Category: Blog 2018

2 August 2015

I finished lunch early and wandered around outside. I noticed down the road a house being built so off I went.

My only regret afterward was that maybe I should have used my Nikon D750 with 24mp rather than the D3s which only has 12mp. Then I could have had more detail when  cropped . However the D3s and the telephoto lens is very well balanced and great to hold steady especially when shooting fast in the excitement of the scene. Do I sacrifice the increased chance of camera shake for more pixels?

The subjects were heavily back lit with the sky in the background. This is where fill in flash or reflectors are useful. Obviously impractical in this situation so I had to expose for the shadows. The Nikon 70-200mm f4  is a very sharp lens but more importantly great flare control with the lens coating. This is what separates the “Men from the Boys” when it comes to deciding whether to buy a budget lens or professional level- sharp wide open and resistant to lens flare. VR helps a lot too.

1.    17 Jan 2015    Nikon D3s    iso400    24mm    f4.8    1/125sec    Nikon 24-70mm f2.8

2.    iso400    48mm    f4.8    1/125sec

3.  iso 400    200mm    f4.8    1/180sec    Nikon 70-200 f4

4.    iso 400    200mm    f4.8    1/180sec

5. iso 400    200mm    f4.8    1/125sec  

6.  Before

7.  After

22 June 2015

On the 25 April I was off to Ngawi with my photographic friends Brent and Iris.

Brent showed me a picture on his cell phone of these dead trees in a swamp. The image is on my Guest Page. I made a very positive remark (for a change!) and asked it whereabouts- “Boggy pond”, they replied. Then I replied in my usual, cultured, tertiary educated manner, “where the F…. is that?”.

Well it was in the direction we were heading with a slight detour to Lake Ferry. The lighting wasn’t ideal at the time of arrival so we decided to return late afternoon.  Unfortunately late afternoon the lighting wasn’t ideal, so I vowed to return again and spend more time there.

In the following 5 weeks I returned 4 more times, thats how inspired I was by this place. It was also a 90 minute drive over the Rimutaka Hills so dedication was required. The second time Brent and I returned with gumboots on. We both got stuck and fell in the mud! Fortunately it wasn,t like quick sand otherwise we could end up as fossilised fotographers only to be discoved thousands of years later as strange animals with unusual glass like appendages!

But the bog continued to beckon me, so much so I decided to get some waders so I could travel deeper into the centre and go past the dead trees.

There was so much interesting photographic material gathered in this short amount of time and in this small area of space (less than a square kilometre ) that I divided my shots into 4 themes as you will see in the special projects section.

Yes Boggy, you’re an amazing place and I shall return again and again.

1.    31 May 2015    D800    iso200    100mm    f/9.0    1/250sec