Uncategorized

Fall-ish, -ing?

Today rounds up my sixth week of unemployment.  “What have you been doing?” you may ask.  Well, looking for a job and to get back in to college (being 40, I’m gonna be popular in the dorms, being able to buy beer and all), defending my unemployment claim, Looking for education and small business grants, joining Meetup groups for photography in my area and taking pictures.

In November The Syracuse Photography Association Meetup group is having a show.  I have a few entries that will be on display for the show opening on Friday, November 13th.  These are the photos I’ve submitted and will receive a little polishing before they are printed.  The Tree in silhouette was a late entry, and I’m not sure if it’ll make the cut :) The other three have all been accepted :)

I’m working on a general Fall post.  I’m still in the ‘gathering pictures’ phase.  Fall in Central NY is a great time of year,  the whole landscape becomes alive and vibrant.  It’s really the best time of year to be here.  Leaf peak is just a few days away,  and this year promises to be filled with all sorts of reds, oranges and yellows.

Here are a few pics to hold ya over till I get some great foliage snaps :)


The practical to the ridiculous

I purchased two new lenses this week. A Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D Prime, which will be great for portrait and low light work.   It’s also going to turn photography in to an aerobic workout for me.  With a prime lens you really have to move around the subject to get the picture you want.  The lens does look a little stubby on the camera tho…

For the ridiculous, I picked up a Rokinon 800mm f/8 mirror lens eith a Nikon T-Mound and a doubler. It weights around two pounds, and, when uncapped it’s 108mm front element sucks up any available dust, even on a cold humid day. Ultimately the Rokinon is a 800mm mirror telescope that makes your camera look like a mirrored weapon of doom :)

Being it’s wet, cold and not very pretty out I didn’t do much with the new toys today.  I did, however, take a few shots just to check the difference in magnification:

The first is with the 50mm, as a ‘base’ to start

50mm prime

The sharpness and clarity from this lens is amazing. It’s something I should have added to my arsenal in when I first got my Nikon D70.

The next shot is with the 800mm Shooting from the same location. The lens is heavy and with the f/8 aperture and with the lack of ambient light I had to set the shutter to be pretty slow. I really should have grabbed the tripod for the next two shots, but, I didn’t :)

800mm

Still a pretty decent image. It’s dark but, that’s my fault for not using the tripod and setting the shutter speed properly. You can see the sign now, before it was a green sliver, and you can see there is a garage sale going on:)

This last shot I have the kit provided doubler on. This doubler is 2″ long and fits between the Rokinon and the t-mount, moving the center out a little which causes some camera control fun. I have a doubler that mounts to the camera body and would connect the t-mount, kit doubler and lens. With this kind of magnification, and a 3° field of view, I’ll really need to use a tripod, which is a later project.

1600mm (800mm 2x)

The darkness of the shot and blurring are 99% me (I gotta leave a small percentage in there for the lens :) ). Here we can see the street and garage sale sign clearly, we can also see the the owner of the house needs to mow the lawn and has Dish network :)

I think the 800mm has potential, with the camera on a tripod, for some great Moon and planet shots, as well as happy critter in the woods, and perhaps paparazzi pics if anyone famous gets stuck coming to the ‘cuse ;)

With it’s fixed focal length, depth of field and pin sharp clarity, The Nikon 50mm f/1.4 is going make me work more on my composition and really improve my skills. I’m really looking forward to playing with lens!

1 Comment more...

Two new posts soon.

One for my visit to the Erie Canal in Camillus, NY and the aqueduct that’s being restored there.  I also stumbled accross the Steam Engine Exibition, which is located accros the street from Lock 50.

Erie Canal Lock 50

Steam Engine Exhibition


  • Help fund the Escape:

  • Recent Flickr Photos

  • Copyright © 1996-2010 PhotoEscapist. All rights reserved.
    iDream theme by Templates Next | Powered by WordPress