Back to normal

The week long "Indian Summer" has ended, the weather is back to normal for early October and I've returned home. It was however a remarkable few days with record-breaking temperatures for the time of year and I was able to photograph an area I hadn't visited before in wonderful light.

Leica M9 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron lens

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

As usual I walked miles and the picture count was around 2200. Virtually all are edited, captioned and keyworded and many are already for sale on library websites. 

The majority were taken on my Nikons. D7000 and D5100. One of the reasons for using these cameras was the very fast turnaround I can get with the images. There is very little to do in terms of editing, there are no dust spots to remove and they come out of the camera with "punchy" colour. 

By the end of the 10 days I was struggling with an aching back, but I was walking a lot every

day, so it was really to be expected.

Nikon D5100 55-200mm lens

Nikon D7000 55-300mm lens

With luck the next time I do this, I should be using a Sony NEX-7, and I'm really hoping that it will work as well as the Nikons while giving me less to carry.

I used the Leica M9 quite a lot too, though much less than the Nikons, keeping it for situations where I had more time to compose and shoot.

Leica M9 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Leica M9 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron lens

I was back to changing lenses, so there is quite an accumulation of dust spots. Its back to Calumet for a clean!

Nikon D7000 16-85mm lens

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

Nikon D7000 16-85mm lens

Nikon D7000 16-85mm lens

I'm now off to collect my Olympus 45mm f/1.8, which is apparently waiting for me at my local post office. So expect some camera porn and test shots in the garden fairly soon!

Nikon 55-300mm zoom lens

All images Nikon D7000 55-300mm lens

Its big and heavy,  and its not the greatest optically, but the Nikon 55-300mm is a hand holdable 82-450mm equivalent (35mm / full-frame) thats worth its weight in gold to me in certain situations.

Record breaking day

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

Yesterday it was 30 selsius + in parts of the UK. Hotter than Barcelona, Athens and Los Angeles! This on October 1st. well into autumn.

Leica M9 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron

It was a glorious day, with an almost still sea.

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

 

Leica M9 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Leica M9 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron

Nikon D5100 55-300mm lens

2011 has been a strange year, with a cold winter, warm sunny spring and autumn and a pretty mediocre summer. Not great for holidaymakers but its been a really good year for photography and I don't remember taking so many pictures in a single year before. And its not over yet. We are promised a spectacular autumn because of this hot spell, though there is another forecast that says we will get snow in a couple of weeks!!

The weather is a constant topic of conversation in the UK and we are somewhat obsessed with it. It does provide varied, yet unpredictable conditions for photography however, and fortunately I'm in a position to take advantage of that.

The "Photo-Essay" and Stock Photography

Stock photography provides a good opportunity to put together a series of pictures to document a location. This gives potential buyers more choice and provides images that show what its like to visit a place. Too often I see pictures that are all shot from the same angle and give no sense of either the context or the detail.

This is Hurst Castle in Hampshire. An old fort located on the end of a sandspit. There are two forms of access, one is by walking along the top of the spit and the other by ferry from the local harbour. The following is a series of images I put together over a couple of days.

Nikon D7000 55-300mm

Nikon D7000 55-300mm

Nikon D7000 10-24mm

Leica M8 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Nikon D7000 16-85mm

Summer with Nikon D7000

 
Nikon D7000 10-24mm

For no obvious reason, we are about to have a heat wave at the end of September. Though not as hot as we are promised in the next few days, yesterday was a glorious sunny day.


Nikon D7000 55-300mm

I spent the day with my Nikon D7000 and 10-24mm and 55-300mm lenses.


Nikon D7000 10-24mm


Nikon D7000 10-24mm


Nikon D7000 55-300mm


Nikon D7000 10-24mm

Nikon D7000 - Wide and Long

Nikon D7000 55-300mm zoom lens

Nikon D7000 10-24mm zoom lens

Its been a while since I've walked a fair distance with something as heavy as the D7000 and 10-24mm and 55-300mm zooms, as I did yesterday. It was interesting to realise that I used to walk around with something like this, and even heavier outfits as a matter of course. Maybe its because I've been using CSC's and my Leica for so long, that it felt so heavy!

However as I've been indicating recently, I've been using the D7000 more and more lately, as I'm enjoying using it so much, if not carrying it!

Nikon D7000 55-300mm zoom lens

Nikon D7000 10-24mm zoom lens

I love the instant shutter, the speed of operation, the lack of "fiddling" and trying to get my fingers to work controls that are seemingly designed for someone at least half my size! When I got back to the car, I realised I'd spent the whole aftenoon without looking at the menus or changing any settings. All I did was just change the lenses, and take pictures.

Most times when I use the camera, I take the 16-85mm zoom, and with just that its actually quite manageable. I did want to have a session with these two lenses however, as I haven't used them a lot.

Nikon D7000 10-24mm zoom lens

I did use the 10-24mm on a Sony NEX-C3 the other day, but on the D7000 it works a dream. Ultra wide angles can be very entertaining to use and can result in lots of images that look great through the viewfinder, but not so good when I look at them later. I did however try to remain restrained in my use of it, and also tried to remember that there were other focal lengths apart from 10mm!

Nikon D7000 10-24mm zoom lens - Multi Image Panoramic stitch.

I did however use the 55-300mm zoom the most. Its not the greatest lens that Nikon make, and its a bit "ordinary" fully extended, but it does have one hell of a reach. There's no way I'm going to be carrying anything heavier about, and I took a lot of pictures I was very happy with, so I find it a very useful lens. If only it was lighter!

Nikon D7000 55-300mm zoom lens

Nikon D7000 55-300mm zoom lens

The D7000 is my favourite camera to use at the moment and I love the combination of wonderful handling, speed of operation and the ridiculously smooth efficiency of the whole process. I also love the eye-popping colour of the files, and the way I can edit them really quickly. I like the fact that after several months of use, and lots of lens changing in some fairly wild weather that there isn't a single dust spot on the sensor. I like the fact that the battery lasts so long that I have to remind myself that I have to charge it up from time to time. Most of all I like the fact that I don't think about the camera when I'm using it, I think about the pictures I'm taking and going to take and maybe I don't like fiddling about with MF lenses as much as I think I do.

Its not that I've suddenly become "DSLR man" again, its that I've become "D7000 man". Apart from a few weeks recently I've always had a DSLR anyway, but certainly in recent years I've never really wanted to use them. With the D7000 currently, I don't want to use anything else, which shows just how good I think it is.

I like it so much, I'm even prepared to tolerate an aching back, though I will be returning to the 16-85mm lens only, for my next trip out with it.

I described it as probably the best camera I've ever owned in a recent post. However I didn't expect it to become the camera I most enjoy using as well. I've not always been Nikons greatest fan, but with the D7000 they have restored my faith in their ability to provide photographers with great photographic tools. Now if they could just do something about the weight!!