Category : Pilgrim’s Chronicles

One of the most powerful techniques a photographer has is isolating the sharpest part of the scene to draw the eye of the viewer in!  The eye seeks; sharpness, brightness, and warmth.  If you can use those three key ingredients,  you can bring the viewer’s eye directly to what you want them to see!  As illustrated below, the area of sharpness is a very thin line in the image, but that is where your attention was drawn!!

 

 

In the image below we have the opposite example and image that is sharp from the foregorund to Infiniti, and therefore the entire scene is the subject!

 

 

I can’t emphasize it enough, depth tells the story……

 

How deep are you?  Is your surface, what really lies beneath?  Hey hold it, I’m not accusing, I’m facing the same question myself.  Have you ever looked in the mirror and stared deeply into your own eyes and answered that question.  It’s a tough one!

 

The beginning of the journey to depth in a life is the recognition of just how shallow we can be.  I hope you don’t see in the mirror what I have seen.  The closer your walk with the Lord the more you see just how much further you have to go.  But, that’s O.K. that is how He grows us up, how He prepares us for what He has in store for us.  Facing the reality of our depth is a hard process, but gaining depth, is well, the only way to continue the walk and bring glory to Him.  No matter how bad things look in the mirror, He only sees the Heart He has already redeemed!

 

Thank you father for forgiveness and grace…..

 

the pilgrim

 

 

Technical Note:  50mm f 1.4 lens at f2.8. 

 

Tomorrow is The National Day of Prayer, boy do we have a lot to pray about!  I had to run and errand for Sherelene this morning and it had me in the car for about an hour.  I have tried to stop listening to political talk channels, it just gets me so upset.  This morning I listened to about an hour of Glenn Beck and man has it gotten me worked up, but this time I’m glad it has.  

 

Let me start by saying I still believe we have a great country and that many of our fellow citizens are solid, God fearing, America loving folks!  I think the core values of many of our fellow Americans are still sound and based in our faith.  Unfortunately, an increasing number of folks have lost their way.  What I’m talking about?  Just watch any of the major networks evening news broadcast, you’ll have a good list after that.

 

So, back to the National Day of Prayer. I won’t tell you what to pray for, but I certainly don’t mind sharing what I’m feeling led to pray.  

 

Father,

Thank you for loving me, thank you for always being there for me.  Thank you for my family and friends and all the brothers and sisters you’ve placed in my life.  Father I know I’m not worthy of all you’ve done for me, I know I’ve fallen way short of what you hope for me, but in spite of who I am, you gave your Son for me, and that is debt I could never re-pay!  I thank you that you’ve made that not necessary and for that I want to serve you for every moment for the rest of my life. I know that I’m not alone in being a sinner, I fear for those that could have your grace and forgiveness but are refusing to accept it.  Father I pray for all those lost souls, I pray that they come to seek you and accept you.  Father I know my country has gone astray from your will. Please bring spiritual healing to our land.  Please make me part of the solution instead of the problem.  Again, thank you for loving me, accepting, and forgiving me.  In your Son’s Precious name I pray.  Amen

 

Be working on your prayer, we all need to focus on Him!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

I’ve had a week of organizing my office and getting all my consignment ready to return to Nikon next month and I’ve been doing some thinking about how to enter the next phase of my life!  I told Sherelene last night that I think I’m coming up with a “solid as a rock plan!”  Her first response was remember what Dr. Stanley told you.  Charles once asked me if I knew how to make God smile?  I said I’m listening!  His response was “tell him your plans!”  O.K. she was right maybe I should change the word plans to hopes.  So, as this is a work in progress, this is what I’ve come up with so far;

 

1.  I want every day for the rest of my life to start with giving thanks to Him for my family, my friends, and the joy He has brought into my life!  I want to deepen my walk with Him.

 

2.  I want to be the kind of husband Sherelene deserves!  I want to show her with my actions what I say in words.

 

3.  I want to use every opportunity, I’m given, to encourage others to accept Christ’s love and His forgiveness!  When I’m finished down here, nothing else will be as important as that!

 

4.  I want to be the kind of man my father was, and care about others first, and exhibit sacrificial in my love.

 

5.  I want to soak up all the great opportunities He has given me for meaningful fellowship with friends and loved ones!

 

6.  I want to go back to the basics, simplify my life, and take more time to just enjoy being here, (wherever here happens to be)!

 

7.  As a photographer I want to prove to myself what I’ve taught for years, it’s the photographer that makes the image, not the camera.  Therefore, I’m going back to the basics, and will try and improve my technique, my vision, and increase the joy of shooting.

 

8.  I intend to make another run at getting  healthy, with every passing year it’s more important, and my body is constantly reminding me of that!

