision...for whom am I writing and posting? For my fellow photographers, for my potential clients, for myself?

There are hundreds of photographers who are operating beautiful and timely photo blogs, full of incredible images for their clients to see. There are many who dive deeper into the background, detailing lighting and business, challenges and solutions. There are gear reviews, there are sites that are full of links to everybody else's blogs and sites, and there's the Strobist and Joe McNally, who seem to put all of this together with flawless balance.

Perhaps I'll just return to posting up pictures and geek out whenever it seems appropriate.

October, part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:03:00 +0000

First up since the long break, a down-home family wedding in Georgia. Guests of honor, of course, get their pics posted on the main page.

This was my shortest cross-country trip to date, with my car sitting in the parking lot at SFO for a total of only 43 hours while I traipsed across the continent to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The only thing longer than the name is the airport itself. I'm mildly surprised that they don't have shuttle flights from one end to the other. It's huge.

Flew in Friday night for a rehearsal dinner, as it were, at a local BBQ joint. Lunch in Silicon Valley and dinner in an Atlanta roadhouse makes for quite an afternoon. But I digress. A good nights' sleep and time to get ready for the ceremony.

Pictures and more, after the jump

The wedding was simple, but beautiful, held on a footbridge over a stream running through the wooded backyard of the grooms' parents' home. The stream (okay, really kind of a ditch, but that was part of the challenge) severely limited the angles which were available, and the afternoon sun coming through the trees was to be directly behind the couple. Through the trees. Bright, mottled light and deep shadows, always a good combination. Here's the setup in available light, from the shooter's perspective.

Two lights up on stands, facing towards the bridge, at about 1/8 power and zoomed in to where the couple would be standing. One had a mild warming gel to nudge the cool shade light coming through the trees to a more pleasing tone. A few minutes later, this is the scene:

Much better. The wide shots didn't amount to much, given the lack of water below the bridge and cluttered background, but the light worked out well for the closer shots, with a good separation from the background, and no worries about whether the patches of sunlight were falling correctly on everybody's faces.

I did most of my other shooting with camera in right hand, and flash in small softbox in left, adjusting aperture, ISO, and flash power on the fly. I just kind of get in the ballpark with these shots, and it seems to work well for me. We're pretty much in total darkness here without the flash, but I can't bring myself to put it on top of the camera. I like this look much better.

After all the real shots are done, and the party is well underway, I take some time to pick up a few details here and there, and experiment a bit with the unreal capability of the camera in near-total darkness. I love being able to do this...

I keep hearing that I'm crazy for shooting off-camera flash at weddings. I simply do whatever gets the images I need. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Random Milestone

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:55:00 +0000

Just was scrolling down through the last few posts, got to the bottom of the page, and happened to notice this sitting there. I figure that myself and the various web bots probably account for about 24,500 of these page views, but as I'm typing up some more posts it's good to see that somebody's reading the blog.

This, of course, is about as many hits as the Strobist gets in a slow hour...but you've gotta start somewhere, right?

Cycle 61 Photography is still here...

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:58:00 +0000

It's been a long time. But there's been quite a bit going on behind the scenes. Updates coming soon. Probably going to jump back eight months or so and catch up sequentially. At least that's the plan. See you all again soon.

Moving Day

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:13:00 +0000

Been working last night and most of the morning getting everything loaded out of the house and into the truck for our epic journey five miles down the road. We're moving out of our 900 square foot box and into a much bigger, and nicer place in Pleasanton. This is currently the view from the webcam on my iMac, which sits in the garage/office/studio. Hopefully I'll be back online at the new place in a few days.

Wordle

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:46:00 +0000

Fun random and rather educational internet toy: Wordle

It reads any patch of text, blog, website, whatever, and gives you back a graphic with your most used words. Words that are most used show up largest, less used are smaller, etc. Here's what's been in my blog recently:

Hmmmmmm.....

ISO is far and away my most used word (damn, I did it again!) followed closely by D700 and D200, along with "much". I don't say that much, do I? I see that light and shots make the b-list, and money is almost nonexistent. Hey, just like real life.... Gotta fix that. I'm gonna go wordle the strobist and see what we get.

Just as I expected. It's all about light.

Found in Ivan Makarov's excellent blog, IM Digital

Vacation Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:01:00 +0000

How bad can it be to spend a week in a place that looks like this?

More pics after the jump.

