Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 - review

I love prime lenses. There is something almost romantic about having to zoom with your feet instead of rotating a silly zoom ring. Primes force me to be more creative, to move more, and to consider my subject from a variety of angles.

With that mindset, I've drooled over the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 since it was introduced. This year I included it on my Christmas list - not at all expecting to get one.

My parents surprised me. I got one.
It's got silentwave, rear-element focus. This is great because the front element does NOT move when focusing, which it does *smokin* fast. Of course it has the proprietary Nikon lens coating as well. It focuses at one foot. Not nearly as good as my 28mm, but significantly better than the 50mm. And - it'll open up to f/1.8. I tend to keep it between f/2 and the sweet spot at f/4

At first I wasn't sure what I would do with it - I already had a 50mm f/1.8 and a 28mm f/2.8. The 35mm falls in the middle.

After some experimenting, I found a great use for it.

Sports.

Believe it or not - I use the 35mm as my primary basketball lens. At f/2, it's sharper than any lens I own. The lens hood (included) means that I get better contrast and I can get by without using a UV filter.

NAU Men's Basketball celebrating a recent tournament win

Josh Lepley - NAU

I know - they aren't freakin' Sports Illustrated worthy. Still - for the lighting conditions I'm in, I think they're alright. These are straight out of camera. No adjustments except for resizing for the blog.
The 35mm allows me to get an entire 6'5" basketball player in the frame, tip to toe while he's going for a big dunk. Previously, I'd used my 50mm prime, which gave me most of a player's torso and the dunking arm. The 50mm also doesn't have a lens hood, so I generally keep a UV filter on it. That filter gives me gnarly lens flare, and it's another piece of glass through which to shoot.

Overall, I highly recommend this lens. It's fast (in terms of light). It's fast (in terms of focus speed) and it's durable enough to take whatever I can throw at it (so far).

This morning I am leaving with 7 other awesome creatives on the visualCollective trip to Death Valley, CA. We've got 3 models and 5 photographers/cinematographers. I'm tweeting at @visCollective and we're blogging at www.thevisualcollective.com

Truck in water

I shot these yesterday, out by Grand Falls at the river crossing. My buddy Ryan has a Tacoma that's buff enuff to do some mild to moderate offroading. I managed to convince him and our mutual friend Brenna to come out for an afternoon of romping in the dirt and the mud.

As usual, the pictures look better enlarged.

I also got a quick video clip - but my 18mm lens isn't quite wide enough to get the idea across..

----------------------------------

No doubt due to the influence of the Handsomest Hobo over at lanternCity Media - I have found myself craving a superwide lens fairly frequently over the last weeks. Instead of throwing down $600 for the Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye, I sacrificed $10 for the cheap 0.45x adapter that screws onto the front of any 52mm lens.

Mine will go on the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my D50 approximately a zillion years ago. This adapter will change my 18mm to about 8mm, which should get the job done! I'll be playing with it a lot on thevisualCollective trip.

Speaking of tvC - I'll spend tomorrow afternoon packing and cleaning my car - then we're off to the races for an evening get-together and then an early morning departure on Friday. I'll be TWEETING our progress @visCollective, and we will be live blogging and Vlogging at www.thevisualcollective.com

Vintage...

The last couple weeks I have been on a vintage kick of sorts. My vision (and as such post-processing technique) has moved away from the crystal clear, high contrast saturated imagery and more towards a vintage feel.

I knew as soon as Carlton (the puppy) popped into frame that this was how I the image would end up looking.

This vintage technique is actually really easy to apply. Too easy, perhaps.

Long-time readers may be aware that I use software called Aperture to do my personal photo editing. Aperture 3 - the most recent incarnation - has a fair few "presets" that automatically apply a certain look to an image. I spent an hour or so playing with them during the paparazzi shoot with Taylor Mahoney. In doing so, I created a custom preset that combines a few of Aperture's settings with some of my own flair. The result is a sharp, vintage/cross-process look that I'm beginning to fall in love with.

More examples from recent shoots:

I think I'm going to have a tough time avoiding overuse of this particular style. At the same time - I *really* like the way it looks, especially when combined with the material I've been photographing recently.

Spring break starts for me on Thursday, around noon. I'm going to be running around like crazy getting things ready for thevisualCollective trip to Willow Beach, Death Valley, and perhaps Mono Lake!

thevisualCollective teaser trip --> Grand Falls

Holy cow! Today was super fantastic.

Taylor, Andrew, Katie (a newcomer to the group) and I headed out around 0800 this morning to Grand Falls where we had an epic time shooting, playing and definitely getting wet.

Here are a few videos I made - take into consideration that video is *definitely* not my thing, and that Andrew will have a third teaser/trailer up in the next couple days that will be of infinitely higher quality.

----





----

I also managed to get a couple still images:

These first images were my concept for the day. If I got nothing else, I wanted to get this first shot below. I'm very happy with how it came out.

Generally at Grand Falls, sightseers are limited to being on the side facing the falls. After nearly an hour of hiking around and getting decidedly wet, we forged a path across the chilly water and scoped out a few locations directly underneath the falls. A seriously awesome opportunity, as the water is usually much deeper than it was today. Katie was our gung-hu model for the day... She has a thing for umbrellas.

I shot a few non-people images as well so I could show off the beauty of the location. I'll admit - not my strong suit in photography...

 Of course, with my new car-centric direction in photography, I had to photograph Andrew's Honda Element, which performed admirably on the dirt roads and in the sand.

I very much enjoy photographing Taylor Mahoney - who has some of the most epic photographer faces and poses ever...

Taylor with his Nikon DSLR, Canon 35mm SLR, and Light Meter...

I also have a thing for shoes. I dunno why. Taylor, Andrew and I were all stuck in our wet boots after the crossing at Grand Falls. Katie was the only one smart enough to bring a spare pair.

As usual, today got all of us even more excited for the four-day adventure that will kick off at 7am, Friday March 11th. Stay tuned to the official website: www.thevisualcollective.com for more updates and the third trailer!

PS. We still have one seat open. We estimate it will run about $150 per person which includes fuel, food, camping, and a half-day boat trip on the Colorado river. Comment or drop me an email if you're interested!

Backgrounds

Sorry they're late!

walkabout: campus

I was bored this afternoon, so I dragged my gear out of the house and set up shop in the middle of a soggy field on campus. I shot whatever caught my eye without first trying to determine whether it was worth photographing or not. Very much a refreshing feeling!

Here are a couple picks from the 35 minutes I sat shooting:

It was nice to just sit and watch and press the shutter without any pressure, internal or external, to get anything good. With any luck, I'll do this more as the weather improves throughout Spring.

Tomorrow some of thevisualCollective crew and I are headed out for another day of fun in the Arizona sun. We will probably post something while we're on the road - so stay tuned here and at www.thevisualcollective.com

Best of Black and White

I recently discovered a contest being held at www.shutterphoto.net - I plan on entering.

The theme of this contest is Black and White. I've gone through what I believe are the best of my B&W images, and come up with the following.

I'd like *your* help in choosing which to submit!

Your feedback is much appreciated!