a peaceful landscape shot for a change... shot with the Nikon D200 in Yosemite...
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Water level
This is a small but very useful gadget to mount on the hot shoe (flash). This allows to keep the camera perfectly horizontal on a tripod. I use this for panorama photography. When you stitch a large number of pictures together for a pano, you need to hqve them correctly aligned, otherwise you'll have to straighten them before and you'll lose a lot of information.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Eindhoven
A night shot with the D3 and the 24-70 2.8 on a tripod. This is the Philips Lighting building in Eindhoven. I shot at ISO 1600 to allow a short shutter time (1/3 sec) to get the texture in the sky, also adding an exposure compensation of -1 EV to make the moon visible.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Coffee
Playing with DOF (depth of field). Camera used: the full frame Nikon D3, with the 24-70 2.8 lens, one of the best pro zooms ever. Here at 70mm f5.0.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Volley
a sports shot during the volleyball supercup in Belgium. Nikon D3+200-400VR lens @f4 (fully open). That combo is brilliant for indoor sport, no flash needed and ISO6400 perfectly usable.
D2x
a camera I have dreamed of for a long time. I have been using a Nikon D70 a few years ago, and at that moment, the camera to have was the D2x. Nowadays, it is a little bit obsolete because of the high ISO performance, but all the rest is still top notch: superfast AF, pro-body, ultra-reliable, excellent viewfinder, crop mode, integrated grip... the more recent D300 has a better ISO performance (D2x is very good up to 800, the D300 easily 1600 or even higher), a more sophisticated AF (but not necessarily more efficient), and a faster engine (8 pictures/sec with grip and the appropriate battery). But I still like the D2x. I could find an excellent used copy at an excellent price. One dream come true...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Sunrise
Simple sunrise shot in Turkey on the beach... shot with the Tamron 28-300VC lens on the Nikon D3. That Tamron is an excellent do-it-all full frame lens, stabilized, IQ is good (not on par with pro lenses however), and the range is just fantastic.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Indian child
A spontaneous snapshot in Bengaluru, India. The boy was looking at me, taking pictures, he smiled, here is the result...
Shot with the Nikon D40x+18-200VR lens, converted to BW in Photoshop. Some parts are overexposed, this was under the midday sun, very harsh light, but I think the picture works.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
View from a plane
this is a simple shot from a plane, Singapore Airlines from Hong Kong to Singapore, I liked the texture of the sky. Shot with a Tamron 28-300VC, a very nice all round lens on the Nikon D3 camera.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Montreal silos
this is a picture of the old silos in the old Montréal harbour, Québec, Canada. I liked the special mood thanks to the dark sky...
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
First Nation
a nice FIrst Nation artefact in the Museum of Civilization in Hull/Ottawa, Canada. I loved the light - shot with the Nikon D3 in very low light.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Sharp
Taken with the 200-400VR lens on the Nikon D3 (more or lens the best zoom ever on the best DSLR ever (until now)). Shot in a nature park in Canada.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Reflection
Reflections in the conference center building in Montreal... shot with the Tamron 28-300VC lens on the D3
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Summer
The summer holiday is coming... so for those who are going to travel to a nice warm beach, here it is to give you a taste of what you'll see...
Sunday, June 15, 2008
BW train
a train being used to transport metal in fusion from a blast furnace... BW done in post processing.
Carsid
A picture taken during a visit to a very photogenic industrial site called Carsid in Charleroi, Belgium. This shot is at the output of a blast furnace.
For more information about the site, see Carsid video on internet. Very impressive to say the least.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Exhibition
Pictures at an exhibition, a first for a friend of mine who became a successful motorsport photographer in less than 3 years... shot with the exceptional 14-24 2.8 on the D3 camera. For info on his work, have a look at http://www.frozenspeed.com.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Wildlife ?
