Rodney Campbell's Blog

Gerry invited us out for a very early sunrise shoot at Clovelly over the weekend. It was a 5AM start at the Clovelly headland and a short scramble over the rocks along the coast to the location.

Unfortunately very little cloud again made for a not very spectacular sunrise, although the subtle pastel colours in the sky was quite nice at the time and you can’t fault the weather/temperature – I was in shorts and a t-shirt even 30 minutes before the sun had hit the horizon. Too much haze and salt spray cloying the air for my liking but it was good christening for the brand new 16-35/4.

I had a couple total failure composition attempts before this one below showed the most promise at the time – over half of all my shots from the morning (and I only took just over 40 in total) were essentially of this basic composition. I was struggling however to get the right amount of water flow and catching it with the water flowing in the places I wanted it 🙂

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Company great, balmy weather pleasant, breakfast actually reasonably good, images meh sorry…

Rising Channel

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 24 mm, 1.30 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Dawns Surge

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 25 mm, 1.30 sec at f/14, ISO 100

and finally to finish off the morning a three minute stoppage of time…

BigStopper Dreamin’

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 181 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Out and about in the city at lunchtime again

This little church is tightly wedged between two buildings in the heart of the CBD

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/40 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

and this is just a few doors down the road (they’ve actually recently moved from this location)

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/40 sec at f/5, ISO 100

and I know this isn’t a church but it was my last shot of this session so…

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/250 sec at f/5, ISO 100

Having taken the 35/2 street walking recently I decided to take the new 20mm for a wander… as it happens I was actually on my way around the camera stores looking for a good deal on a Nikon 16-35/4 – which btw I did eventually purchase during this session so it was definitely a good day out 🙂

On the way I tried my hand at some extremely wide angle street work with the 20mm. I think this lens is just too wide for general people style street photography – you basically have to be on top of someone to get them to fill any reasonable portion of the frame – but it does seem to suit my passion for street architecture. Although judging by the images I’ve posted today you’d think all I do is get close to the ground and look up 🙂

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Two shots at the Prada store in Westfield Centrepoint

Prada

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/40 sec at f/4, ISO 1100

Bow Tie

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/80 sec at f/6.3, ISO 100

and of course the old faithful, especially with an ultrawide, the Queen Victoria Building – here are two two takes with the massive Christmas tree they have in there at the moment – not sure myself which one I prefer right now – probably the later?

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/20 sec at f/4, ISO 360

Stars in the Sky

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/20 sec at f/4, ISO 320

I just purchased a second hand Nikon 20mm f/2.8 AF-D.

With the move to a full frame camera (Nikon D600) I essentially lost all my wide angle lenses so I’ve been looking for some new wide angle lenses to add to my kit.

The 20/2.8D is an old school Nikon prime lens sporting an aperture ring and none of the modern goodies like AF-S ultrasonic focus motor or nano crystal coating and it’s optics date back to the original AIS design from 1984. This latest version is however still in production and is a very light (270g) and tiny (69mm diamater and only 42.5mm long) lens. On a full frame camera it provides an ultra wide 94 degree angle of view (you’d need to be using something like a 13mm lens on a DX camera for a similar field of view).

I am still intending on purchasing something like the new 16-35/4 (or 17-35/2.8) (both of which are sharper, have less chroma, less vignetting, are wider and longer and better in most ways) for my normal landscape and indoor work but I wanted something small and light to just put on the camera or chuck in the bag when I didn’t want to lug the huge zoom or (in the case of the 16-35) need an extra stop of light (e.g. for stars at night).

Here are a couple first shots with the lens (soon after I bought it)…

Roots

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/50 sec at f/4, ISO 100

A quick portrait with my youngest – my what big feet you have 🙂

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/100 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

Wide open – you can’t see it here but at 100% crop the bokeh (what little you get at 20mm) is fairly nervous and even a little donuty

NIKON D600 + 20.0 mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm, 1/400 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

and a little Trey Ratcliff moment (sorry had to try it…) – this is a blend of two exposures (0EV and -3EV)

NIKON D600 + @ 20 mm, 1/160 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

We’ve had a number of Kookaburra’s adopt our backyard lately (waiting for worms in our lawn and gardens).

They seem quite content to sit patiently on our swing or trampoline waiting for their meals to make an appearance.

It was a nice overcast early morning with soft even light so my daughters wanted me to take a few shots – now I don’t confess to be a brider by any stretch but I fitted the Sigma 50-500 to the D600 and took a few frames of this fellow – I stayed on our deck looking out and he watched me quite intently but I get the feeling he would have let me get a lot closer – maybe next time.

These were shot wide open (f/6.3) between 380 and 500mm and I traded ISO for a fast shutter speed since it wasn’t all that bright and I’m really happy with how clean the images are – the middle was shot at ISO 2000

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

NIKON D600 + 50.0-500.0 mm f/4.5-6.3 @ 380 mm, 1/800 sec at f/6.3, ISO 800

Would you call this sly or cheeky?

NIKON D600 + 50.0-500.0 mm f/4.5-6.3 @ 380 mm, 1/800 sec at f/6.3, ISO 2200

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NIKON D600 + 50.0-500.0 mm f/4.5-6.3 @ 380 mm, 1/800 sec at f/6.3, ISO 1000