November Rain
November 22, 2009
It is rainy season here in Vancouver, and for weeks I was rendered pretty useless in the whole going-out-to-shoot department. This afternoon, however, a strong resolve to shoot caused me to brave the cold and the rain. I will attribute this to the emotional lows that have befallen me this past week.
Creativity – my one, true Saviour.
bench and evergreen, version 1
Some technical notes: I shot this with my boyfriend’s Nikon D40. Lens used: AF-S Nikkor 16-85 mm, 3.5-5.6. Pros: i) the shutter sound; yes, this is an extremely superficial “pro”, but this has me leaning towards Nikons 70% of the way (sorry Canon! Yikes.); ii) significantly warmer tones (wowza!); iii) sharpness factor in the Nikkor 16-85mm is the cat’s ass (as Jeff would say) – not bad for a zoom and extremely on par with my Canon 50mm 1.4 USM; iv) significant ease in manual focus. Cons: i) focus barrel behind the zoom makes for difficult handling, though I suppose I could get used to this over time; ii) I am not a huge fan of Nikon’s menu interface; iii) autofocus is a little off and somewhat annoying as well (though it hardly seems fair to compare the D40 with my spiffy 40D); iv) the metering is quite meh.
Post-processing notes: Because of the shooting conditions, some significant post-processing had to be implemented. Single RAW to HDR conversion for some, then a texture overlay to give off a certain “vibe”, plus the usual tweaking of curves and selective colouring. Keeping it simple over at this end.
bench and evergreen, version 2 (with texture overlay + square crop)
the day’s only serendipitous capture
the sight is really much more majestic in person; this shot doesn’t do the scene justice
epic fog rolling over the mountains
this is an outtake; not particularly fond of this shot, but I am posting it anyway…
~
Entry Filed under: travel. Tags: Cleveland Dam, fog, North Vancouver, rain.
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1.
Travis Forsyth | November 22, 2009 at 3:11 am
Careful that nikon is a trouble maker it might steal your soul :D
2.
Issha Marie | November 22, 2009 at 3:21 am
Duly noted, good sir. ;-)
3.
Jeff Cullen | November 22, 2009 at 3:39 am
@Travis: That’s precisely the idea here. Muahahahahahahaha.
The autofocus on the D40 body does indeed suck quite hard. It’s why I couldn’t keep the 70-300 VR without going for a better body — I just got burned too many times with shots I loved that turned out way too out of focus. It’s an extremely basic body — dumbed down, even — with only 3 point autofocus… on the other hand, as you noted, the 16-85 VR is a fabulous lens for its price in the cropped format segment. I have handled a XSi with the 17-85 USF mounted but didn’t get to shoot it, however I must say it certainly feels more pedestrian — something I feel Nikon really nails once you get above the basic kit crap. The 16-85 VR doesn’t feel pike a POS even right after handling something much more expensive. It is fabulously sharp throughout most of its range (loses a little in the 60s as I recall) and distortion is minimal and easily corrected. If you don’t require the speed, it’s tough to justify owning a handful of fast primes in preference to this lens. The 18-200 VR takes it too far and is far too soft over its entire range and brutally distorted over a large portion of it.
I think the Untalented Rich Wanker Hobbyists (author of this post included, however the second descriptor is quite possibly debatable…) are drawn to Nikon for the “Look and Feel” stuff – the great, solid feeling controls on the lenses, that fabulous shutter sound even in the bottom-of-the-line DSLR, etc etc… but this is stuff that professionals see right past and instinctively know are simply not requirements in order to produce fabulous images. Not to mention there’s the bang for the buck factor, where Nikon clearly loses out to Canon.
On the plus side the ability to hit fleaBay and play with ancient lenses as long as your Nikon body has a focus motor built in (which of course the D40 does not) is pretty fun – there’s lot of old garbage which can produce interesting images, and lots of old treasures as well which are fun to play with. I’d also venture that generally speaking, Nikon glass tends to do the whole bokeh thing more nicely more of the time, though that’s largely a matter of personal preference and style. Of course there are plenty of exceptions to this on both sides of the fence.
The “warmer” tones thing was the major winner for me as I never desired to do any post-processing and simply preferred the Nikon end of things in this regard. Straight out of the cameras and speaking very generally, I actually prefer Canon reds but Nikon blues and greens are awesome. My observations here apply mainly only to bottom (or near-bottom) of the line cameras as that’s the segment I’m playing in…
Since you’re speaking about it as I write this, yes the metering blows on the D40. Please don’t judge Nikon for that based on this particular performance…
4.
Issha Marie | November 22, 2009 at 3:53 am
The fact that I may as well be a Nikon convert from the D40 alone says so much… Oh Jeff; what sort of spell are you casting on me?
Still… long live Canons. ;-)
5.
Jeff Cullen | November 22, 2009 at 4:04 am
An evil one.
Once I get your hands on a D700, you’ll be editing that post. Sukkah.
6.
GOOMBI | November 22, 2009 at 8:20 am
Oh Issha sounds romantically converted.
My dad is passing his old Nikon FM for me to play with. Who knows, I could be joining the N ranks soon.
And when Jen comes back, keeping the canon will get that much harder 8-)
And those are some sexy mountains!
7.
Issha Marie | November 22, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Oh my God… Kevin. You have me quoting Shakira as soon as I read “sexy mountains”.
“Lucky that my breasts are small and humble,
so you don’t confuse them with mountains.”
I am ashamed, yet I feel it has to be said.
8.
GOOMBI | November 22, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Oh man. Please don’t quote anymore, or else I’ll have to call your … nevermind :)
9.
Jeff Cullen | November 22, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Yipes, any more Shakira and I’m going to be romantically unconverted…
10.
Soleil | November 23, 2009 at 10:23 am
Wow sis! They look great! Your my next feature on my blog under “Inspiration” ;)
11.
Issha Marie | November 23, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Awww! Thanks sis! :-)