Category: photography

Chamisa

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Green

The Girl and I went on evening walkies Thursday just about the peak of the magic hour. The wind was a bit stiff and it was a bit cool (about 50F), so the sun felt really (really) good. I carried the Nikon D300 with the Nikkor 135/3.5 mounted. I framed and captured a number of images, but I’m still learning the camera and most of my high-contrast captures had blown-out highlights. That means I haven’t grokked the metering system of the camera yet.

This little ravine in the Indian Hills is a favorite. There is a geocache down in that mess, if you can believe it. The Girl and I retrieved that cache in the summer. (That was a mistake — hot and skeeters!) When fall comes, though, the rabbitbrush (chamisa) blooms and there is a bit of it in this little ravine.

Thursday evening found the sun brilliantly backlighting the chamisa and hint of tree color. While the Girl sniffed around, “hunting wabbits” I framed and made three captures. I like the composition of this one best.

This inexpensive little Nikkor 135/3.5 is a great lens. I’m quite impressed with it. I think I’ll have to do a shoot-out of the Nikkor 135/3.5 against the Hexanon 135/3.5 and 135/3.2 lenses. Those are probably my best lenses in the 135mm focal length.

Abstract

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Abstract

I’ve been walking about with the Nikon D300 and some lens affixed to it. I bought a Nikkor 135mm f3.5 from KEH early this week and it arrived a couple of days ago. Ken Rockwell recommends it as an underrated lens. For what I paid for it, it was an experiment.

I’ve been carrying it on the D300 for the last couple of days. My shoulder bag usually has a couple more Nikkors in it, but I enjoyed shooting this lens so much that I did not change out.

It is razor sharp, even wide open. It’s small and light and at f3.5 is only a half-stop slower than the much more expensive f2.8 versions. The bokeh is good as well.

A lot of folks don’t care for Ken Rockwell. But he was certainly right about this lens.

The Girl

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The Girl

Yesterday evening the Girl wanted to walk. So did I. So I grabbed her things and my things and we headed out. We walked around the subdivision for about a half hour and found ourselves at the public land near the cul-de-sac south from the house.

She really wanted to range out. But it was getting late and so I wouldn’t let her. I got the look a few times. I also managed a couple of captures with a Nikkor 135mm f3.5 short telephoto lens. I bought this lens on recommendation as an inexpensive but very sharp performer. It is certainly sharp, shot wide open.

Seimar-Donnex 200/3.5 Telephoto

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Chew ToyMy friend Jimmy loaned me a Seimar-Donnex 200mm f3.5 telephoto lens in Konica AR mount last Saturday. It’s a beautiful build and in wonderful condition.

I decided to put it on my Sony NEX-5N and give it a whirl. Late Monday morning, the Girl started asking for some attention. One of her toys was sitting in the floor outside my workroom. So I grabbed the NEX and shot the frame. I immediately noticed some magenta fringing in the high-contrast area of the image. That’s not unusual for telephoto lenses, particularly if the optical formula doesn’t specifically correct that aberration.

FlagA bit later we went for a short walk to check the mail. The neighbor’s flag is a favorite subject. I like to shoot it through the front-yard vegetation to get a bit of framing.

The light was pretty flat so there wasn’t a lot of contrast. The lens is plenty sharp, even wide open. I was impressed.

FlagMy final image for the day was a small flag one of my other neighbors has in his front yard. There was a little more contrast for this shot. I noticed just a hint of magenta fringing in the edges of the flag. It’s not a lot and could easily be corrected in post-processing. However, the lens has really nice bokeh when wide open. The background is smooth with just enough texture to provide some interest.

For me, this lens is not a keeper. It’s an interesting lens alright, but I have several in this focal length that provide equally interesting image quality. So I think I’ll let this one go. The build quality is excellent and the bokeh is quite nice. If I didn’t have some better lenses, this one would be worth the investment.

Besides that, I love odd lenses. It’s from a maker I’d never heard of.

Bee

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Bee

During afternoon walkies a few days ago, the Girl and I heard a bit of buzzing. She was distracted looking for lizards but I saw the bees working the rabbitbrush. I made the capture with the Nikon D300 and the Nikkor 55-200 AFS VR. It’s not really a macro lens, but will focus to about 1 meter.

