Monday, March 22, 2010

Spring is here!

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I got up before the sun rose, grabbed my gear then headed over to Marine Park's Salt Marsh yet again. I had only my D3x with 200mm f2.0, hoping to score some more birds. Being a city boy, I was blown away and surprised at how rich of a wildlife we have here in Brooklyn. There are plenty of spots you can go if you care to look it up.

I spent an hour walking around and caught plenty of ducks and swans as the sun was rising over the horizon. Today was also the first time I utilized Blackrapids' R-Strap. Mounted to the 200mm f2's lens foot. I feel this is much more comfortable than using the provided straps, attached to the lens lugs. The reliability is somewhat suspect, which has more to do with the lens foot itself. It has four small screws keeping the foot in place, I'm a bit worried by this. The R-strap itself was tough. I believe If I shot an event with this setup, the strap would be a safe and comfortable solution.

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Sunday, March 14, 2010

D3x with 200mm f2 VR

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I really didn't think I'd get an opportunity to test this lens out this weekend. We got hit with 70mph monsoon weather yesterday and some intermittent rain today. The rain did stop at one point, and the sun did poke its bright butt out for an hour or so. That was the only window I had.

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I've only spent an hour with the lens. It is heavy, hard to carry via the strap attached to the lens lug. Thought about attaching a security strap or R-strap to the tripod foot, but the weight would then be too biased towards the camera. Trying to find out a viable, comfortable solution as far as straps are concerned.

The results from my shoot were impressive. Shot wide open on the D3x yielded bitingly sharp results. Stopped down obviously sharpens things up even more. Though the main reason I got this lens, was to shoot it wide open, like my zeiss glass, I wanted beautiful blur with sharp subject isolation.

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100% crop here

Friday, March 12, 2010

C'mon spring!

This week in NYC, we've had pretty decent weather. A first in several months. I was looking forward to the weekend ever since I've been inspired to shoot some wildlife. Since my last post about photography and wildlife, I've had pretty positive feedback as well as tips on where to go for natural wildlife, right here in Brooklyn! Unfortunately, the weather will dip a bit due to rain, the entire weekend =(

Anyway, I've been told these spots contain plenty of wildlife for me to photograph:
-Jamaica Bay
-Floyd Bennett Field
-Governors Island
-Central Park
-Brooklyn or Bronx Botanical Garden

And to think the only wildlife in brooklyn existed on the streets of Flatbush ave.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Photography at the zoo is not considered wildlife photography.

I'm not much of a wildlife photographer. The longest lens I own is 200mm f2.0 and with that still, I would need to be within a few feet of any wild animals. I could get that new 2x teleconverter from nikon, extending my lens to 400mm, maybe then I will have enough reach.

I enjoy taking my kids to the zoo, I also enjoy photographing the animals there. I don't however, consider that to be wildlife photography. It's not even close, people who try to pass their zoo pics off as wildlife are only cheating themselves out of a very real life experience. Viewing images on flickr, from other photogs, it's easy to differentiate shots taken at the zoo from those taken by real photographers who risk their neck in the wild to shoot bears in a salmon stream.

Wildlife photography is one field where I wish I could experience more of. It's extremely expensive as well as time consuming. It's plenty expensive however, I feel I'm almost there with my current gear. A D3X with 200mm plus 2.0x teleconverter could do the job. Even that setup is no easy task to acquire for most people. My problem has been time and locale. I live in brooklyn and commute to manhattan to work. Little to no wildlife close by except for the zoo and aquarium. Again, those do not count. Shooting pics of your Husky doesn't count either.

I would have to travel out to the country and far away from the city, which to me, is a problem as anyone with a family will tell you. Unless I take them all with me, but then I likely won't have a chance to shoot if I'm watching kids at the same time. Maybe when they are old enough to shoot on their own, that could be fun, but not when they are an infant and two years old. There will be plenty of Zoo trips for a while for us.

Some will argue that new york city is full of wild life, just not the sort I'm interested in. Being a lifer here in NY, things are starting to look a little bland as well as boring for me.

Monday, March 8, 2010

iPad raised the value of my Hackintosh netbook

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Thanks Apple. For making a sucky device called the iPad. Before the iPad keynote, I was somewhat excited and threatened at the same time, that the iPad would become a great device — A tablet-based Mac OS X. A device that would've made my Dell Mini 9 hackintosh obsolete, relegating it to toddler toy duties for my daughters. Not the case as it turned out, my Dell mini just got more valuable.

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I took my mini9 to work because during my lunch break, I needed to do my taxes, update my iWeb page and update this blog =). I accomplished all of the above, as well as spend the rest of my break catching up with family guy on hulu. Perhaps the iPad would've been capable of updating this blog, as my iPhone is capable of doing it, albeit slow and imperfect but, nonetheless capable.

