Scout Images

I was recently up in the Blue Mountains, with a few intentions. To get away from reality, to get out there and take in some of the beautiful landscapes that are so close to us here in Sydney, and to try to re-shoot some of my lost photos (refer here).

So what does one bring on a trip like this? I didnt actually think too hard but settled for a quality over convenience kit, which in many ways I probably regret (the weight made me not so happy whilst we were hiking).

• Nikon D300
• AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8
• AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR
• AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8
• Tokina AT-X 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fisheye
• Nikon SB-400
• Phottix Geo One
• Phottix Duo Cable
• Cokin P-Series ND4
• Cokin P-Series ND8
• Lowepro Fastpack 350

Some Panorama action (Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 + Cokin ND4 + Cokin ND8)

Some HDR action (Tokina 10-17mm, 7 frames)

Just thought I would share some of the pictures taken over this last week. The D300 has been out and about a few times lately.

First up was Wednesday night’s photos of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we headed out there with the intent of recording the illuminated symbol from NYE but to our dismay the signage had been switched off early. Regardless we took a few snaps to continue what is becoming a New Year’s tradition.  These were all taken using the Nikon D300 and a variety of lenses, but most importantly they were all placed on top of my trusty Manfrotto 055 Pro B tripod, GPS data captured using a Phottix Geo One.

The D300 came out again on Friday night, when I headed over the Strathfield with some friends for dinner. This time it was no tripod, high  ISO and the Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 + Nikkor AI 135mm f/2.8 coming out to play.

Finally, Sunday was spent out and about along the coast south of Sydney. Thirroul, Sea Cliff Bridge and the nearby beaches. Once again the combination of the D300 and the 24-70mm was given the work out. Interestingly, I used a mates Nissin Di 622 flash for some shots, this flash works really well and would be a worthy SB-600 alternative especially with the very low import prices for them available at the moment. Included in this set is a 9 shot HDR bracket which has been processed with Photomattix, not my best efforts with this piece of software but an interesting result all the same.

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 I paid Taronga Zoo another visit, the second visit on my Zoo Friends pass, this time I actually picked up my proper membership card so I didnt have to use my invoice again. However, since my D300 is out of action (and in the hands of Nikon Australia) once again (still the LCD issue) the Fuji S5 Pro came out to play once more.

Like the last time, I found that the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR proved to be worth its weight in gold. Despite the heft, and the heft of the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 which was also in my trusty Lowepro Fastpack 350, I managed to see a lot of the zoo and snap off a few pictures. I was also carrying my new Tokina 10-17mm Fisheye, which proved to be versatile, providing a uniquely different macro.

Without further fluff I will share a few images, please accept my apologies as the files themselves have remained quite large (something about the S5 Pro I guess).

Click through for more images.

As many of my friends know, I go up to the Blue Mountains on a pretty regular basis; heading up there once every few months for a bit of a roam and some picture taking. Today was yet another one of these trips, with the excuse of taking a friend who had never been up there before, so I did a bit less shooting and hiking (which I always feel like doing more of) and a bit more of the tourist jaunt (which always seems to be the case). However, equipped with my Nikon D300, Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 and Phottix Geo One I managed to get some shots, including a few from the long trip via CityRail up to the mountains.

As always, these are images that are straight out of camera and resized.

I have just spent the day out and about at Cockatoo Island with members of the University of Sydney Photographic Society (PhotoSoc). The sun was out, the weather warm, and the location had so much to cover. However, I managed to do one thing that I dont usually spend a lot of time doing…taking people pictures.

The Phottix Geo One came along on this trip and it once again proved to be very reliable, geotagging most images, even inside the buildings on the island at the expense of battery lift. I drained a battery and a half in my Nikon D300 for roughly a days shooting…

I realise that it has been a while since I have posted photos, SORRY. This is a combination of not having a lot of time to go shooting lately and even less time to process the few photos I have taken. Hopefully this will change in the near future with the addition of a lighter D60 which will mean I will be carrying around a DSLR more often (once I find the money to buy a smaller, lighter lens to match).

In the mean time I thought I would share some of the stuff that I have managed to shoot recently.

