Scout Images

I had an interesting day photographically. This morning I headed over to a friends place to have my widened by the many different coffee’s available. Being an occasional coffee drinker, I knew there were different types of coffees but didnt realise how different they are.

Much later this evening I shot my friends car. This car has been his pride and joy for the last 18months slowly being converted from a stock standard Peugeot 206 to a mean little show car with a bark and a bite that he has dubbed the “GTX”. However he is moving on and will be selling the car to finance something a bit larger and more practical to his changing needs. For these photos I used a variety of lenses (AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8, AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, Tokina 10-17mm fisheye) on my Nikon D300. Lighting was provided by my trusty Wolfeyes Defender 260 and my SB-800 and SB-600 speedlights.

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.

It has been a busy few days for me, with Christmas coming up I have been working more in my retail day job but this has not meant that I have not been able to find time to pursue my photographic interests.

Firstly, I wanted to share some photos that were taken over the last few days, whilst heading into the city and USYD at night and then Mittagong the following day.

After this I swapped a lot of my Nikon gear for some Canon gear (refer here for the status of my kit including loan gear) to brush up on my Canon usage in preparation for some workshops requested by some Canon users. So I was out and about with a 400D and some lenses today.

I have been using my new (new to me) AI Nikkor 135mm f/2.8 and have been nothing short of impressed by what it can do. This experience has got me thinking and wanting more older style lenses….primes and manual focus primes. With the quality that is obtainable with zoom lenses it seems rather silly to be thinking about old manual focus primes, but after using the 135mm it has dawned on me that these lenses are of another breed.

The manual focus prime is a lot smaller, more compact and lighter than their modern brethen. Using primes forces you to be more careful with your compostion, drives your creativity and the need to manual focus adds to the care that is taken for each shot.

My usage of the 135mm brings me back to the days when I was first learning to shoot SLR (on an old FM2) and the pleasure of the precision that the MF demands means every shot that works brings a great sense of satisfaction. My only true MF lens at the moment is the AI 135mm f/2.8 but the build quality and precision is simply mind blowing.

Coincidently, the lens that this 135mm is looking like displacing is actually another prime…the AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D. I can now proudly say that I own three prime lenses (AI 135mm f/2.8, AF-D 50mm f/1.8, EX 180mm f/3.5 HSM) and two of these are my two favourite lenses that I own.

Whilst I am not going to ditch my auto focus zooms, I think there will always be room in my kit for a good MF prime or two. I will definitely look into getting some more MF primes in the future when my budget allows for this.

In the mean time…..anyone want:

• Tamron 28-105mm f/2.8 (big, nice range, does hunt a little – I really dont need this lens as I have the AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8)
• Sigma 180mm f/3.5 Macro (I am tempted to downsize this to a Tamron 90mm, AF-S Micro-Nikkor 105VR or head for the Tamron 180mm f/3.5)

Only serious offers will be considered.

It has been a bit of quite period for me, with work and other commitments severely limiting the amount of time that I have to take photos. But there were some flowers at home this week so I took out the big Sigma EX 180mm f/3.5 and snapped  a few shots. Just whilst I was at it I decided to play with a watch that was given to me as a present.

These were taken using my D300 and my Manfrotto 055PRO B + 355RC2.