 

9.  I intend to spend more time on my knees, humbling myself before my Heavenly Father.

 

10.  I want character and integrity to be the hallmarks of my behavior.

 

Seems like a good list to me, but, as always, I welcome your comments,

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

John Shaw said, “I never met a lens I didn’t like!”  And I said, “Ditto, and I’ve bought most of them!”  Above is my collection of Nikon Legacy glass, manual focus lenses from the 70’s and 80’s. I admit it, I love lenses!!!  They are the critical part of the photographic system, image sharpness depends on a lot of factors, but without tack sharp lenses, we won’t get tack sharp images!

 

Let’s get one thing out of the way first, most all lenses today are sharp, some sharper than others, but very few lenses I’ve ever used have not been capable of delivering great detail.  So why pick one lens over another?  I’ll address that, but first let’s talk some about buying lenses.  Forget what you see above, for just a moment, Point (1)  Only buy the lenses you need and will use!  Point (2) How many lenses can you carry?  Point (3)  What is the value of lens you own that is at home in the photo closet while you are in Acadia National Park shooting?  Zero!!!

 

But what about your lenses above?  O.K. I’m and equipment collector, I plead guilty.  I do use those lenses above, but rarely, I just like to have some things that tell the story of my career.  The manual focus lenses above are very different from much of what is produced today.  They are built like a rock, solid, heavy for their size, and fully mechanical in their operation.  They are still capable of making extraordinary images, but they don’t autofocus, they don’t send EXIF data info to the camera, they are “Old School”!  They definitely require a lot more attention in their use.  I keep a D700 as my manual system digital body and these lenses perform spectacular on that body.  I have also used them with the D800 and they are still spectacular (see below)!!

 

 

So you ask;    “How should I go about purchasing lenses?”

 

Here are some suggestions;

 

First think in terms of a system.   Once you’ve determined the kind of images you will be making it’s a lot easier to sort out what lenses you will need.  Let’s take some examples:

 

The Sports Photographer’s bag:  If you are going to try and capture action in low light you’re going to need: Fast lenses (big apertures in the f 2.8 range), fast auto focus.  Since I’m most familiar with Nikon let me suggest a good kit for the Sports shooter:

Fast bodies; D3s or D4 cameras

14-24 f 2.8

24-70 f 2.8

70-200 f2.8 VR II

200-400 f 4 VR II

400mm f 2.8 VR  (the focal lengths will depend on the sport but 300mm to 800mm could be found in a top pro’s equipment cases.)

TC-14E teleconverter

 

The Wildlife Photographer’s Bag:

Much the same as the sports photographer with a special emphasis on long, fast glas

A DX body like the D7000 or D7100 is also a great addition as it will stretch your long glass by a factor of 1.5.

 

The Nature Photographer’s Bag:

The nature photographer will have some of the same needs in terms of focal lengths, but with today’s camera’s spectacular high ISO/low noise performance, they can save weight with slightly less fast glass!

D600 or D800 camera bodies

16-35 f4 AF-S VR

24-120 f4 AF-S VR

70-200 f4  AF-S VR

80-400 f4.5-5.6 AF-S VR

105 Micro Nikkor f 2.8

 

The Travel Photographer:

For the travel photographer, weight is the key factor and this can be attacked two ways:  either choose the lightest DSLR in Nikon’s case that would be the D7100. or go with a mirror-less system.

Nikon D7100

10-24 AF-S f 3.5 – 4.5

16-85 AF-S VR f 3.5-4.5

70-300 AF-S VR f 4.5-5.6

85mm Micro Nikkor f 3.5

or

A Mirror-less Body

28mm lens

50mm f 1.4 lens

70-200 equivalent lens

60mm micro lens or close-up devices

*Actual focal length and speeds would depend on which of many systems available.  Mirror-less is really coming of age and there is now a wide variety of surprisingly fast high quality glass for the various brands available.

 

The system building goes on as we mention other kinds of photographers.  The key is to cover from wide to long in three lenses, (if possible), and be sure to have a way to shoot close-ups.

 

But how to get the best lenses in each category.  fortunately there are plenty of websites dedicated to testing lenses.  Read at least four or five reviews to see how much they vary!  Photozone, DP Review, The Luminous Landscape, and Ken Rockwell all are good resources.  You could also ask a knowledgable friend if you are pulled between several different lenses.  You probably know someone, you trust, that has owned the lens you are considering.

 

What about third party lenses like; Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc.?  I’ve always made it a personal policy to only buy the lenses made by my manufacturer, I feel knows better what matches their body.  Sometimes you simply can’t get what you need from your brand and then you might consider one of the other brands.  Just check carefully the mechanical construction, and read the reviews carefully, they will point any function your camera may have, that some these lenses may not support.

 

Nothing robs your fun as a photographer worse than the fatigue that sets in from carrying a lot of heavy equipment all day!  Collect as much as you wish, but don’t try to carry too much and you will enjoy the process a lot more!  

 

Blessings.

 

the pilgrim