The new portable traveling dog, Eddie. The full-size dog was traded in a few months ago.

Some flowers by the shore of Seneca Lake. Note the artsy vignetting. I didn't until it was too late. Need a thinner polarizer. Maybe I could crop it square and have a really expensive Holga.

My uncle, doing one of his favorite things in life, sitting at a campground surrounded by family.

Feet. I love feet. They say as much about a person as hands, sometimes.

My mom's new place. They're on the road full time, as of a few days ago!

Hi Mom! (Ya gotta look at me next time :-)

This one raised some questions. Like "Why the heck are you sticking your camera in the fire!?!?!"

You know what they say about a bad day fishing...

My little girl... this kid may look cute, but she's a fish killer!

More feet. Well, same feet, later in the week. My girl hates this picture, but I don't think she reads the blog. You never can tell with seven year olds these days.

Tupperware Archaeology.

D700, 50/1.4, and a campfire. What more do you need?

Wedding in the dark

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Picked up another second shooter gig off of craigslist for Saturday afternoon. I was hired just to shoot the ceremony by "My Perfect Day Media" a husband and wife video/photo team based out of Los Angeles. The money wasn't much, but I'm still in need of some better portfolio pictures, so I took it on.

The church was huge, and they were very specific about what they needed: a long-range shooter from the balcony in the back, a couple of wide shots with natural light, and whatever else I could come up with in an hour ceremony. The wide shots were easy, at 24mm on the D700, f/5 1/25th and around ISO 1600 to 2000. I tried a couple of different combinations for the longer shots, turns out the D200 with the 85/1.4 and the D700 with the Sigma 150 give me about the same images. The 700 shoots cleaner at higher ISO's, which makes up for the difference between the 1.4 and the 2.8. Ended up shooting the D200 wide and the D700 long, mostly around 1/80th wide open at ISO 2000-2500. Weird, and not at all what I expected, but it worked.

After the ceremony, I was able to get some nice portraits of the bridesmaids and flower girls, which will probably be my best payoff for the two hours or so I spent there. I hung around for the bride and groom making their departure, but the main photographers were all over the car like paparazzi, so I did what I could.

Good fun, and good practice, and a couple of good shots for the website.

And somebody hit my car while it was in the parking garage. Grrrrr

Sigma 150/2.8 Macro

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:01:00 +0000

In lieu of the ubiquitous 70-200, I decided to go a different route for my fast telephoto needs, and after much research came up with the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro. Shutterbug Magazine did a review of it a while back, and had only good things to say. I personally like the fact that it has macro capability (full 1:1 with no extra attachments needed!) and that it's about half the size and less than half the cost of the 70-200. I've found this lens balances very, very well on the D700, and I've been able to handhold it down to about 1/60th with excellent results.

Downsides (after a few weeks use) seems to be a slower autofocus, especially in poor light, and the focus ring turns the opposite direction than Nikon lenses do, which is a bit counterintuitive when trying to tweak focus a bit, or get it in the right vicinity so the AF can do it's thing. After Saturday's wedding, I also think mine may front-focus a bit at long ranges. That, however, can be adjusted if necessary.

Pictures after the break..

Wedding, from the upper balcony of the church. 1/80th f/5, ISO 2200

Flower girl, natural light portrait outside the church. 1/160th f/3.0 ISO 200

David, portrait by camping lantern and glowstick. 1/25th f/3.2 ISO 3200

Pretty much my only macro shot so far. For size reference, the background is the knitting on a pink t-shirt. The whole pin is maybe 3/4" across. 1/1000th f/8, ISO 200

And a candid shot at the poker tournament yesterday. Shot with the D200 (so actually 225mm equivalent) 1/200th at f/4, ISO 400 with flashes on lightstands bounced off the ceiling from the corners of the room.

In Memory of Mark

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:01:00 +0000

Got to break out the lights at last, after a couple of "available dark" gigs over the last few days. The event was "In Memory of Mark", a charity poker tournament, arranged to raise money for Mark's two year old daughter's college fund.

The event was fun, fast moving, and a pleasure to shoot. Indoors, outdoors, sometimes everything just works out perfectly. I felt for the first time that I had my kit dialed in, and was able to seamlessly shoot with both cameras and not have to fumble around with lenses, flashes, and whatnot.

