Playing in the Night Lights.....

Been out and about just recently.. Been nice to be out and not sick and feeling like crap for the first time in ages.. I decided to have another crack at some night work.

This shot was done here at about 7:45pm last night. It's a 2min exposure at f22 using my Nikon D300s and Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. Like all my shots there are things I like and don't like, but will leave that for you all to decipher. I am super critical of my own work, so if there is something you think is missing or "wrong" with this image please leave a note.

I also took another shot looking into the city lights. 

Again a lot of things here I like and don't like.. But feel free to leave me a note and let me know what you think. This is a composite of 3 images taken at 30sec, 1min and 2min brackets to try and see if I could lose a bit of the light noise from the city. Didn't really work I think but the composition looks not bad. I'm going to have to do a bit of reconnaissance and try and find a few more places to take these style of shots.

Melbourne Open House 2012..

Today was a day to get some great shots around Melbourne, and I did..

Open House Melbourne was run today, and I had a ball. Yes there were A LOT of places I never got to, but that's what next year is for. 

I managed to get only to 3 buildings today, mainly because I made a mistake with one (it was closed and I ended up like 6k away from one of the others). 

Next year I will be taking the whole weekend off so I can get to a lot more places, and hopefully I will be back on the bike enough to be able to ride between more of the places. That way I can cover more ground. 

I'm even planning on traveling a little lighter as well.

Please take a look at the flickr collection. 

Flinders Street Station Tunnel...

This is just a small capture I made on the way home from getting my hair cut today. 

It's very Zombie Apocalypse.. 

I suppose sometimes this is how people see these tunnels. Cold and lonely, with just enough scariness to get you to walk just that little bit faster.   

Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8.... Bow Down to it's AWESOMENESS

I have just become a "Nikon Nerd" today. Well I have always been a bit of a Nikon Nerd, but I entered the realm of UBER NERD today..

Yerp... I'm now the owner of just over 2K worth of probably the best glass in ALL THE WORLD!

The 24-70mm would have to be best regarded as a "Bread n' Butter" lens for most photographers Pro or Amateur. It covers the focal lengths for 90% of photography done today. Yes you might need a 12-24mm for Landscapes and Indoor Architecture shots; and the boys and girls shooting Sport and Wildlife will want a 70-200mm for those frame filling action works; but this lens will do pretty much anything you could want in between those two "specialty" styles of shooting.

I would argue that you could ask every photographer shooting now and I think almost everyone would say that if they had to choose 1 lens focal length, this would be it.

The nuts and bolts of this lens.. 24-70mm zoom (so on an APSC it would be 36-105mm) at a constant f2.8; 0.38m min Focusing Distance; Nano Coating for less flare (show ya later); Silent Wave Motor Focus; and heaps of other BLAH BLAH and WAH WAH....

So what's the reality... THIS IS FANTASTIC!!! I have owned a lot of stuff over the years, and this makes most everything look like Camel Piss!! This thing pulls your pants down and kicks you so hard in the privates, you ask for another to make sure that was the right thing to do. It is FACE SLAPPINGLY sharp!! I just cant get over it.

Just think, if your name isn't Limit or Full your out of focus!!! This lens is INSANE!! OK even I will admit that the Auto Focus is out by about 3-4mm but DAM!!

By the time you hit f8, it's in focus edge to edge (pretty much) and PIN SHARP!! 

Now you can see just in the bottom right of frame there is just a little bit of Flare. But lets be realistic, im pointing the lens pretty much in the sun behind the cloud!! 

So from zoomed all the way in at 70 or pulled out to 24mm, this lens out shoots anything I think I have seen ever!!

Again this lens is not for the feint hearten, as I said earlier it's going to set you back the better part of 2k. But it is worth EVERY PENNY!! You can forgive the Barrel Distortion and Pincushion (Photoshop will fix it later) because the lens is just SO GOOD!!! SOOOOO clean and crisp, with lovely color and tone. If I had to rate it you would say 4.5 out of 5 just because of the distortion, but that's being pretty harsh.

You can see all my test shots here with a lot more to come..

Sometimes you just have to get THAT CLOSE...

Yep sometimes you really do have to get that close.

Looking into peoples eyes, gives you a window into everything they are thinking. What do you think she is thinking?? 

Flowers

Flowers, a set on Flickr.

Added a few more flowers to my Flickr.. Please take a look!!

Urban Landscape

Miller Street, a photo by Phynyght Studio on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Miller St Thourbury at the High Street End.

Nikon D300S
Sigma 24-70mm

Landscapes

Landscapes, a set on Flickr.

A few "Traditional" Landscapes that you might enjoy.

Steam Abstract

Steam Abstract, a set on Flickr.

Black and white abstract images of a steam roller.

aboc Summer Sprint Series rnd2 Photos

aboc Summer Sprint Series rnd2, a set on Flickr.

My shots from the aboc Summer Sprint Series rnd2. There are 61 in total so sit back and I hope you like them.. I had so much fun tacking them..