These were taken at North Head (Manly) a few weeks back. Most of these are HDR’s and a few variants of a HDR pano, which all take an immense time to construct. I have to admit that I am not happy with the results but I thought I would share my triumph over the technique. For this set I used my D300 + MB-D10 with either the Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8, Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8, Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR or the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. I also used my trusty Manfrotto 055 Pro B with the Phottix ball head and the Phottix Geo One on this occaision.

This set of images was taken during last weekends trip up to Palm Beach with some friends. This trip was more for an unwind so photography played second fiddle but both the D300 and the Fujifilm F100fd (and its waterproof housing) saw some action.

Yesterday I was out and about with this Phottix gear, this time with my Nikon D300 and I just thought I would give you all an update on how they are performing. I will get some pictures up soon…hopefully before I scratch the units (although my ball head has already lost some paint as it was a demo unit).

Firstly, the Geo One on the D300 works well. As on the S5 Pro, the Geo one rapidly and reliably locks up the GPS satellites and inserts your position into the EXIF. The bonus of using the Geo One with the D300 is the D300′s ability to turn off its meter (and the Geo One) when the camera goes into standby, you may recall that I mentioned that the S5 Pro went through its battery very quickly as the meter and the Geo One did not turn off.

As for the Ball head….well since I last mentioned it I have moved the head to my trusty Manfrotto 055 PROB from its home on my Manfrotto 714B. It was rather annoying that I dont have more ArcaSwiss style quick release plate, but other than this, the ball head did a good job. My only gripes with this ball head was the amount of tightening that was required to prevent slippage of my camera (D300 + MB-D10 + Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 or Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR), this means the ball head will get moved back to my 714B to to save it from being regulated to being purely a light stand.  Otherwise the ball head was both easy to use and dealt with the load adequately. It will work nicely when smaller lenses are and lighter loads are in use.

Yesterday’s project was mainly panoramic and my experiences indicate that a ballhead is definitely better than a pistol grip head for this work, although a levelling base or a self centreing column is really needed to get the best out of any tripod.

Looks like I will be getting some more ArcaSwiss style quick release plates and the Phottix ball head and Geo One will remain in my arsenal. I will have to consider a levelling base and a larger ball head in the future…maybe a Markins M20.

Just been using the Phottix Geo One for a little while now and thought I would just let you all know how it is going.

I picked up this unit a little while ago and have been using it with my Fuji S5 Pro as my D300 has been away for repairs. Since then I have taken the unit around with me for most of my roaming and even on a day trip into the Blue Mountains.

My initial thoughts are that it works nicely. The time to initaially establish a connection varies but is mostly under a minute, however there have been occaisons when it has refused to connect (when indoors or when there is excessive cloud cover). Unfortunately the S5 Pro does not turn off its meters when the Geo One is connected so I cannot comment on warm start up times, this will have to be done when the D300 returns. There are no problems with integration, the Geo One does what it says it does, it writes straight to the EXIF in the S5 Pro and from what I have heard the D300 as well.

The bad news…it drains batteries! On the Fuji S5 Pro the meters dont turn off when the Geo One is connected, so both the camera meter and the Geo One remains on the whole time the camera is on, and if your like me and are used to keeping the camera on all day your batteries drain mighty quick. This is a problem for me as the S5 Pro has an annoying propriortry battery (thanks Nikon for not sharing the battery) and I only have two of these NP-150s. I do not own a MB-D200 so I cannot use AAs either. I had to stop using the Geo One during the Blue Moutains trip as I was worried of running out of battery. There should be no issue with the D300 as I have more batteries, the MB-D10 and the D300 will turn off the its light meter (and the Geo One) if left at idle.

So far I am very impressed with this unit and would have no problems continuing to use it.

I took a trip up to the Katoomba in the Blue Mountains today with good friends, it was cold, wet and FOGGY. This meant that the cliche shots of the sisters were out of the question so we hunkered down and pushed through the mud and found a few things to take shots of.

This was the first time I was really testing the Phottix Geo One and the Phottix Ball Head that I picked up recently…and both have performed really well hopefully there will be more on this soon.

As my D300 is still not back from service I took the Fuji S5 Pro and had a play with a few different adjustments on the camera so the pics from today have a different look from my usual work.