Scout Images

I have been very quiet on the photographic front lately, so I thought I would share some of the images I have snapped in my day to day wanderings. Nothing special.

Mamak is a Malaysian restaurant in Sydney that I really love (for more information please visit their website), fast paced food that is simple yet delicious. Here are some pictures taken using my Fuji F100fd.

More recently, I had some fisheye fun in the Queen Victoria Building. My Nikon D60 + Tokina AT-X 10-17mm. These were taken more for myself than for anything else, and experiment with zooming whilst shooting, often used with other lenses.

I spent the day with a friend trying our hand at capturing smoke trails, finally settling on the combination of off camera flash (thanks Phottix Duo Cable + SB-400, my friend has a D60 so CLS was not really going to be useful for him) and a candle+match.

I used my Nikon D300 and Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8 for these photos with some photo editing done in Photoshop CS2 and Capture NX2.

It has been a while since I have uploaded anything (well 9 days in fact) so I thought I would share some of the adventures that I have been up to.

Yesterday, I headed to the Australian Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which included an interactive photo studio component this year. Armed with my Nikon D60, Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8 and Sigma 180mm f/3.5 Macro I headed in. A prime kit? Between these two lenses I have everything I want, from close focus ability to candid captures, throw in the SB-400 and the Phottix Duo Cable I am ready to take on anything.

That evening I attended the DSLRusers/ex-SURCAS/current SURCAS fire night, an event that I had organised with the help of my friends from SURCAS. Although I was officially there as part of the photographic party, I was too tempted with the thoughts of playing with fire and spent a fair bit of time with the staff in hand. My D300 spent most of the night in the company of the Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8 and my Manfrotto 055 Pro B/322RC2 combo. The Tokina 10-17 fisheye and Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR also made appearances.

I have been waiting for this addition to my kit bag for a few weeks now. Since buying my Nikon D60 (refer here) I have been looking for a good lens to match this camera. My predicament was my lack of small, lightweight AF-S lenses (my only AF-S or equivalent lenses being the 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, 180mm f/3.5 macro) leading me on a search for an inexpensive AF-S lens to match the D60, the AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G being high up on my list of lenses in consideration. A good friend of mine headed over the USA just after Christmas, and sure enough, just before new years I was awoken by a phone call from New York, asking for lens advice. In the end my friend offered to pick up a copy of this lens for me (they were at B H Photo Video and were going to buy a copy for themselves), so I became the owner of Nikon’s standard DX prime. My friend arrived back in Sydney yesterday and we caught up today.

The AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G

We had lunch then had a stroll through the city centre.

Over the last week or so I have not had much time to take photos (been trying to get this website up and running again) but I did manage to get a few shots in last night at dinner and today at the Fish Market and in Glebe. So here are a few shots that I thought I would share.

These were taken with my Nikon D60 and the Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8. Some of the photos in this gallery used the Phottix Duo Cord + Nikon SB-400 combination as well.

On another note, my venerable Nikon F80D is out on loan again, this time accompanied by my Tamron SP 28-205mm f/2.8 and my Nikkor AF-D 28-80mm. This means my current gear status is….

Just thought I would share some of the dodgy photos I took on New Years Eve and some that I took today whilst at Mamak with my baby Fuji F100fd.

I have to admit that I have often underestimated my needs, and NYE 2009 was just another occaision. I was thinking travel light, travel discreetly, so as a result I kept my gear to the smallest, most unassuming kit that I could. This resulted in:

• Nikon D60 – light and unassuming
• Nikkor AF-D 50mm f/1.8 – small and light, BUT manual focus on a D60
• Nikkor AI 135mm f/2.8 – small and light, BUT manual focus and no metering on a D60
• Tokina AT-X 10-17mm fisheye – small and light, BUT manual focus on a D60
• Nikon SB-400
• Nikon ML-L3
• Phottix Duo Cable
• Joby Gorillapod (Thanks Mr Ken)

With this kit, I assumed that any fireworks images would not be a big problem, unless I wanted a longer exposure to get trails (which you would when your friends are doing so). But this was not my largest problem, whilst setting up for the midnight fireworks down at Darling Harbour, a group of young ladies asked us to take a few pictures of them (using their compacts). After the fireworks we took a few more photos for theses ladies, afterwhich we asked if they wanted us to take some photos for them using our cameras (they will be getting their photos soon). This is when I found myself caught short, really short. The AF-less lenses that I had with me were fine up until that point, but for portraiture they proved to be a nightmare, esepecially since my saving grace (the SB-400 on the Phottix Duo Cable) required a hand to hold off camera. In the end I had to borrow my mates 18-200 and eventually comandeer his D90 (Sorry Mr Jod).

