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2018 Project - Focused picture a week (M38A1)

Week #19/52
I've never done a garden before so needless to say, my first Gypsy sweet pepper is what I call an accomplishment. Tried to figure out how to make a silly pepper plant look good. Hmmmm... Between rain showers I ran outside and got on ground level with it, then played with settings a bit to get the mood right. That didn't work so I brought in a speed light and set that up camera left on 1/128th. Cactus IV triggers. Now I wonder when it's done and I can pick it to eat!

CAMERA Nikon NIKON D4S
LENS AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
ISO 100
FOCAL LENGTH 56.0 mm (56.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE f/3.3
EXPOSURE TIME 0.004s (1/250)
i-7p4Gt8C-X2.jpg
 
Week #20/52
She's Got Pipes...
Rusty and I wandered down to The Alcove Cantina Saturday evening to have a beer and watch a little band called Fusion perform. They're actually not that little, playing multiple nights each week somewhere in the area. Rusty works with the drummer and they all know Rusty so this was an easy thing to shoot. Easy at first, horribly difficult the later it got as the only lighting was on the stage back and left and very few "party string" lights in the audience area. So when the sun went down, the ISO jumped up. This shot was done at ISO6400 and is of the wife of the guitar player to the right. She could belt it out for sure.

Camera Nikon NIKON D4S
Lens AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
ISO 6400
Focal Length 45.0 mm (45.0 mm in 35mm)
Aperture f/2.8
Exposure Time 0.01111s (1/90)
i-dXNQ3cN-XL.jpg
 
I don't think the high ISO hurts for the context. A kind of "gritty" picture seems appropriate ;-)
 
I don't think the high ISO hurts for the context. A kind of "gritty" picture seems appropriate ;-)

FWIW, I would have been much higher on the ISO, but I'm obsessed with keeping my shutter speed faster. I don't even see any grain on my 15" laptop. Benefits of a D4S!
 
Week #21/52
Mouse Trap...
This one was sort of whimsical by design. My trusty mouse died a few weeks ago and I just couldn't bring myself to toss it thinking 'what a cool photo prop sometime'. Then today while at Home Depot, I walked by the pest control aisle and saw these monster mouse traps, thus the idea for this one. Simple "expose for ambient then flash your subject". Used an SB700 speed light with Cactus triggers and a smallish (4"x4") soft box which just slipped over the flash head.

CAMERA Nikon NIKON D4S
LENS AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
ISO 100
FOCAL LENGTH 70.0 mm (70.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE f/13
EXPOSURE TIME 0.008s (1/125)
i-xhMbNNF-X3.jpg
 
Needs a little strategically places Catsup to make it complete, or maybe a bundle of twisted little wires, like guts spilling out :-P
 
Week #22/52
Lately I've been seeing these large bees coming out of holes in the ground. While mowing the lawn, I saw one come out of a tree in my yard. Somewhat curious I peeked in and saw this guy working on 'something'. He uses his huge abdomen and stinger like a shovel moving dirt/mud around. I watched/shot him for maybe five minutes and then he had enough of me and started to check me out up close and personal. Having watched that huge stinger do it's work, that's when I was done but not after getting this shot.

CAMERA Nikon NIKON D500
LENS AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED
ISO 500
FOCAL LENGTH 105.0 mm (157.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE f/4
EXPOSURE TIME 0.0025s (1/400)
i-KhKTFD2-XL.jpg
 
Week #23/52
The way I look at it, any Father's Day I get with Mom and Dad is a bonus. So here they are, Fathers Day 2018. Simple setup with an SB700 in the hotshoe and angled about 45* up.

