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.

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.