What's In My Bag: School Concert

Time for my daughters school concert?  Time for photography.  I've got enough flash to reach her, but that is disruptive so I am going without.  The Nikon D80 has ISO 3200 (Hi 1) so I am going to use that to get the shots.  Lens wise I would normally use my Nikon 70-210mm f/4-5.6 AF-n, but that lens wasn't available, so i am going old school with my Nikon 300mm f/4.5 Ai-S.  The 300mm Ai-S has no electronics or anything so the D80 doesn't like it.  No metering at all and no P, S, or A modes, strictly manual.  You'll need to use the histogram here to get your exposure set.

• Camera: Nikon D80
• Lens: Nikkor 300mm f/4.5 Ai-S

Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: Nikkor 300mm f/4.5 Ai-S
Focal Length: 300mm
Shutter: 1/80
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO: 3200 (Hi 1)
Flash: None

Yep, as I write this I was trying to figure out what I forgot, nothing, that is all I brought.  Overall it worked well.  Being all manual made it a little more challenging, mostly in exposure, but as you can see I got the shots any parent would be proud to get.  

Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: Nikkor 300mm f/4.5 Ai-S
Focal Length: 300mm
Shutter: 1/100
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO: 3200 (Hi 1)
Flash: None

Thanks for reading.

What's In My Bag: Night Landscapes

Tonight I am going to South Mountain overlooking Phoenix to do some night photography.  For this I will definately need my tripod and a remote shutter release since most of my exposures will most likely be 30 seconds or longer.  For this I should only need one lens, my 18-55mm G VR, but for the heck of it I am also bringing along my 60 year old Kilfitt 400mm f/5.6 "FrankenLens".  Here is the rundown.

• Camera: Nikon D80
• Lens 1: 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR
• Lens 2: Kilfitt 400mm f/5.6 "FrankenLens"
• Shutter Release: Nikon MC-DC1
• Tripod: Flashpoint L100
• Tripod Head: Giottos 1304 Ball Head

My intention was to get some cityscapes during sunset and early evening.  I spent most of my time shooting the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR and it worked brilliantly.  Shooting between 30 seconds and 5 minutes I got some gorgeous shots.


Camera: Nikon D80

Lens: 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

Focal Length: 18mm

Shutter: 26.7 sec

Aperture: f/8

ISO: 100

Flash: None

Just to see what it could do I pulled out the Kilfitt 400mm f/5.6 "FrankenLens".  This is a lens that was given to me with the original mount boogered up to fit some unknown camera.  So I went ahead and bought some (ahem) high quality super cheap extension tubes and pressed a tube onto the mount.  These all screwed together so I was able to mix and match until I got the lens mounted at the correct distance from the focal plane.  It is definately a kludge job, but it works, and works quite well.  Here is a shot from the old Kilfitt...


Camera: Nikon D80

Lens:  Kilfitt 400mm f/5.6 "FrankenLens"

Focal Length: 400mm

Shutter: 3 sec

Aperture: f/8

ISO: 100

Flash: None

Overall not bad.  This was a good shoot, had the right equipment, and came home with some stuff I was proud of, and that is all you ever want.

Thanks for reading.

What's In My Bag: Product Photography - Church

I got commissioned to shoot for a Teaching Mass at a Catholic Church. This required me to come prepared to shoot the items as they are. I was not going to be moving the items to a prepared location to shoot them. This provides for nice creativity opportunities to make each shot look it's best, but it also means I need to be portable. I decided on the following gear to go with me.

• Camera: Nikon D80
• Lens: 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR
• Flash: SB-600 (w/ Gary Fong Lightsphere)
• Reflector: Photo Basics 5-way Reflector

The whole key here was to make sure I was able to get the shots done right, and get them done quick.  I really only had an hour to work, and a lot of pieces to shoot.  The reflector was good insurance  but I ended up not needing it.  The big thing was monitoring the exposure.  My D80 would get fooled by an open book and I'd have to up the exposure come to +1 to get it exposed correctly.  For instance, check these two shots of the same subject, one closed, one open.

Camera: Nikon D80      

Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G

Focal Length: 55mm

Shutter: 1/40

Aperture: f/5.6

ISO: 800

Exposure Comp: -1 2/3

Flash: SB-600 (w/ Gary Fong Lightsphere)

Camera: Nikon D80      

Lens: VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G

Focal Length: 55mm

Shutter: 1/60

Aperture: f/8

ISO: 500

Exposure Comp: +1/3

Flash: SB-600 (w/ Gary Fong Lightsphere)

Did you see it?  2 stops exposure compensation difference between the shots.  After you learn composition, exposure compensation is the next big thing to learn, and situations like this show just how much your light meter can be fooled.  

In the end, that is what was in my bag, and in this case it worked beautifully.

What's In My Bag: Basketball!!!

As a photographer I take every opportunity to shoot to hone my skills.  Tonight I have such an opportunity, my niece has a basketball game.  So what parameters to we have here, sports in a Jr. High gymnasium.  Although I could get closer than a professional sports event, I am probably still going to be at a distance and the lighting will be dim.  So I will pass up my 18-55mm because I won't need anything as short as 18mm and  55mm might even be a little short.  I have a 300mm Ai-S that I have shot the Phoenix Suns with and it worked very well, but I was at quite a distance for that and would rather not shoot at that distance today.  So I am going to bring my 70-210mm f/4-5.6 AF-n and nothing else lens wise.  Lastly, since the lighting is going to stink, I will add my SB-600.  I have mostly shot outdoor sports, so shooting this game will be a little different.  I usually don't use a flash outdoors but definitely want to give it a go here.

• Camera: Nikon D80
• Lens: 70-210mm f/4-5.6 AF-n
• Flash: SB-600

RESULTS:  Well, like I said, this is not my forte and I didn't do as well as I would have liked.  Probably the biggest issue was that I should have had the flash in rear curtain mode so that the exposure would stay the same as for non-flash, and I would just get a little fill from the flash.