Ichimusai’s Place

If “going close” means macro to you, that’s fine.  If it means making an intimate portrait, that’s fine to.

Have fun this week, go close

It is winter now, but still not much in the way of snow. Temperature has dropped rapidly in the last few days and we did have a bit of snow falling for an hour or so yesterday but there is nothing left on the ground. It’s getting icy on the roads though and of course a couple of people did not observe this in the morning rush, I passed by two cars on the side of the road. None looked too worse beaten up though.

I shot the following on my lunch walk today and I liked the way it came out representing the oh so barren winter that we are having right now.

Nikon D300, Nikkor AF-S DX VR 16-85/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF

Alright, this week we’d like you to do your own interpretation of your favourite album cover.  Is it Madonna’s True Blue, or David Bowie’s Heroes, perhaps Book of Love’s Candy Carol?

Let us know!

Have a great weekend and a creative photo week

Yesterday on my way home from work I decided to stop and try to get another moon shot. I used my 70-300 handheld with manual exposure control on the camera resulting in 1/125s and f/6.3 at 300 mm focal length and ISO 200.

A little touch up in Lightroom and 1:1 cropping and this is the result.

I går på vägen hem från jobbet beslöt jag mig för att stanna och försöka ta ännu ett kort på månen. Jag använde min 70-300 glugg handhållet med helt manuell exponering, och använde slutare 1/125s och f/6.3 vid 300 mm zoom och ISO 200.

Lite efterbehandling och beskärning i Lightroom efteråt så blev resultatet som detta.

Idag på Regeringsgatan där den korsar Kungsgatan på en bro lyckades jag ta denna bild. En av mina första lite svårare bilder tagna med min nya D300. Objektivet jag använde var Nikkor AF-S VR 70-300/4.5-5.6G ED-IF som jag kommer recenscera senare när jag har använt det lite mer!

Today at Regeringsgatan (regent’s str.) crossing the Kungsgatan street on the bridge overpass. I managed to take my firs a little more demanding photo using my new D300 camera. I used the 70-300 lens for this one which has performed excellently. I really like this lens after just using it a few times, it is great. I will review it later on when I have used it even more.

När jag ändå redan var nere vid sjön och fotograferade Bolinders gamla fabriker så passade jag på att ta några bilder vid marinan när solen stod lågt. Detta är en av dessa bilder.

When I was down at the old Bolinder factories to take some pictures I walked over to the near-by marina as well and shot some pictures with a low sun in the sky. This is one of the pictures from that shoot.

[In english here]

Jag har fått en del frågor om nattfotografering och hur man skall ställa in sin kamera för bästa resultat och en del andra tricks för hur man skall gåt till väga. De flesta sakerna man kan göra är ganska enkla så här kommer mina tips. Om du kollar din kameras manual kommer du säkert hitta de motsvarande inställningarna i den även om jag kommer utgå från en Nikon D300 i artikeln.

Här är ett exempel på ett nattfoto taget med min gamla Nikon D70s:

Nikon D70s, taget från taket av "skrapan", tidigare skattekontoret nere på södermalm. Här har jag använt ca 30 s slutartid, bländare f/20 och ett stativ.

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This is an old factory where they used to make iron cast wood-fired stoves and other products like that. It is now the home of a broad range of small companies inhabiting the old factory houses. Here are some pictures of the factories that I have taken.

Bolinders grundades 1844 då bröderna Jean och Carl Gerhard Bolinder grundade J. & C. G. Bolinders Mekaniska Verkstads AB på Kungsholmen i Stockholm. Under de första årtiondena var produktionen inriktad på ångmaskiner, träbearbetningsutrustning och råoljemotorer för till exempel båtar och sågverk. Man producerade också olika sorters gjutna produkter som till exempel vedspisar, kaminer och köksutrustning som stekpannor, grytor, våffeljärn och köttkvarnar.1893 byggde Bolinders sin och Sveriges första motor med intern förbränning. Motorn designades av ingenjör Weyland men var inte så framgångsrik. Istället tog man in ingenjör Rundlöf som konsult och 1897 hade man en tvåtakts råoljemotor som blev en väldig framgång. På 1920-talet hade man en världsandel av 80% av alla fiskebåtar tack vare motorernas pålitlighet, låga bränsleförbrukning och långa livslängd.Efter brödernas död i slutet av 1800-talet togs företaget över av Erik August Bolinder. Vid 1906 ansåg man att lokalerna på Kungsholmen hade blivit för små så man köpte Kallhälls gård eftersom man ansåg Kallhäll i Järfälla hade bra kommunikationer då den låg vid järnvägen mot Västerås och man kunde också använda sjövägen via Mälaren in till Stockholm. 1909 började produktionen i Kallhäll. Man tillverkade då spisar och köttkvarnar samt gjutgods som transporterades sjövägen till fabriken på Kungsholmen. Vid 1919 hade Bolinders 1900 anställda på de båda fabrikerna.1913 byggde Bolinders sin första traktor. Den drevs av en tvåcylindrig tvåtakts råoljemotor på 30 hästkrafter.

