11 December 2016

I went to Hong kong late October to attend a wedding.  I had pre ordered the above lens from a shop I have dealt with for over 35 years! The shop is Kowloon Photo  Service  based in Yaumati, Kowloon. Yaumati was my “hunting” ground when I worked in Hong Kong.

Previously the maximum focal length I had was 200mm.  I did purchase a Tamron 150-600 but I found  my images were too soft and not worth the effort of carrying around as my percentages of “keepers’ was less than 10% from a technical view, and not even photographic merit considered.  So I decided to spend even more money on the Nikon.

The advantage of the PF (phase fresnel) was that it enabled the lens to be half the weight and size of its predecessor making it easy to walk around with. Optically it was very sharp even at full aperture.

Bird photography as mentioned in previous blogs is not my passion but when you are in Hong Kong and wake up 5 hours before anyone else because of jet lag,  what do you do?  You get out before breakfast, head for the fields surrounding Sally”s village and take some photos to try out the new lens.  i also bought a Nikon teleconvertor 1.4x. This brings the focal length to 420mm at F5.6. I’m not normally a fan of teleconvertors but overall this one is acceptable. It is a fraction soft at F 5.6 (I had to use more Sharpening in Lightroom) but the auto focus is still fast and it doesn’t appear to compromise my photography too much. Its not a bad way to double ones previous focal length which was my original intention. Flare control in direct sunlight is also good as you can see from the photos.

All my shots were hand held and because the “VR” on the lens is also very good my only poor shots were the mis focussed ones from  when I tried to pan and capture a flying bird. This is obviously down to technique and no reflection on my equipment!

1.     29 October 2016     Nikon D750    iso 1250     300mm     f5.6     1/1500sec     Nikon 300PF f4.0

2.     29 October 2016     iso900     420mm     f5.6     1/1000sec     Nikon 300mmPF f4  + TC1.4E111

3.     29 October 2016     iso 1250     420mm     f5.6     1/1000

4.     2 November 2016     iso1800     420mm     f8.0     1/2000sec

5.     2 November 2016     iso 400     420mm     f8     1/2000sec

6.     Photo Bombing     2 November 2016     iso200     420mm     f8     1/2000sec

11 December 2016

Wedding party stalker?  Sounds rather ominous and the potential to ruin a good day or evening. Check out my previous blogs to get a background into this guy. Be afraid, be very afraid. I use to specialize in incriminating and  embarassing photos in my past. And the photos weren’t of me either.

Sally and I had the honour of being invited to our good friends , Sons wedding. Got that?

Justin is from Hong Kong and his new wife Cheryl is from Singapore.

Normally as I was the guest and not the photographer I wasn’t planning on bringing a “decent” camera to Hong Kong, probably just my point and shoot. However because I was buying a big lens (see previous blog) I thought it best to bring a SLR to test the lens before purchasing. To keep the weight down I brought 2 prime lenses. My Nikon 35mm f1.8 and the Nikon 85mm f1.8.

So at the church I brought the 2 lenses plus my newly acquired wild life lens (Nikon 300mm). Definitely not the best lens for weddings unless you want to examine the teeth….. At the reception at the Grand Hyatt  I took the two prime lenses only and was only going to whip them out if I saw something (or someone) interesting. Well you can see by the photos the camera was out alot! I have a weakness for beautiful women.

So what does a wedding party stalker do when he is actually invited to partake rather than shoot from the outside. Well as the title of the movie says, get “Up Close and Personal”. It wasn’t that hard in my case and quite a pleasure. No doubt helped by the fine French champagne and the New Zealand riesling. At least I was in good company. The wine and I come from the same town-Blenheim. The wine?  Fromm Spatlese Riesling. We came on the same plane. 

The company, food , wine, music and service was also excellent at the Grand Hyatt. (Did I mention that before?)

Hopefully you may find I managed to capture the atmosphere of the occasion at the …. Did you know its a 5 star hotel?

Congratulations Justin and Cheryl on your marriage and I hope you have lots of happy memorable occasions ahead of you both.

ps I don’t do baby photos…….

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2.   iso 6400     35mm     f9.5     1/250sec

3.  iso 5600     300mm     f4.8     1/350sec

4.  iso 1400     300mm     f11     1/1000sec

5.  iso 3600     85mm     f1.8     1/60sec     Enhanced in Color Efex Pro 4

6.  iso 5600     85mm     f2.8     1/60sec

7.  Me, Joseph (Justins Dad)

     Sally    Elizabeth (Justins Mum)

8.  Joseph and his two Sons, Jonathan and  Justin

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11.  iso 6400     85mm     f4.0     1/125sec

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17.   iso6400     35mm     f9.5     1/250sec