Posts Tagged ‘Gear’

Home From The Road!

Hi All.

Apologies for the delay in posting but I have had so much to do since getting back in the last 10 days or so that it hardly feels like I have been away!

I worked out that I travelled over 25,000 km in 12 flights in my trip which took in 4 countries. Phew!

Since returning, I have been recovering from the trip, sorting out and backing up my work from the trip (a side note: backing up is VERY IMPORTANT! I recommend multiple backups in your home/office in case of disc failure etc AND at least one off site backup. I use a service called Backblaze, which backs up Macs in the background to a very secure location in the USA. It costs about $50/year per computer and is worth every cent of that.)

I will be doing a post soon on the gear that I took with me and how it coped with 10 weeks on the road so keep checking back for that. A real life test of cameras, bags, computer gear and so on!

I have also been working on some of the images as well including a B&W series from my visit to the boxing gym in the Philippines (see here) and you can see some of them below. They were all shot in colour but have been processed to B&W using Nik Silver Efex.

I have had some meetings about the exhibition and that is progressing well. Again, a big thank you to David and Conor Kershaw of Pain & Kershaw in Martinborough and to Grant Muir of Big Image Print in Wellington who are the principle sponsors of the exhibition – their support is greatly appreciated and crucial to the success of the project.

Next week I am taking some time out as I have to go into hospital for some routine surgery that was postponed before I left for the trip. Hopefully I will be home in a couple of days and the resting up recovering and allowing stitches to heal etc for a few weeks, so I will have plenty of enforced downtime in which I can edit and refine the work for the exhibition.

I have come back to spring in NZ – we have blossom out and new leaves coming, as well as Snowdrops and Daffodils so it is nice to have missed the worst of the winter weather as well.

Praying For Success

Praying For Success

When I grow up...

When I grow up…

Power In The Ring

Power In The Ring

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice Makes Perfect

Lens Selection

I thought that I would write today about the lenses that I will be taking on the road.

There will be at least 4 and possibly a fifth. The Nikon Holy Trinity of

Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 G

Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 G

Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 G VRII

will form the basic system. I think that the 24-70 and 70-200 will probably get the majority of the work done. However, the 14-24 is a fabulous lens (although big and heavy) and offers a unique view at 14mm that I am certain I will be able to exploit, so it is included as well.

I prefer not to use flash when I am working, so for low light work I am taking the Nikkor 24mm f1.4 G prime. Of course I have two other lenses that cover 24mm but the prime really is something special in my view. It begs to to be shot wide open and the way it draws is very Zeiss or Leica in presentation. See for example this shot taken on assignment in Paris last year:

Noel En CimetiereI may also take a Nikkor 50mm f1.4 but remain undecided on that at the moment.

Since all my lenses are f2.8 or faster and are professional grade build quality, the weight is not insignificant. However I do not plan on carrying all of them when out shooting. I will evaluate the most likely subjects and take only 2 lenses on most days I think: the 24-70 and 70-200. Between them they cover the majority of subjects very well and there are not likely to be too many shots on an average day when I need wider than 24 or faster than 2.8; I am confident that the days that I will need those are going to be easy to identify the day before when I go through what to expect on the next day and change the kit accordingly. For night shooting the 24mm will cover a multitude of scenarios and let me get close up too. All of the lenses are weather-sealed which helps to keep the dust, rain and so on from getting where it shouldn’t.

24-200mm @ f/2.8 covered

24-200mm @ f/2.8 covered (Photo credit: kurichan+)

So that is the story on lenses. Stay tuned for the next instalment from Our Correspondent!

Related articles

Gearheads Rejoice!

English: Nikon D3

English: Nikon D3 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OK, in this part of the blog you will be able to read about the gear I have chosen to take with me, why I have chosen it and what I hope it will do for me on the road.

As I travel, I will also blog about any failures, breakdowns, outstanding performances and so on which I think will be interesting. Not many hobby photographers hammer their gear every day for 60+ days on the trot and even as a professional I don’t use it that hard very often. When I do, I expect it to work so it will be interesting to see if it does. And very frustrating if it does not!

There will be a lot of lugging about, dust, rain, wind and sun for the gear to survive, as well as light fingers (I had a Nikon D3 go on a midnight walk as I slept on a train never to return when shooting in India so no repeats of that please!) and the mechanical punishment of daily use.

I shoot Nikon cameras and I will post a full kit list when I have finalised what I am going to take.