the gathering

This is another example of how the telephoto lenses compress the depth of field. The photo was taken with a D50 and a Sigma 28-300. After the photo was taken , and during the post processing I discovered that in a long distance there was a sunk boat. I hadn't noticed it with naked eyes but the telephoto lens made it seem close enough.


Nikon D50, Sigma 28-300,ISO 200, 220mm, f6.3 ,1/200 sec

early fishing

This photo was taken early in the morning. Again the Sigma 28-300 was used to bring closer both the sun and the boat. I also took care to use the roule of thirds for both of them

Nikon D80, Sigma 28-300, ISO 400, 1/640 sec, f 8, 80mm

Another night photo

The following photo was taken this summer with my D300. I used just a little of the camera's flash ; just to light some parts of the subject that weren't lit by the street light. If I had used more power on the flash there would be a color difference between the different light sources. The final photo is a stich of two vertical shots.


Nikon D300, Nikon 18-200 VR, ISO 1600, f 3.5 ,18 mm,1/15 sec, flash used

night photo

The following photo was taken during a trip . I didn't have the sb800 with me. I had to use iso 800 and add just a little of the camera's flash to light the parts of the photo that were far from the street lights. What I like in this photo are the colors and the discreet use of the camera's flash


Nikon D50,nikon 18-50,28mm, ISO 800, 1/15 sec, f 5, flash fired

The dusk

The following photo was on of my first taken with the D50 and the 18-55 lens. The 18-55 is very cheap but it has very good optical quality


Nikon D50, 18-55,ISO 200, f5.6, 1/100sec, 35mm

sometimes simplicity is beautiful

In the following photo I was attracted by the beautiful color of the flower. I used my NIKON D50 with the NIKON 70-300


Nikon D50, Nikon 70-300, 155mm , ISO 200 (I think), 1/200 sec, f4.8

Even cheap telezooms can give interesting results

The next photo was taken with a used telezoom that I bought for $140. It's a Sigma 28-300 lens (the old design). I used to carry it all the time because of the versatillity it offers. But since I bought the 18-200 VR I have used it only a couple of times mainly because of its poor low light ability to take sharp photos.
Besides that problem look how good depth compression is offered by a 300 mm lens. It can be clearly seen if you compare the relative size of the sun to the boat size.....

Nikon D50, Sigma 28-300, f8 , 1/40 sec, ISO 400 (I think s0)

some prosumers can give good quality

Before I started with my DSLRs , I had a Panasonic fz-20. An amazing camera with a Leica Lens. Extremely sharp in low ISO but with big noise problems above ISO 200.
One day I mounted a Nikon 6T closeup filter and tried to take a photo of my niece through the eye of my other niece. It was very difficult as they both kept moving. After many shots I got the following result


Panasonic fz20, nikon 6T, ISO 80, f4.6 , 1/500 sec, 71mm

sidelighting

they say that if you want something to become interesting don't light all of it but just part of it. Sidelighting is also incuded in the above statement.
The following photo was taken just after sunrise with my D80. The lens that was used was a Sigma 10-20mm which I think is very good for landscape work. It's sharp and wide enough to make the photos even more interesting

Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20 mm, ISO 100, f9 , 1/160 sec

frame in the frame

I like this special technique called "frame in the frame" where you use some elements of the photo as a border or a frame (in this picture these are the trees) around your actual subject. I use it very often in my landscape work.
In this photo I used my D50 and my Nikon 50 1.8 positioned on a fence.No tripod was used

Nikon D50 , Nikon 50 1.8, ISO 1600,f 2.2, 1/20 sec

old rusty door

I was walking in the harbor and noticed an old fishing boat. My attention was attracted by it's door.


Nikon D80, Nikon 18-200 VR , ISO 400 , f9, 1/200 sec

another sunset

taken again with my d50 and enlarged to 60x40 cm.


Nikon D50,Nikon 18-200 VR, ISO 200, f22 , 10 sec

another macro

another one macro made by the reversing lens technique

Nikon D50 ,Nikon 70-300,Nikon 50 1.8 (reversed), ISO ?,f 45,1/500 sec, remote flash fired

how to achieve great macro magnification

After long reading in the internet I managed to achieve quite impressive macro magnifications. There are many products out there e.g macro lenses, extensions tubes , macro filters etc...
I wanted some way to achieve macro magnifications more than 2:1 in a cheap way. I already had a nikon 70-300G and a nikon 50 1.8 . So I read somewhere(I think it was dpreview) that we can rotate the 50 1.8 and position it in front of other lenses to achieve macro results. What I thougt was to use the 50 mm with my longest focal length whitch was the 70-300. I tried it with the help of a reverse coupling ring and got extreme magnifications. If I remember correct in the following photo I achieved a macro of 6:1 and in some other examples I even managed 8:1. The only problem is the very narrow depth of field.
The following is a photo of a grain of pepper.

Nikon D80, Nikon 70-300,Nikon 50 1.8 , ISO 400, f14, 1/200 sec

The best time to take a photo: Right after the sunset

This is an older photo taken with my d50. It was printed up to 60x40 cm , and it proves that pixel count is not the only thing it takes to get a good photo


Nikon D50, Nikon 18-200 VR, f22, ISO 200, 13 sec

my vacation this year

This year I managed to go for vacation for 9 days. Not too much but just enough to recharge your batteries. Our family's favorite island for this year was Thasos (Greece). I didn't have much spare time for photography (due to my two young children) but took a few.
The following is a stitch of 23 photos which were shot with the D80 handheld


Nikon D80, Nikon 18-70, ISO 100,manual mode, 1/160 sec, f11, 18mm

Today we were again in a family gathering. I took some photos from my youngest child and my nephews. Again I didn't use the sb800 which I always carry with me. I guess that for such informal shots carrying on camera a heavy flash like the sb800 is not one of my favorite things. So whenever I have the chance (the lighting ) I use only the onboard flash. All photos were shot with the nikon d300 and the Nikon 18-200 VR. From my experience (which were confirmed by various tests around the internet) the 18-200 seems to be extremely sharp up to 135 mm. From 135 to 200 the sharpness dicreases quite a lot.
I once shot a baptism with this lens and kept the focal lenth inside the 18-135 region. The results were very good and maybe comparable to much more expensive lenses



Nikon 18-200VR, ISO500 , 1/60 sec, f7.1,70mm


Nikon 18-200VR, ISO500 , 1/60 sec, f5.6, 170mm


Nikon 18-200 Vr iso500 1/60sec f5.6 150mm

Today my mother in law had it's nominal feast.The whole family gathered together. It was a nice chance to use my d300. The first photo is from my wife's niece and the second one is from the girl from a friend's family.The interesting thing is how you can sometimes mix ambient light with onboard flash to have a good result. The only problem was WB which was fixed in post processing (pp) as I shot in raw.

Let's begin by saying what my photographic equipment is:
1) Nikon D300
2) Nikon D80
3) Nikon D50
4) Nikon 80-200 2.8
5) Tamron 17-50 2.8
6) Nikon 18-200 VR
7) Nikon 18-70
8) Nikon 18-55
9) Nikon 70-300
10) Sigma 28-300
11) Nikon 50 1.8
12) 2 flashes sb800
13) 1 Flash sb28
14) various manual flashes
15) remote Triggers for the flashes
16) various filters for the lenses (polarizers,ND, Graduated ND etc)
17) Manfrotto 055 prob tripod
18) umbrellas,reflector etc...

today it begins

Today is the beginning of this blog. It will be based upon photographic experiences. I hope you will enjoy it....