Look Steve! Flash on a small mac!
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I really wanted to like the iPad. Who knows? maybe it'll grow on me... but not for $900 for hardware similar to what I have in my hackintosh, valued at $500 (1.6ghz, 2gb, 64gb runcore ssd, 32gb SD card slot, and 3 USB ports to boot). I may lack a touch screen, but I have a real Mac OS that lets me multitask, run just about any productive app as well as Flash content! That's right, greedy Apples worst nightmare is Flash. What would be the point of paying a dollar per episode when you can watch them on Hulu for free?

You see, I can forgive the iPad for not being able to multitask if it allowed Flash on the device. Since it doesn't and likely never will, I'm going to keep lugging my little Dell Mini 9 around... oh yeah I can also run World of Warcraft on this sucker.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

New arrivals!

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I took delivery of not one, but two lenses yesterday. A few days ago I posted about my trade for the 200mm f/2G and also how I needed to fill in that gap between my 35 and 100mm lenses. A void needed filling due to the departure of my Nikon 24-70mm. I also received the 50mm f/1.4G from a nikonian who made an offer I simply could not pass up.
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I'm going to post more images soon, testing them both on the D700 and D3x. Initial impressions of the 200mm f/2G is that it balances well on both my nikons. It's pretty friggin' heavy. I have a gym membership, workout fairly regularly and yet, I got a little tired after shooting around for a short moment. I have a toddler and an infant so, that sort of parental training helps me in carrying the beast around.

My coworkers "ooh'd" and "ahh'd" at my new addition. Some accused me of compensating, haha. Despite all of the attention, a few quick shots around the office left all of us fairly impressed. When you are able to count eyelashes of people from a shot taken at f2.0, high iso, you can't help but feel impressed. I am impressed and very happy with my 200mm f/2G. Thanks to a fellow nikonian, who is also happy with my offerings, my old/new Nikon 24-70mm and 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II found a good home.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Why Nikonians is worth it.

Oddly, I joined nikonians.org shortly after it become a paid only site. Mainly, I signed up for a silver membership ($25/year) to surf its' marketplace. To buy and sell with an air of confidence that I won't get ripped off.

The fact that nikonians, being a paid site, weeds out all of the scumbag scammers out there. The same scumbags who bait and prey on the largely innocent, honest and hard working visitor on craigslist. Even if scammers decide to sign up and pay their way into nikonians, they probably won't get much bite with 0 posts. Members sort of need to earn their trust amongst others in the community before they can buy, sell or trade.

I have purchased as well as sold over a dozen lenses via nikonians. The deals are incredible with every transaction being very smooth. Prices very often beat anything else out there on the used market, even craigslist.

On top of having a great used marketplace, the community itself is full of knowledgeable members, weeding out the trolls you usually find on flickr, nikoncafe and dpreview. Those sites are good too but, I find myself asking more questions on nikonians and often get a solid answer in return.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

In the field, one light.

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Meant to post this sooner. This is one of my favorite shots of my older daughter, Madelyn. This was shot with a one light setup, with the sun setting behind her. Taken at Floyd Bennett Field, in Brooklyn. The mosquitos were swarming us bigtime, luckily for Maddie, the little buggers prefer my blood.
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Monday, March 1, 2010

Happy 2nd birthday, Maddie!

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Today is my older daughters' 2nd birthday. We threw a party for her at the Little Gym in College Point, NY, over the weekend. Lots of kids showed up and had a blast. Thanks to all who showed up with their cameras, gifts and kids =)
Happy number two!
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Visit link for more images: Mobileme Gallery

Farewell 24-70 and 70-200 VR II

Hello 200mm f/2G! Me and another nikonian agreed to trade lenses over the internet. A first for both of us where no money is exchanged, just gear. This effectively leaves me with a huge hole in terms of range. My lens collection is down to only three lenses, the two zeiss primes (35 and 100mm) and now, the 200 f2.0. I'm thinking I need at least a 50mm prime to fill in that gap, and preferably it should be of autofocus variety since, I'm going to need something in that range for events.

I probably won't miss my Nikon 24-70mm or 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, especially after getting into zeiss primes. I have a bigger appreciation for primes now that I'm shooting at 24mp. The good primes offer more than enough resolving power for the D3X, at least the elite ones do.

I am looking forward to the chubby lens on my desk in three days time. Let the countdown begin before it spends some time on the D700 and D3x.

This marks the point in my photographic career where to me, image quality has surpassed my need for versatility and convenience.