JB, unless something goes horribly wrong with the closing we will be gone at the end of this month. But, I like the blues and free is in my budget (if you can call having to drive anywhere free...)
To all: Nancy is changing her lens lineup a bit. I think she wants to get rid of her 28-135. I'm going to play with it as a walking around lens on the 5 but it probably will end up for sale.
If anyone is interested let me know via e-mail or pm
Marc - great shots! I had tons of issues with blown out lighting when I shot. Did you shoot shutter priority? Or did the f/2 of the 135 combined with the street light help with some of the ambient?
Looks good either way - thanks for coming out. Look good!
Mostly I shot in shutter priority, manual focus... You just really need to pay attention to your ambient, we had these large strobes firing about 350 feet away
Depending on the shot I think I saw the 135 close up to f4 or so, in some cases with the 50 f/1.4 I don't think the metering was fast enough to react to the explosions- so there were burnt out sections of frames.
Trying to think outside the box while killing time - thought i'd try something a little different. 10:10PM, tripod, open shutter, remote flash and a speeding Amtrak... Not quite what I envisioned - but its a start. If only it had wings!
jbear: Were you trying to use the flash rear-curtain to try and freeze the train at the front of the picture and end the streaks? I've tried similar with racecars but have yet to perfect it myself.
JonU: That last shot makes me think of "Stand By Me", all you need is the RR tracks.
That's a good question Marc! I'll have to try that. I was using second curtain sync but the idea i was trying to grasp was just lighting enough of the shiny side of the cars to give a hint of their shimmer.
I just wanted a little more than i got.
I had the flash turned down to 1/4 - next time I'll try it a little higher. That Amtrak runs though that station at a surprisingly high rate of speed - maybe 50 or 60 mph - which technically is speeding in that stretch. Not enough time for a second shot - its one shot per night. Haven't been able to get back over to try another one.
Shot this one last February at the same spot - it gave me the idea for it. The shiny side of an Amtrak passenger car. It is also second curtain and off camera flash. Its just the other side of the extreme - too much flash and not enough open shutter.
JB & Marc, I can see some archaeologist looking at the behind the scene pictures way in the future trying to figure out what obscure mating ritual was going on.
JB, I like the ghost train pic best of all the train pics so far
JU, I like the last shot and the shot of mom with the boys in the background. By chance did you take the same shot but with the roles reversed? Kind of symbolic of mom fading into the background as the boys grow up?
(I seem to be having technical difficulties here... Trying to figure out why the pics won't post the right size.)
Ok, I FINALLY pulled out the lens baby this past weekend. For me, it was very hard to manipulate the lens and do all of the different things you have to do to get a good picture. Obviously, I need to practice a lot more with this thing. I think next time I'm going to stick the camera on a tripod so that I can concentrate on manipulating the lens and not worry about supporting the camera. There is just a lot going on all at once.
Also, I think I'm going to order a different focusing screen to use with this lens. The little red dots just don't seem to cut it when dealing with focusing, fine tuning the movement of the lens, supporting the camera and trying to stay focused on a kid that is jumping around.
Mark Alexander wrote:
JB & Marc, I can see some archaeologist looking at the behind the scene pictures way in the future trying to figure out what obscure mating ritual was going on.
ROTFL
Great shots with the lensbaby...those things are tough! I like the second one with the eyes peeking up best!