This is a picture I just found funny. The equipment used is totally crazy for this kind of shot, but it was the only thing I had around my neck when I could take the picture: D3+200-400VR. This could have been done with ANY smaller and cheaper camera/lens combo.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Smiling
A wonderful snapshot in the traffic in India. Those smiles are just so nice. Shot with the Nikon D3 from a car in the traffic.
Indian railway station
One of my favorites, I love the colors and the atmosphere in such an Indian station... shot with the D3 and the 28-75 2.8 lens.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Studio
An overview shot of a TV studio (RTL in Belgium) during the "Télévie" show, to collect money for research against cancer. This amazing perspective has been made possible by the new 14-24mm 2.8 zoom on the D3 camera.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Basketball
Just an example to show that the D3 is a wonderful tool for sports, here used with the 70-200VR lens. Two important remarks: the auto white balance works extremely well, no real need to correct in post-production, unlike with other older generation cameras (D70, D200 etc). The other remark is about the AF system, very complex to understand to get the proper results. After experimenting, I found the winning combination for indoor sports: I used continuous mode, with the delay set to long so that if I "lock" a target I don't lose it too quickly - as a consequence, I have to press the AF-ON button more often to re-focus if I choose another point of attention - not too easy when players are moving that fast , and fire with the shutter button. I switched VR off, I selected a shutter speed of at least 1/400sec with the 70-200VR... and the results were more than acceptable...
My other recommendation is to avoid the full 3D mode for indoor sports (this has been my experience with both Tennis and Basketball, unless you are very close or use a very long lens). I used the dynamic mode with 21 or 9 points AF, this gave me more predictable results (at least for basketball), I would assume this depends on the size of the "objects" you track...
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Wide D3 shot
A simple vacation shot, taken with the cheapo 28-105 full frame lens on the D3. The image quality you get with that lens is exceptional for the price. Some people find it stupid to put a cheap lens in front of a high end camera, I don't.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Real estate
This was a simple test at a colleague's apartment to see if I had the right combo to start real estate photography. I put the Tokina 12-24 lens, a very wide angle zoom made for DX (crop factor) sensors, on the D3 FX (full frame sensor) camera. There is a DX mode on the D3, allowing to use the DX lenses, but in low resolution (5.1 MP instead of 12MP). Since resolution is not that important for real estate (pictures published in small format in a magazine or on the web), this does the trick. The D3 gives a huge advantage in terms of sensitivity, allowing to shoot hand held (no tripod) with available light. There is some distortion but nothing exaggerated. In fact I had a confirmation by several people on the net, this is just the right combo for real estate photography.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Saturday, March 1, 2008
ISO 25,600
This picture has been taken hand held, without flash, in a "black hole". I used the highest ISO possible on the D3 camera (currently highest on the market). Even if noise is visible in the picture, it is amazing that the details in the textures are preserved, exposure is correct, and focus was not an issue, even in the dark. Amazing technology....
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Rectilinear fisheye on D3
This is the result of a small experiment: I put the Nikkor 10.5 DX fisheye on the D3 camera. Normally, the fisheye has been designed for small sensors (DX format), NOT for the full frame (FX format) D3. As a result you get a partially black picture but you can crop using a circle and get more usable information than with a DX sensor camera... The effect is similar to a circular fisheye, even with this rectilinear fisheye...
This is one of the examples I liked.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Colors
just for the colors... Tamron 28-75 2.8 (an excellent lens by the way, highly recommended, price is unbeatable) on the Nikon D3 camera.
Shot in Les Trois Ilets, a small village in the Martinique...
High ISO wonder
This is an example of the wonderful possibilities of the Nikon D3 camera: this has been shot in the dark with the 70-200VR lens and the 1.7TC @340mm, without flash of course. ISO was 12,800 !!!
The picture is just clean and the noise is not even visible on the face when zoomed @100%. Just incredible.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Pianist
One of my favorite shots during a party. Shot in almost complete darkness with the 85 1.8 on the D3 @ISO6400.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Humming bird
an old one.... those are difficult to catch. They move so fast. I could take that picture with the 18-200VR on the D200. I have been lucky to frame it correctly and to get a reasonably sharp picture.
