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)
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
Fatherhood Friday 23: Storms and Beaches
Fatherhood Friday took a break last week due to me forgetting it was Friday… This new routine with me working an extra couple of days a week is really eating into my photography/blog time… not that I’m complaining… more just readjusting.
In between earthquakes and storms the size of Australia the weather has finally started to hint at what spring might be like and we have had a chance to go to the beach (admittedly in jackets and hats) and play in the sand which both girls love to do.
Unfortunately this has also brought on the spring colds etc… Samantha has had a pretty rough week and had to be picked up from Creche on Tuesday and has been sick pretty much ever since, complete with late night vomit and constant grumpiness. Emily is still having trouble hearing due to fluid in her ears but has been prescribed nose blowing and blowing up balloons by the doctor (I kid you not). She was surprised to find that she can actually blow up a balloon by herself.
Anyway everyone seems to be feeling better now so hopefully (touch wood) we are over the worst and things can go back to normal… as normal as they can get anyway 🙂
Emily with the digger that is rebuilding the bike track in the park across from us.
Sam at the beach on one of those sunny days.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E
Kaikoura Sunset
Sunset taken while passing through Kaikoura…
Nikon F5, Tokina 19-35mm Lens, Fuji Velvia 50 ISO.
Waves
Waves breaking against the cliff at Castle Point
Nikon F5, 50mm f1.8 Lens. Ilford Delta 400 ISO Film
Surfer and the Storm
Shot after a big storm overnight… It still seems crazy that these guys wait for the big waves to go past and then jump onto the back of them from the rocks to get into the water… I guess it saves lots of time paddling.
Same shot but two different ways
Nikon F5 with 50mm f1.8 lens
Ilford Pan F 50 Film
ND8 filter and ND4 Grad
f22 at 2 seconds
Nikon F5 with 50mm f1.8
Ilford Pan F 50 film
f2.8 at 1/5000 second
Last week I was testing out an expired bulk roll of film for the first time and feeling quite sleep deprived couldnt face taking it into my usual urban jungle setting so went to the beach instead. It was reasonably overcast but I was impressed how the film handled and the tonal range that I got out of it. Considering that it expired in 2007 it still seems to be working well.
I like how even though the 2 photos have almost the exact same composition the feeling that they create is vastly different
Darkhalide Photography 
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