With some dirty wrinkled seamless I had lying around…and an excuse to test out my new Creative Light softbox, I think I’ll be buying some more of their stuff, this is one Nikon SB-80 flash, very even coverage. From a 1 x 1 softbox.
Archive for the ‘Geek-Speak’ Category
A bored Self-portrait…***edited for Geek-Speak***
April 19, 2010With some dirty wrinkled seamless I had lying around…and an excuse to test out my new Creative Light softbox, I think I’ll be buying some more of their stuff, this is one Nikon SB-80 flash, very even coverage. From a 1 x 1 softbox.
I’m Shootsac’n! ***Attn Geek-Speak!***
March 30, 2010I recently ordered a Shootsac, a great way to solve a problem every photographer who shoots with multiple lenses faces: What to do with your extra lenses while you are shooting? When I’m at a wedding, I usually carry a 17-55, a 85 1.4or 1.8 and a 70/80-200 2.8. That was when I was shooting DX, but due to a recent investment, I joined the Nikon FX camp with a brand new D700 and now I’m back to shooting primes. I’ll be carrying a 24, 35, 50, an 85 and a 80-200. Five lenses. In the past, even when I was carrying only 3 lenses, it was always a problem carrying the other lenses around, I would usually sling a smaller camera bag on my shoulder which was a pain. Especially because you would have to keep the lens caps on when you put a lens back in the bag. Enter the Shootsac, it’s made of neoprene firm enough to hold the lenses in place, and soft enough so that it doesn’t scratch the glass. When I got home today I found a box from Adorama on my front porch.
It’s well made and extremely light, I don’t have a lot of heavy glass, so I put my longest glass that I have in it, a 180 2.8 AIS (I rent all my long lenses now) and my 50 1.4. The bag is comfortable, but I’m not sure how I’m going to handle it with the R-strap that I usually wear when I shoot, two straps crossing each other across my chest, but I’m anxious to try it out during a live shoot!
I love the tip card from Jessica Claire, I wonder if you get a different one for every product you order. You can change out the covers for different patterns, the majority of them are more feminine, so I stuck with the basic black, can’t go wrong there! One thing that I did notice walking around with it, the neoprene gets hot against your body if you wear it messager bag style. I’m going to have an opportunity to test it out fully in a little under a week and a half, can’t wait!
Went to A Camera Show ***attn photo-geek alert!***
February 1, 2010I’ve been waiting for it seems like forever to go to a camera show, but it’s not like none have come around these parts; they have. I saw that this past September, there was a show in Grapevine. I just always seem to hear about the shows AFTER they’re over. It’s been years since I’ve been to a show, they’re always a good place to pick up little odds and ends that you might have a hard time finding in your local camera shop, and you didn’t want to pay full price from like B&H or Calumet Photo. Plus if you want to get some old film or early digital gear, there’s no better place to get it. I was excited because my favorite place to buy my gear KEH, was going to be in the house – buying gear on the spot and paying you in cash, then and there. So I unloaded a couple of D1-series bodies that I stopped shooting regularly with when I bought my D300, and I said goodbye to my Tokina 12-24. A great lens, I just wasn’t using it enough to justify keeping it. Now that KEH put some cash in my pocket, I’m torn about what I should buy…I know that I’m getting a lens, something in a focal length that I’ll use. I’ve narrowed it down to either the 85 1.8D, or the 20 2.8D….choices, choices.
I came across this one dealer’s table…well he wasn’t really a dealer. He was a collector who was trying to sell off some of the cameras that he had collected throughout the years. He was worried what would have happened to his collection if he passed away, that his kids would sell it at a garage sale, not knowing the value of the items. He had a lot of great stuff, he let me shoot some photos of his items:
He had a lot of old Nikon manuals for lenses and for some of the motor drive models, and I wish I had bought that old Bolex! Everything that he had was in immaculate condition…
He had 3 of those Speed Graphics, 3 of them, all in excellent condition. Check out the box of KodaChrome II movie film by the old Bolexes! And he was telling me how cool I would look with that Nikon 300 2.8 attached to one of my Nikons….I don’t really have any use for glass that long, but I couldn’t disagree with the coolness factor!
Other than the cold hard cash that KEH put in my pocket, the only other thing that I left with was something else that is easy to find at camera shows: old film. I saw a vendor selling rolls of film for $1 a roll, so I bought four rolls of Ektachrome 160T:
***Yeah, you’re seeing that right Expiration date: August 1984. I’m curious to see what kind of results I can get from 26 year old film, see how much color shift I get! Even though those eighties Kodak boxes are awesome as well, I hate the thought of cracking them open to get at that film inside.