Shot the D200 with the Sigma 150 for long portraits, candids from three tables away, isolating subjects from the crowd, etc, and the D700 with 24-70 as my all-purpose machine. With the lighting as good as it was, no problems at all with the D200 noise, and the 700 of course worked flawlessly.

I also used the LiveView several times, getting shots with the camera held high above me and out over a table, etc. Definitely better than point and hope, which is how you usually have to do these shots. Outside was a bit tougher, but something about an open bar gives you the courage to shoot at ISO 3200 and use your flashes from inside the building as a key light on your subjects.

Whoever designed the ceiling in the reception hall at Congregation Beth Am in Palo Alto clearly had photographers in mind. Best bounce conditions I've ever had the pleasure of shooting under. White painted, and low at the walls angling up to about 20' in the center, the inside of the hall acted like a giant parabolic reflector for light. Covered something like 1500 square feet with two strobes, and then covered it very well when the other photographer showed up with a pair of Sunpaks and two more lightstands. We had f/4 at ISO 400 throughout pretty much the whole room, and 5.6 if we were shooting a table near any of the four lights.

It got really fun once the tournament boiled down to one table, and we moved in even closer...

Ninja Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:04:00 +0000

Available Dark...

Answered a Craigslist ad early last week for a photographer to do a "shoot in low light, no flash condition, outdoors this Friday night" It looked interesting, and didn't pay a whole lot but I was intrigued by the idea. Turns out "low light" meant candle light and some white Christmas lights in nearby trees. Oh, and I had to remain absolutely unseen and unheard. The event? A marriage proposal on a wooded bluff above Baker's Beach in San Francisco.

I arrived about 7:30, and met the other guys setting this up. They were busy stringing the lights, and helped with a sound check...I was initially going to shoot wide, and fairly close, but the shutter was too loud, and the priority for the night was stealth, not quality of images. Obviously not my choice of compromises, but you take what you can get. The Sigma 150 was not going to help, because at that length there was no way I would be getting acceptable shutter speeds as the light fell.

Here's your light source, now get to work!

Talk about dark out there... I ended up with the 85/1.4 wide open, at ISO 6400, handholding the camera braced against the ground at about 1/5 to 1/10 of a second. Crazy dark. But the D700 did it's job admirably, coming up with some surprisingly acceptable images under these conditions.

Black hoodie, black pants, crawling around in the sand and bushes being a ninja... just another Friday night at Cycle 61 Photography :-)

Oh, and by the way, she said yes. And we were invited to come out of hiding and meet the happy couple. And I'm shooting their wedding. Like I said, just another boring Friday night...

Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:07:00 +0000

It's been a great week, camping and fishing up here in the lakes of upstate New York. Back in gear next week, but it's been a very relaxing, and much needed break. More to come in a few days. Lots of big stuff going on.

Seat without a view...

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:43:00 +0000

Chase Jarvis has his "Room without a view" series, I figured I could do the same. Sitting in Chicago International right now, after a quick and cloudy hop from San Francisco. We'll be on our way to Rochester NY in an hour or so, for a week of camping and hopefully some lifestyle and landscape shooting in upstate New York. In the meantime, enjoy the scenery!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Time Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:30:00 +0000

These images are under a Creative Commons License. Feel free to copy and distribute for non-commercial purposes.

Spent an afternoon in Oakland's DeFremery Park, somewhere back in 1969, as Angela Davis, a political activist on the FBI's most wanted list for her anti-war activities, gave her firey "Liberation of our People" speech to an eager crowd, gathered from all around.

Actually, this isn't Angela Davis, nor is it 1969. But for a few hours, it sure felt that way...

I generally avoid politics here, but when I saw an opportunity to get involved with Mark Tribe's Port Huron Project, I couldn't resist. It's a series of re-enactments of some of the most famous speeches from the late sixties by figures such as Angela Davis, Cesar Chavez, Coretta Scott King, and others.

The people involved in the project are amazingly dedicated to what they are doing, and their passion for this movement is clear. The problems our country faces today are frighteningly similar to those of forty years ago, and now, as then, there is a rising tide of discontent and voices that will not be silenced. Mark and his crew are using these bits of history to hold up a mirror to modern society, and to the people who would stand by and wonder when somebody's going to do something about it.

I love natural light

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:54:00 +0000

It just seems like there's never enough of it to do what we really want. I can certainly see why portrait photographers who use natural light want a "north window studio". This is essentially what I have in my living room, except the backyard is enclosed by trees and there's a huge awning extending 15 feet out, which combine to make my "studio" darker than the inside of a cow. The light is gorgeous, there's just hardly any of it there.