CAMERA Nikon NIKON D4S
ISO 125
FOCAL LENGTH 42.0 mm (42.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE f/8
EXPOSURE TIME 0.01667s (1/60)
i-RcdpSKS-XL.jpg
 
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Week #24/52
Last night a friend of mine and I heard an announcer over a PA system talking about "mutton bust'n". I knew the rodeo arena was about 3/4mi away so I figured with the South breeze the sound was carrying to the house. So after dinner we drove down and sure enough the 75th Annual Williamson County Rodeo was just starting. Having shot several rodeos in Bandera "on the dirt" as part of the event, this would be an interesting exercise to see what one could create in the stands as well as try out the D500/70-200mm combination under a bit less than ideal conditions.

To be blunt, the lighting sucked. So I started out at 8pm at ISO1600 right out of the chute. (no pun intended). That allowed me to have a nice shutter speed to stop the action/dirt movement but at the expense of a bit of noise. As the night progressed, the ISO didn't just creep up, it skyrocketed and by the end of the night I was shooting ISO10,000 with shutter speeds down around 1/160th. yeah - it was that bad. Here's a link to a few snaps from the event. I'm pretty happy with the little D500 combo. Not quite the low light capability I'd like, but I didn't buy it for low light in the first place. Click HERE.

This weeks image was early on in the show. He did a full 8-second ride, and then some.

CAMERA Nikon NIKON D500
LENS AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II
ISO 1600
FOCAL LENGTH 200.0 mm (300.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE f/4.5
EXPOSURE TIME 0.002s (1/500)

i-dNBnndf-XL.jpg
 
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Week #25/52
iPhone snap full moon. I'm losing steam with this "project"... sigh......


i-9d4fLmC-L.jpg
 
Week #26/52
July 4th Fireworks

WoodButcher rang me up and said "let's go shoot fireworks"! Um..... ok. So I followed his step-by-step process and I was fortunate to get this one. I chose it for the spiral motion of the canister moving up before it exploded This was the only one like it out of all the shots I took and it was almost perfectly symmetrical in nature when it went off. Broken down, tripod with camera on top, remote shutter release, ISO low (100), f/8, manual focus mode at infinity and backed off a bit, and experiment on time.

CAMERA Nikon NIKON D4S
LENS AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G
ISO 100
FOCAL LENGTH 50.0 mm (50.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE f/8
EXPOSURE TIME 1.8s (1.8)
i-BH8NVhw-X2.jpg
 
Week #27/52
You've been mooned... :rofl:
I really enjoy the time Woodbutcher and I have early Saturday mornings for coffee and conversation.

CAMERA Apple iPhone SE
LENS iPhone SE back camera 4.15mm f/2.2
ISO 200
FOCAL LENGTH 4.2 mm (29.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE f/2.2
EXPOSURE TIME 0.05882s (1/17)
i-rzQZp5q-XL.jpg
 
Week #28/52
Cicada
Saw this guy on the front sidewalk and decided to get down on his level to capture him. As I got on my hands and knees on the sidewalk (ouch) he didn't like that I was only about a foot from him so he moved and hissed at me. So I moved when he moved and was able to get in a position to shoot him head on. Used my SB700 on manual mode along with a pair of Cactus triggers and set the camera on the sidewalk on the tripod foot while holding the speed light over/above in different positions to get what I liked.

CAMERA Nikon NIKON D4S
LENS AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED
ISO 100
FOCAL LENGTH 105.0 mm (105.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE f/8
EXPOSURE TIME 0.00556s (1/180)
i-VQ88VCX-XL.jpg
 
That is awesome!

Very good DOF for only f/8. Did you crop much?
 
Thanks, Scott. Means a lot coming from the master of bug macro. :photo:

It's a HUGE crop. lol.... My 105 only lets me get about 15" to the bugs. Thinking about some extension tubes. I suppose I could put it on my crop body and see what happens.
 
You should get good results on the crop body.
 
Step away from the D4S and embrace the D500. :-) It is an excellent crop body.
 
Almost all of them on the crop body.

I did use the full frame with my macro lense the other day and it seemed to focus slower than my crop, but it shouldn't have. I think it just seemed that way.
 
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