A talented photographer

This is a self portrait of a photographer who frequents a forum I also frequent, found here.
I personally think he is incredibly talented. He has this eye for good stuff, stuff I like. And he apparently does it all with a Nikon D70s and 'just' a kitlens 18-70mm DX Nikkor. Goes to show how you do not need heavy and expensive equipment to make truly great shots.

I really suggest you check out his photo portfolio; called Edwin Bol Photography.

It is a shame he doesn't allow for his pictures to be downloaded. Understandable, but I personally wouldn't see any harm in letting people download pictures with the longest side 800px orso. Anyway, if he would allow it, half his portfolio would be downloaded into my Photo-Favorites folder on my computer.

Kudos to him!

I'm adding him to my links list to the right. Check it out!

Lenses I still want

So, lately I've been shooting just about everything with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens. It's absolutely a wonderfull lens, with it's tack sharp representation of everything, and it's macro function. I love working with it.

However, I do find the 60mm focal length a bit...restraining. There simply are shots I cannot take because of the 60mm focal length. I both need less or more, I'm talking about a range of about 20-200mm. Ofcourse, such a lens sadly does not exist. Well, maybe it does, but that would be a lens with a magnification factor of 10, and those lenses never fare well.

Ofcourse, you could ask; what about your 18-70mm DX lens? Well, shooting with the 60mm Micro-Nikkor has spoiled me a bit, with it's superb sharpness and it's f/2.8 light sensitivity.

So, we divide this focal range. I was thinking 24-70mm, 70-200mm. And there we have it. Two lenses I still need. Ofcourse, I do not want anything less than Nikkor, as I am a quality junky, so we'll have to look at their range of lenses. Also, I'd like to have mostly f/2.8 or better lenses.

What I've picked are the following;



- 28-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 3
9 bladed diaphragm, so it's bokeh is sure to be good. 2 ED lenses. Internal Focusing. Shortest focusing distance is 70cm, not particularly good, but good enough.



- 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor
Vibrance Reduction, Silent Wave Motor, 5 ED glass elements, closest focusing distance is 1.5 meters, also 9 bladed diaphragm.

Now, I know the 28-70mm isn't really popular these days because of the 'lesser' focal length on a DSLR (42-105mm), but good optics are good optics. Besides, I'm not really into the really short focal lengths yet. When I am I'd probably buy the following lens, to complement my line up;



- 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED AF-S Zoom-Nikkor
Silent Wave Motor, 2 ED glass elements, 28 centimeters closest focusing distance, again a 9 bladed diaphragm.

By then, I have a rather good focal range of lenses; 17-200mm. All f/2.8, all 9 bladed diaphragm, all 77mm filters, all superior optics. Besides that, I'll have a 60mm Macro lens.

Oh, and there is one other lens I also want to have, and that's the 50mm f/1.8. I'd like to have it for those really really dark shots with little available light (hint: f/1.8). And it's really really cheap for the amount of optics it delivers :D.



- 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor
7 Bladed diaphragm, 45 centimeters closest focusing distance.

So that's it. Those are the lenses I still want to have.

I'll go and get that morgage now.

Bye,

Coen

Chrono

Chrono
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

This was really the first photograph I took with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor I wrote about in my previous post.
It is a picture of my brothers Festina watch. I like the overall colour it has, and I also noticed that the macro-lens shows just about everything.
Also, the Depth-Of-Field of my macro-lens is amazing! Depending on your f-number, it can be very small, really just a DOF of 1mm or less, to about a few centimeters to very large.

Since in the macrofunction, the lens' Autofocus function does not work properly, it ghosts alot, you have to focus manually. Now, this wouldn't pose a problem if it weren't for the incredible sharpness this lens produces. Even if you are just a tiny tiny bit off with focusing it's going to show on the photo. Very difficult. It can be your enemy, but it also can be your greatest friend.
I have discovered that, combined with a very small DOF, you can really pick a subject out of everything inside the frame. Really useful.

Oh, did I already mention the Bokeh the lens produced is superb? Well, it is. Really silky. Even moreso compared with my 18-70mm lens.

Cheers!

My new 60mm Micro-Nikkor

I have just bought a new lens for my Nikon D80, so I now have two lenses;

- 18-70mm DX Nikkor (kit-lens which came with my D80)
- 60mm Micro-Nikkor

I bought it for a hefty sum of 450 euro's, but I can tell you; it was well worth it!

It is a Micro-Nikkor, which is Nikons way of saying it is a Macro lens. It has a focal distance of 60mm, and on my Nikon D80 (DSLR) counting in the magnification factor of 1,5x that would become equal to a 90mm on a 35mm body.
So by nature, this lens is perfect for portraits. I haven't tried that yet though.

What I have tried already is it's 1:1 reproduction capabilities (macro function). And I must say, macro photography is every bit as much fun as everyone says it is!
It just opens up a whole new world of possible things to photograph.

And so, after I had just bought it, I went berserk, photographing just about everything. But soon I realised that, although photographing everything small is quite fun, you can't just walk up to something and take a picture. Macro photography needs just as much preperation as any other photograph, or maybe even more. This is evident in much of my early pictures on Flickr. Looking back at them, I should've paid more attention to composition, background and the technical part of photography.

So now I have learned that essential lesson, it is my intention to take my photography of small things a little slower next time :D. Not the hasty "Ow this is cool! *click*....ow, but look at this! *click*..and that! *click*". That method does not produce the best photographs.

One of the things I think I need to make my macro-photography more succesfull is a so-called 'light-box'. Think of it as a box of 50x50x50cm, covered in white paper or cloth on the inside, and a white paper backdrop on the inner back of the box. Then putting some light bulbs over the box and voila; you have yourself a completely white enviroment.

I think I will construct one later on.

Anyway, I am really happy with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens, and hopefully continu to use it for a long long time.

Cheers,

Coen