I'm now able to shoot in conditions that I wouldn't have even tried before...this definitely bears further practice! Next week is going to be interesting.

Murphy's law, subsection 342

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:18:00 +0000

Good old Mr. Murphy, inventor of the law stating "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" apparently had a background in photography. One of the deeply buried corrolaries to the law stated that four days after you buy something new, you will find an equal or better item for sale on Craigslist at a price you cannot refuse.

What am I talking about?

A D3, another 24-70, another 85/1.4, and accessories.

For about the price of a new D3.

So now the bag is a bit too full, one of each lens has to go, and I get to spend the next week in New York deciding whether I'm going to keep the D3 or the D700. When I get back, one of the cameras will be on it's way to a new owner.

I just have to decide which one. I swear, I didn't mean for this to happen, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Either way, it's going to be a sweet kit.

I have an interesting event coming up this weekend, a shoot for a historical/political group that does re-enactments of famous speeches, rallies, etc. It's a combination political rally and public, collaborative theater. The group is called the Port Huron Project , check them out, and if you're in Oakland this Saturday, come on down and watch the show!

I'll try to get some pictures up from the event Saturday night, as I'm flying out to New York to go camping for a week on Sunday morning. Enjoy!

Weekends...

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:10:00 +0000

Kids at the beach. How much more fun does it get than that?

It's here...

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:15:00 +0000

Thanks to Nikon, Ritz Camera, FedEx, and a gentle squeeze of the bank account, my new D700 showed up today. This is the full-frame camera that I (along with so many others) have been waiting for Nikon to build, and they've done a great job. Quick first impressions, and a few more pictures, after the jump.

Found this sitting on the front porch when I got home today:

Brought it in, out of the box, and there's the big 700 I've been waiting for:

First off, the camera feels great in hand, very solid and comfortable. It exudes quality, and just begs to be used. The screen on the back is incredible, at 3.0" and more than twice the resolution of my D200, it's beautiful.

First lens to go on was the 24-70, which is now able to be the wide angle it was designed as. 24mm on the full frame is wider than 18mm on dx, so I get to shoot a little closer than before, which is gonna be nice. Yes, my kitchen's a mess, but here's the view at 24mm:

The high ISO abilities of this camera are every bit as incredible as I've heard. Take a look at this photo, shot under the one 100w bulb in my kitchen at ISO 25,600. Click through for full-size if you have a big screen and/or a minute for it to load.

I'm going to stop drooling over it now, and go take some pictures...

A clearer view...

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:41:00 +0000

WARNING: Gear lust ahead!

I've got my budget all laid out for everything I'm going to be picking up over the next week or so to fill in a fully capable pro kit, and one lens seems to have jumped the gun and come onboard before everything was, shall we say, approved.

The Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 is, according to everything I've read, absolutely superlative in terms of it's image quality, even wide open, and it provides an excellent range on a full-frame body. It's supposed to be as sharp as the 28-70, but wider, and as good wide open as the 17-55, which is a DX (crop format) lens. Right now it's on the D200, where I'm finding that 24mm is not wide enough for my taste on DX, but it's going to settle right in on the D700 when it arrives in a few weeks.

The rest of my list is roughly as follows:

D700. Already discussed. The body that so many of us have been waiting for.

Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro. This will be my long portrait/short telephoto lens, and I expect it to reside more on the D200, which will be staying in my kit for some time still. This provides me with a bit more reach than I've had previously (150mm vs 135) and gets me to a nice f/2.8 for a very reasonable $550 or so.

Nikon 85mm f/1.4 I try and try to convince myself to get the 1.8 instead. But I've used both, and the 1.4 is simply magic.

Another SB-800 and Pocket Wizard. One light simply isn't going to do everything I need.

Beyond that, I have enough budgeted for either a 14-24 (a beautiful lens, but I'm torn trying to make a business case for it) or a set of a couple of AB lights and associated modifiers (probably more practical) I'm leaning heavily towards the lights, as I think 24mm on FX will be wide enough for me for a while. I've rarely shot wider than 27mm equivalent, so I'm ok with 24. Hopefully.

Also, a couple of lightstands, an umbrella or two, a roll of seamless, some business cards and a sign for the back window of the van. I'm sending some design work to a little company called FatTofu (http://fattofu.com/) who will be doing my logo and stuff. As you can tell by the graphic above, I am not a designer!