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Hi guys, my name is Jenny and I will post photo challenges here at ichimusai.org every friday from now on and at least until July 31th, 2011.

If you’d like to participate, please use the comments feature to link to your challenge image.

Here’s your first Ichimusai Photo Friday challenge!

Quietly sit down for fifteen minutes, and think about where you are
right now in life, and the feelings you have about this.  Describe
this in your photograph.

Good luck!

[På svenska här]

I have gotten a few questions on how to set the camera up for good night shots and there is really nothing to it this is what I normally do is very simple things. If you check your camera manual you should be able to follow the same settings.

Here is an example of a night shot that I have taken with my old Nikon D70s:

Nikon D70s, Taken from the roof top of the old tax building in the south end of stockholm using a tripod and long exposure. 30 second exposure and f/20.

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Nikon D300 at high ISO, handheld, Nikkor DX AF-S VR16-85/3.5-5.6G ED-IF, Adobe Lightroom post process

The darkness can be a comforting friend and ally as well as an intimidating scary place. It is many times up to you what you will feel like and how you will react to it.

I think his design is pretty cool.

So finally I have upgraded to a new camera. After using my D70s for several years I had a careful look-around at what was out there and I decided on the D300. I have met many photographers, both beginners and professionals who have used the D300 in the last year and all of them seemed very happy with their investment, although some said they’d waited for the D700 FX sensor camera instead if they had known it was about to be released.

I decided against the D700 for several reasons and the most important one was the lenses. DX lenses won’t be able to work very well on the FX sensor in the D700 and I like the DX lenses for two reasons, they are sometimes half the price of the comparable FX lenses and they are lighter to carry. The last point is important because I love to hike and bring the camera gear with me. 

The D300 is also a fair bit lower priced than the D700 which meant I got a nice kit including three lenses and an SB-800 for just a little more than what the D700 house would have cost me so I am really happy with it. 

The main reasons for my upgrade was the following

• The small display on the D70s makes macro work difficult
• There is no mirror lock-up function meaning mirror slap shakes when using long exposures and tripod.
• The noise at higher ISO on the D70s is shameful compared to the modern cameras, in reality anything above ISO 600 is unuseable.
• D-Lighting exposure control in the D300 and newer cameras is fantastic in some difficult light conditions.
• 14 bit RAW format (12 in the old cameras) meaning 12 dB better image dynamics per colour!
• No vertical grip for the D70s (that is seriously useful), the MB-10 battery grip for the D300 is awesome!
• Faster serial shots, lovely when shooting animals like birds. 8 frames per second on the D300 is a vast improvement from the D70s.
• Larger buffer memory also helps with serial shots.
• Easier controls on the camera - even if the D70s had nice controls the D300 is not only nice, they are seriously well laid out and though through.
• Faster in every aspect.
• Has PC sync connector on camera

Here are some test shots, these are taken handheld in the middle of the night just using existing light. Yes there is noise, but not much and the pictures are actually quite nice. The D70s would come nowhere near this and would not even reach ISO 3200.

This site is incredible. Really incredible. If you want to know how your lens is doing technically you must visit this site and check it out. Find out which aperture setting produce the sharpest images for each of your focal lengths.

SLR Gear >>>

Learning to read the diagrams here is a bit tricky but there is a wealth of information on almost any lens you can think of getting for your camera and also other stuff. But I really love it for their lens reviews.

Car mounted tripod

This article is somethin you should take a look at if you are considering getting yourself a tripod to stabilize your camera.

I am already down that upgrade road where my lightweight video cam tripod is not really that good any more for several reasons including getting closer to the ground.

Ken Rockwell has a very different opinion on tripods but I find that they are necessary for a number of reasons. It’s not only the low light conditions they are useful, I use them in any type of light.

The reason for this is that cameras are heavy and to work wth your composition in a nice way you need to move around try angles and zoom and various framing options and a nice tripod is a help here making it easier for you to walk about, find the right spot, mount the camera there and then adjust it properly and take a great picture.

My low budget studio with cheap tripod

If you can’t afford a top of the line tripod and a really good head, then by all means get something cheaper. You will most likely upgrade eventually so it might be a waste of money but at least you have something. I think lots of photographers will nod in recognition to this.

Other useful items to stabilize the camera could also include monopods (although I personally dislike them) bean bags (great for macro photos since you can place anything on them) and clips and clamps that you can use to attach your camera to a handrail or similar on a bridge. Lovely stuff all of it.