Studious

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Studious

Saturday afternoon at Comma Coffee I spent some time capturing the clientele. I enjoy street photography and capturing informal portraits of people. This man captured my attention because of his focus on whatever it was he was doing.

Jimmy

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Jimmy and AlishaThis is one of my favorite images of one of my favorite people. Jimmy is my friend. He’s intelligent, kind, insightful, gregarious, honest, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things photographic.

His path through life is vastly different than mine. I chose the professional career path. He elected to take a less-constrained lifestyle. Like many artists I know, I respect that choice and often wonder what my life might have been had I elected to take a different road.

Jimmy’s a lot of fun to be around. Saturday afternoons we generally meet for coffee/tea either in Reno or in Carson City. During the summer months, there is a lot of activity in Reno along the Truckee River. There are many opportunities for street photography. I like working the crowd, finding interesting people to capture with the camera.

Comma Coffee in Carson City provides a different kind of interest. The wait staff there have a unique character that reflects the uniqueness of the venue. The patrons vary widely as well and often provide interesting character studies.

So, when I’m not solving the world’s problems with my friend Jimmy, I’m looking through the viewfinder for opportunities to make an interesting capture. As a photographer, I am an opportunist.

I always learn something when we talk. I often am forced to think and examine my thoughts and opinions. This is a good thing.

Just Working

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Interested AlexisThe last few days have been interesting. I have a little work to do (good thing) and some attention from the lead technician. So I’m able to move my project forward. I did the cross section layout for a set of HEC-RAS models this morning and passed it on for processing. I should have my cross sections late today or first thing tomorrow and can get started building the models.

The models are complicated because there will be loss from the system through lateral structures. It’s critical to model the lateral structures properly to account for the flow loss so I can size the proposed structure and evaluate the potential impact on the floodplain.

In the midst of this I find myself deeply missing Wife. It’s been something like 35 weeks since she died. The deep pain of the first month or two is abated, but I want to have that time we shared over breakfast — talking about things and watching the birds outside or looking at the Carson Range. I miss the telephone calls at noon asking about lunch and the goofy voicemails she left.

I am reading through my journal from 2012 as the days pass, trying to recall how everything developed and processing my thoughts. Reviewing that time is important because there is insight there. I don’t know if it provides insight into my now, but I don’t want to lose that connection with my past.

Over the weekend I processed a couple more boxes. I found a box of Wife’s planners, most of them empty but some with her writing in them. The wallets went into the donate box and the papers went to the grinder. I processed another box of old records as well. I put another three or four bags of grindings into the dumpster.

There are still a few more boxes of fossils to process. Then I have another 11 book boxes to go through. The papers and reports I’ll scan. The books I’ll have to decide about. I feel another book purge coming on and will be doing that this fall.

Once I get through all that, I’ll feel free to pursue other things. Saturday afternoon I spent some time with Jimmy at Comma Coffee. There are often interesting people to photograph there. Alisha was particularly engaged when she was talking to Jimmy and provided a number of wonderful expressions. Jimmy said “Shakespeare in five expressions” and I think he’s right.

Edit: The frame was captured with the Chinon 135mm f2.8 wide open at ISO 3200. The high ISO explains the grainy texture of the image and the color balance was awful. This capture begged to be black and white anyway.

Equinox Day

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HummingbirdThis evening at 2044 (local time) will be the fall equinox. The days will be shorter than the nights until spring.

The fall equinox marks entry to the cool part of the year. This morning is no exception. It’s cool here this morning, Mother Nature celebrating entry to fall with cooler weather for us. I’m ready.

A couple mornings ago, a hummingbird visited my house. The Rose of Sharon always attracts them and I expect the little birds are migrating to their winter grounds. Wife loved these little birds and always got excited when one (or sometimes two) would visit.

She put out the feeder several times. However, the only creatures that visited the feeders where the wasps. So, I won’t bother. I’ll allow my backyard shrubs to provide for the little birds and keep the bees busy as well.

When I noticed the bird working the bush, I put the Nikkor 300/4.5 on my D300 (new to me) and shot maybe 30 frames. Focusing the 300mm lens is a challenge with the D300 because the lens is not particularly fast and the viewfinder is not very bright (as a result). But, the manual focus lens is far less expensive than the autofocus versions and good optically. So, it makes sense for me.