GREAT LIGHT FOR QUICK SHOT WITH MANUAL FOCUS


Despite a busy life at the moment I try to take a few minutes for photography whenever I can. Spring is early this year and reveals beautiful things in nature and all what it takes is to have an eye on the light. I think it is important to have a vision for what would make a good subject already ahead of time, but wait until the light finally makes the difference between just a documentary shot and a photo that may please our senses.

I made this picture with my old macro lens, the SIGMA 150 f/2.8G. I haven’t used this piece of glass since quite a while, although the sharpness of this lens has always impressed. Since eye sight is not getting better with age I rely most of the time on the autofocus system of my NIKON Z6II camera. Older lenses that do not have their own autofocus motor, like the SIGMA 150, can only be used in manual focus mode on Nikon’s mirrorless cameras. The sharpness and rendering of this lens is still great but it takes a little bit longer, especially in an awkward position while lying on the ground. Sure, we can employ a low tripod for this kind of a shot. We can do focus stacking and all kinds of macro-voodoo these days, but I’m always afraid the great light is gone before the camera is even mounted on the tripod…😉

SECOND APPEARANCE


Hard to believe this was almost a week ago. A few days earlier our crocus and snow bells showed their first blossoms until they got all covered again during a snow storm last Monday. So, here is a couple photos from the second appearance of spring flowers in our yard this year.

It’s not really macro photography but the old SIGMA 150/f2.8 macro lens is still in my bag and finds employment for shots like this. Most modern lenses focus much faster, but if the camera is locked on the subject, this lens delivers still tack sharp results. Another reason for me to use this lens sometimes is the Minimum Focusing Distance (MFD), which is 15 inches (0.38m). A ‘killer tool’ for any detail shots!

ANOTHER SIGN OF SPRING


If there is anything I don’t like about March here in eastern Iowa, it’s the fact that we have so many gray days without any sun. Today was another one of those. The photo of the crocuses is from yesterday, when a little more light was available and no extra efforts were necessary to make the colors pop. For this picture I employed the Nikkor 16-35, f/4 and closed down to f/10 for more depth of field than in the photo of the Hepatica from yesterday’s blog post. As I always stress, I’m not a flower photographer, but with all the gray and brown from last winter on the ground a few colors don’t hurt and keep the spirit up on a day like this.

SPRING WITH SMALL STEPS


It seems like spring is arriving here only with small steps. Today it was lovely, it was warm and the sun was shining, and finally all of our crocuses had a chance to appear in all their beauty. We really enjoy it but I believe it is the third week in a row that I have to write here that snow is in the forecast for part of the weekend again. As I said, small steps…

ONLY IN SPRING


Wishing all friends and readers of my blog a wonderful Easter weekend! The crocus in our front yard had to withstand some cold nights in the last few days, but today it felt much like spring. Time for a photo before they are gone… 😊