Here in DC while updating the picture gallery - I broke the hotel Internet - the techs are still scratching their heads. In the meantime I was only able to get about 3 photos up before the crash.
Between some street shooting, performing the Heumlich on a visiting tourist while at dinner with M, and running into a 2/75 Ranger bud at a cafe, by chance - it was a great day.
Kit lens -- off the porch - love the colors.
Last night of the street shooting downtown. And this is more of a test of how everything works and the limitations of the NEX. The lens bag consisted of Nikon 50mm f1.4 AIS, Nikon 85mm f1.4 D, Vivitar 200mm f3.5, and the kit 18-55mm. I used them all - but I always favor the sharpest and I have to be careful as that's too easy. And maybe the only way push thru constraints is to be limited by only one lens. But I'm not there yet.
9pm outdoor light - kills base ASA - kills it -- and staying below 1600 requires f2.8 or better. The 50mm gets mushy at 1.4 - the 200mm stops at f3.5 and the 85mm is too long most of the time.
I've been shooting the JPG and RAW combo with the Standard setting and the max sharpening. The JPG's look great but detail is a bit crushed and mushy where RAW keeps the grain structure which looks like real film and I like that. These are all from RAW - but could be from JPG as I would only use RAW for a Print.
The Nex-7 has become my goto camera. Partly because I bought it to do so - and so I've made it work - so I guess this is some kind of viscous circle where this is so surprise. Ok -- that was a bit of a rat-hole… I digress.
It's a great camera - and mated with some Nikon lenses - wow. That became evident at the Air Show last weekend where I mounted (visions of Grumpy old Men, movie quotes) the 84mm AF f1.4 D - focusing was very easy.
I've also been a big fan of the 24mm Canon f2.8 SSC -- until recently. On the long end "it ain't worth a crap" -- on the short end it's amazing - if you can get it in focus. I don't know why but it's very difficult to confirm critical focus. I'll probably dump it - and get the Nikon version. The Nikon lenses
have this blackish - deep - contrastly look of which I've come to really like.
So -- in two weeks I'm off to D.C. And I'm going to take nothing but the 7 and a bag of lenses.
Question being - which ones.
The air show is this weekend - but it's raining - and I was first in and first out.
Nex-7 with Nikon 85mm f1.4D
The light table at the FFKR Architects office gets little use - but when so, I'm drawn to it as it makes a perfect soft box with an interesting subject.
Sony Nex-7, with kit 18-55mm - Color Corrected in LR-4
Last weekend - a quick day/overnighter in the desert.
All of these were with Nex-7 - post in LightRoom 4
Brigham City Utah LDS Temple - on the backside, after the rain.
I'm a sucker for street graphics. Downtown SLC while wondering to the Trax I put the Nex-7 thru some street paces. Small - unobtrusive and convenient - and I'm really liking this form factor. I think it's going to be a perfect road-warrior setup.
Here's the vintage 1998 Slingshot with --- wait for it -- a SoftRide stem. I take a lot of grief for that stem, but I love it as it adds some "flava" to the ride.
Nex-7 with the 18-55 kit.
Here's my review of the Boost -- I don't quite know how the technology works - but who cares as it just does.
A casual Saturday - at the City Creek Center in down town Salt Lake City. Minimal adjustments to this set - no cropping with slight exposure corrections.
I couldn't resist -- Nex-7 with Canon 24mm f2.8 SSC.
Shoot what you have available to shoot - and sometimes that is a pet, a plant or an action figure. And so today Violet was the stand in. Try different settings - get everything in focus and work around the short attention span and the skills will follow.
Friday in the PM - walking City Creek at the Ann Taylor - Converted with Silver Efex Pro.
Close focusing is a trick with the Canon - and I find myself spoiled by AF. I have to remember when I cut my teeth on the FM-2 with the 50mm AIS - some 30 years ago.
How far this Art has come. I'm spoiled.
Native rez - flowers with the Canon 24mm.
For me it is all about the sharpness - and I keep coming back to that.
The lens which performs this task is the lens which keeps getting the attention.
Nex-7 with the mounted Canon 24mm f2.8 SSC - I hate that it is manual focus. In the wrong non contrasty light the thing is a pig - but get this in the zone at f4.0 and whoa… stellar. 24mm on a crop is 35mm field of view - so i get used to it. I have to compose, second guess my focus, and then verify and re-verify and if I'm lucky what I wanted to shoot is still there. If not -- then I'm feeling a bit empty and I move on.
Hi-Rez -- 24mp with a 40 year old lens - no crop - sharpening mask applied in LR 4
Fashion Remix gets a bit more competitive every year and a bit more over the top. This year I only brought the Nex-7 - lighting on stage was updated so exposure was less challenging. Shot in IA - Intelligent Auto - and sometimes I hate to say that I use Auto - but man -- it's a damn good setting when I don't have the ability to adjust focus and shoot. I can just shoot and it's there. And regardless of the reviews - the 18-55mm is a very, very capable and sharp lens.
With the Nikon 50mm f1.4 ais lens and the Nex-7, in the front yard, wide open to get the headlights in the background.
I'm not one to live in the past - but there have been days where significant events shape lives - and today is one of those days of which I keep close and remember what's happening right now, right this instant, would be a stretch to be as bad as this day in March, 2006.
I've posted some of the narrative before.
My time spent in Iraq with the US Army was a mixed bag of following orders and trying to figure out what we were really doing there. In the mean time, I survived - yet I always remember how lucky I am of those who didn't and those who did with their lives being changed forever.
And that - gives me perspective of present day life.
Scorch marks on the asphalt - where two buried 120mm Chinese rockets detonated and impacted the passenger, drivers side of the Humvee. The Marine is apart of the QRF.
Schrapnel impacted the Sapi plate.