Anyway, thanks to all for the support as always. More to come soon. And I promise to keep the gear posts to a minimum. This stuff is tools, and right now I'm investing in the future of my business. Hopefully I'm not putting the cart too far ahead of the horse.

iMac, therefore iAm

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:51:00 +0000

Just another step in my continual pursuit of the most forced relevance ever in a blog post title...

After three painful weeks of getting my internet fix via only my cell phone's little 2" screen, I was finally able to pick up my new iMac this afternoon. This will be primarily the business computer, but the family is going to get in some time on the new box here or there, I'm sure. It's a 24" model, and frankly every time I look at the screen I just about get lost in how huge, bright, and clear it is. I've got MS Office all set up, and a copy of QuickBooks Pro to help keep track of business over the next year or so. The wireless connection to the internet, printer, and other computer are working after some tweaking and a ping from Comcast's techs.

I try not to make this too much of a gear lust blog, but sometimes I can't help myself. I've waited too long for this one. The last computer was Dell's bottom of the line econobox six years ago, and it has more than done it's time. It was getting to the point where the monitor was so far gone I couldn't judge image quality hardly at all, and the 30gb (!) C: drive has been stuffed within an inch of it's life for around 18 months now. I've got over 500 gigs worth of external drives just kind of orbiting around the old box, waiting for it to die.

Next project: porting my two Lightroom catalogs over to the new machine, coming up with a logical storage solution, and figuring out how the old box fits into the plan and the network. It's probably going to end up as a dedicated machine to run the slide scanner, working through many, many thousands of my grandpa's old Kodachromes dating all the way back to the early sixties.

We'll be finishing up the details of the business launch budget soon, and there will be a few more nice bits of gear wandering into my camera bag soon. Give it a couple of days, and I'll have some more detail (and pictures) for you. In the meantime, I've got a job to bid for some corporate portraits, so I'm off to dig up John Harrington's "Best Business Practices for Photographers" and remind myself what professional photography is worth in dollars and cents.

And I'll post some pictures too. Gotta have those!

Why I love a cheap lens...

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:02:00 +0000

Okay, I admit to some pixel peeping now and then. I get asked sometimes what lens I shoot with, and the surprising answer is that one of my favorites is the 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 AFS DX. It's cheap, it's plastic, it was the second string kit lens two years ago, it's slow variable aperture, yadda yadda yadda.

It's damn sharp, it's a great range, and it does almost everything for me. I've used it everywhere, I flung it from a ceiling fan (long story) and it just lets me make images.

The eye above belongs to my son, it's an unsharpened 100% crop of a portrait I shot in the living room an hour ago. Lighting was a small softbox overhead with an SB-800 in it, f/14 at ISO 100. Take this picture, drop it in Photoshop, and put a touch of sharpening on it. See what you think. Not bad for a $250 lump of 7.5x super-zoom consumer plastic.

Somehow I think that this lens will still have a place in my bag once the 2.8's and such move in in a few weeks here. According to Lightroom, over 60,000 images with it in the last 18 months.

Thanks Nikon for a great little piece of glass.

Another wedding in the bag

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Davis) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:22:00 +0000

Had the opportunity to shoot another wedding yesterday, as second shooter this time, assisting Michael Loeb of Loeb Photography. Michael's been shooting weddings since the beginning of time, (or at least since medium format film was the format of choice) and working for him was a real treat.

One of the things I noticed the most was how much effort went into directing the various parties of the wedding for many of the group shots and posed portraits. He did a great job keeping everybody nearby, and cycling through the groups while getting all the setups he had on his list. Much more organized than I was at my last event. Years of experience showing through.

I got there early, and was able to get shots of the bride and bridesmaids getting ready, and some detail shots I missed last time as well (bride's shoes, flowers, table settings, etc) The group was a lot of fun, relaxed, easy to work with, and happy to have us around.

The ceremony was beautiful, outside at a little gazebo, and our persistent wildfires have left a high layer of smoke over the area, which turns into a gorgeous warm diffuse light at about 6pm. Made shooting outside a pleasure, no harsh shadows or squinty eyes anywhere. Set up one flash on a stand at the back of the audience, opposite the sun for a bit of pop, and that was all we needed.

Overall, I had a great time. I think I might get to like this wedding thing....