Here are some of my dodgy, hand held fireworks images (I used the Joby for some of the Ferris Wheel shots).

As I have mentioned earlier, I was at Mamak today and took a few images of what I ate. I have to admit that they make a damn good Roti, and I am addicted to their Sambal. These were taken with my now found again Fuji F100fd.

Just thought I would share two panorama’s that I made whilst I was up on Mt Wellington. These 12 image stitches were made with my baby D60 and the Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8.

You may have noticed that I have been very busy and have not been posting much over the last fortnight (until last night that is) so I thought I would apologise once more and share with you images of my recent travels.

Firstly, I headed off to Kanangra Boyd National Park (beyond the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves) with members of my old lab group from USYD. This was not a photographic expedition, but rather a scientific field trip to collect lizards to continue the work on the evolution of viviparity (live birth) – yes this was the broad subject for my honours year. As it was not a photographic trip, I restricted myself to bringing only my Fuji S5 Pro (the D300 was still with Nikon Australia), Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8 and Phottix Geo One.

Soon afterwards (literally a two day break) I headed off to Kiama with some friends for an overnight getaway. However, the weather was not quite smiling down upon me so I did not get a lot of good photos. With me on this trip I brought along my Nikon D60, Nikon F80 (shooting Velvia 50), SB-400, Phottix Duo Cord, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 as well as the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye.

Then after a single day at home, I headed down to Hobart for a four day trip. This trip was meant to be pretty photo intensive, so between myself and my younger sister we had the entire kitchen sink bringing the, Fuji S5 Pro + Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, Sigma 180mm Macro, Nikon D60, Nikon F80 (shooting Velvia 50 and Superia 200), Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8VR, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, as well as the Phottix Duo Cord, Phottix Geo One and my trusty Nikon SB-400. This four day trip can be roughly split between four events:

Mt Wellington – standing behind Hobart, this landmark provides some great views of the city and surrounds

Cascade Brewery – Australia’s oldest continuously operating brewery, a great tour and some great drinks, I really enjoyed their Mercury Cider and the Cascade Lager (only available in TAS).

Bruny Island – untouched wilderness, some animal encounters and a hell of a ride in a 1400Bhp, 14m boat.

Salamanca Markets – a must see, a mix of craft and food and a great way to spend a day

I have only posted digital images taken with the D60 (as my younger sister was using the S5 Pro) with film images from the Superia 200 and the Velvia 50 to come if I have time.

Lastly, I thought I would share a few images from today’s bittersweet adventure where I welcomed back my trusty D300 but my good friend lost her D80.

Today was in many ways meant to be a great day, I was finally picking up my D300 from it’s latest (and very lengthy) visit to Nikon Australia (see here) and then I spent the day with a very good friend. Also on the list of things to do was to deal with some of the issues that have cropped up whilst I was away in Hobart last week (trip report + pictures to come soon).

The day started well, with picking up my poor D300 at Foto Riesel Camera House (who have been great). I dropped off the Velvia 50 (slide film shot on my F80 whilst in Hobart) for processing as well as grabbing a replacement Nikon LC-52 lens cap (I lost one off my 50mm f/1.8 whilst in Hobart). Unfortunately I did not get anywhere with a replacement Tamron DA09 lenshood (for the Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8 – mine picked up a large crack in Hobart).

But the bitterness really struck when a filthy, no good lowlife stole my friends treasured D80 from her bag at the end of the day whilst on the ferry back from Manly. The camera was at the top of my friend bag, which was sitting next to my bag on the seat opposite to us on the ferry. We must have both drifted off for a few minutes when it happened, but that is often all it takes.

For me it is a shock, I have often been very trusting, leaving gear in plain sight etc, but this event really shakes my belief that people are inherently good, maybe it is not so. How do you walk up to someone’s bag and take out a large camera in broad daylight and then walk away with it? Surely, even on a quiet ferry there are enough people around to keep an eye out for such occurrences. I know I was tired but I was drifting in and out of sleep on the ferry ride back, how gutsy would it have been to risk being caught??

Take heed, and ensure all your belongings are close by and any valuables hidden from prying eyes whenever you are out.

PS. that D80 has been reported to the Police and a serial number has been provided…so if it goes through a 2nd hand shop, chances are it will be found. We live in hope……slim hope

Another trip to the Zoo and this Zoo Friends pass is really starting to get a workout. This time with so much gear out…including my 70-200mm f/2.8 VR and my D300 I decided to try very different kit just to see how it would go. So on this grey, wet day out came the Nikon D60, Sigma 180mm Macro and the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8. Shooting alongside me was a friend Marcus (Photomarcs) with his Canon EOS 1000D, Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 and Sigma 18-200mm OS.

Enough gear talk…here are a few images.