Im on a Boat
Couple of shots from a fine day at Oriental Parade in Wellington.
Maintenance person painting rust spots on the Tug Boat Restaurant.
Tourists sitting on the Oriental Bay Breakwater.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Agfa Vista 200 ISO Film (muchly expired)
Twilight Fern
Fern shot at twilight with tripod and speedlight off to the right of the image.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, ISO 200, Nikon SB80DX Speedlight with SC-17 TTL Cable.
Concrete Pouring in Manners Mall
They are currently turning the pedestrian Manners Mall into a road for buses. I have to say that it is pretty impressive how much of a foundation they are having to put down for the road to go on.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford FP4 125 ISO Film.
Couple More 360 Degree Panoramic Images
Alas the Nodal Ninja has gone back to its owner but here go another couple of pics.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, ISO 200. Nodal Ninja and Tripod. 22 Images stitched in Photoshop
More Street Shooting With Samantha
Couple of random shots walking down Lampton Quay with Samantha in a backpack.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford FP4 125 ISO Film.
Fatherhood Friday 24: Yay For Not Being Sick
Here goes some pics from when I was setting up lights to shoot the Calvin and Hobbes Challenge (Pic Here just incase you missed it) Not perfect lighting since it was setup for someone my height and not two small people sitting on the floor 🙂
Emily and Sam had just got out of the bath and were getting ready to go to bed… Probably the best time to get shots of them without snot and food smeared around their faces.
Its been a pretty hectic week but have managed to get through (so far). Em had Monday off crèche due to vomiting during the night on Sunday which unfortunately ment I didn’t get to go on me and Samantha’s usual “street shooting with cute kid in backpack” foray.
All in all everyone seems to be recovering from their various colds and coughs and we have had to sunny days in a row so hopefully spring is here in force.
Daylight savings starts this Sunday so that should be a fun exercise although it should mean that Sam will sleep in for an extra hour which will be nice 🙂
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8 Lens, ISO 200. 2x Electra Compact 400 W Studio Lights. 1 with Softbox Umbrella and 1 with only Reflector.
Nodal Ninja 360 Degree Panoramic Images
Wow! That title is a bit of a mouthful.
This week I have had the fun experience of borrowing a Nodal Ninja (or as Amanda calls it a “Noodle Ninja”)
For those of you who don’t know what this is… It’s basically a device that enables you to pivot around the absolute centre of your lens when you are taking images to stitch together.
unfortunately WordPress doesn’t display these too well since they are really wide, but you get the idea…
All the below images are made up of 22 images stitched together with Photoshop.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, Nodal Ninja, Induro Tripod.
Random People Looking at Card
Not sure what they were looking at but made for a good interaction.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Agfa Vista 200 ISO Film (much expired)
And in Breaking News… Burst Water Main in Manners Mall
Just as I was stepping out the door at work I heard a bang and… Chaos….Lucky I had my camera handy… There is a series on film as well
Would like to be the guy in the digger
Enjoy
Be Free
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Fuji Neopan 400 ISO Film.
Tripods, Another Short Rant
Tripods… Not glamorous like a new lens or body.
Tripods… Not cool like remote flash triggers.
Tripods… Absolutely essential if you want your long exposure to be sharp!
OK so that sound pretty good without too much rant… deep breath…. but…
I work part-time in the photography retail sector and the number of times I have the following conversation is astounding:
“Hi Im looking for a tripod for about $150, what do you have?” (all prices are in $NZ just for clarification)
“What kind of camera are you putting on it?” (at this point I’m really really hoping it’s going to be a point and shoot…please…please)
“A Canon 5DmkII” (Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!)
“Um…”
“With a 70-200 f2.8″ (Double Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
“… …”
At this point I usually go into rant mode…
My usual equation for tripods is that the tripod should be worth somewhere between 10 – 15% of the value of the camera equipment that is put on it. Anything less and the very slight movement from the cheaper tripod renders any sharpness of the equipment utterly void.
Now this might seem like a funny thing to get angry about but I guess that’s just me. People usually have a laugh when they see me lugging round my tripod but no-one every laughs at the result and admittedly I use mine for my 4×5 camera as well as my F5 and D70s (which isn’t a particularly large camera).
What I think people are trying to say is that they want a small compact tripod and think that a cheap one will do the trick but once shown the error of their ways can be shown the benefits of sturdy leg materials like carbon and basalt.
And then there is the suspicion that I am just trying to up sell them into something more expensive… No! I just think you should respect your camera and get something you wont hate in 6 months because it gives bad results!
Anyway there are some cases where cheap tripods are good… Usually if you are going to totally trash then in salt water etc… but generally buy something decent!
Rant out
Lubitel 166U, Manfrotto 028 Tripod
Darkhalide Photography 
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