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....