Wide on full-frame
This is a very wide angle shot on the D3 full frame camera. I used a cheap Nikkor, the 18-35mm 3.5-4.5. This lens is a consumer grade lens, very cheap plastic build, with poor quality rings, but with a fantastic image quality/price ratio. I am using that lens before investing in the new 14-24mm f2.8, a professional lens at least 6 times more expensive. Corners are reasonably sharp when closed down to f8 or more, center is always sharp.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Alone
I have shot this one in the metro (MRT) in Singapore. I found the perspective interesting, adding to the solitude of the pianist who kept playing without an audience. Black and white, adds to the "drama", hence my choice...
You tube
something funny but relatively common in some Asian cities... those are visible outside the buildings. It is of course never freezing, so they can win some place by have those outside the building... these have been seen in Singapore.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
D3 vignetting
This is known to most people looking at photography forums.... but here is an example. Shot with the 70-200VR lens @2.8 to show vignetting. This is a problem at all focal lengths fully open (dark corners of the picture, not completely symmetrical). Even if the problem can easily be solved in post processing for instance with Photoshop or Nikon Capture NX, it is a bit annoying to have such a problem with a pro lens on a pro camera. This seems to be common on full frame cameras. Maybe Niknn could do something to either improve their lenses or to do some automatic in camera processing to compensate.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
D3 bird
One of my first D3 action tests. The heron of my favorite park (just next door)... the sun was almost gone. This is shot with the 70-200VR with 2xTC in crop mode, giving a 5.5 Mpix picture at 600mm equivalent. This has been shot in low light just before sunset @ISO6400!!! just incredible. This machine really opens up new possibilities.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Restaurant
A simple wide angle photo in a restaurant.... ISO2000 was needed here to take the picture hand held with a 12-24 Zoom used at 15mm 1/15sec. White balance set on tungsten. I just found the perspective and the colors interesting. The empty space, just after dinner gave a strange feeling. Shot in Amsterdam...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Glass
playing with light in a glass at the restaurant....
D40x, my favorite P&S, with the 105VR fully open.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Egypt
an 'old' film photo (2004) taken in Luxor, Egypt with the Nikon F65 camera, with the cheapest and probably worst consumer lens made by Nikon, the 28-80G...
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The 50mm family
Here are among the best and cheapest lenses you can get from Nikon. On the right the cheap 50mm 1.8, a lens most photographers should have in their bag. Finishing is plasticky but picture quality is there. The lens is a bit soft in the corners fully open. If you want a slightly better lens , you can go for the one on the left, twice as expensive but faster (1.4) and sharper. Closed down it will outperform the 1.8 @1.8. That lens is a better choice for low light or night photography. The one in the middle is a bit special. It is not being made anymore. This is an old AIS (manual focus) design, among the fastest lenses ever. The maximum aperture is 1.2 and the lens is performing very well. Pictures are good fully open and become excellent when closed down. That lens is much more expensive and can be found used. Highly recommended for people having a pro-body (like any D2-- or D3-- camera) allowing metering with manual lenses.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Brussels
Strange light in this picture taken during a light show on the Grand Place in Brussels: the shot has been taken from a small street. I liked the contrast between the colors of the light show and the street light.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Pano
This is my very first try at panoramas. I took a number of pictures of the Grand Canyon, no tripod, just handheld and just assembled them using Photoshop PhotoMerge option. This is not working perfectly as you can see artefacts, color issues and some stitching issues. But this is a first try. I intend to go and give it a try in the coming days using a tripod and a pano head to get better results. One of the issues with the stitching is the distortion (pictures cannot really be superimposed). I also have some color/exposure issues, which is a bit strange since I shot manual with the same settings for all the pictures and no other post-processing has been applied.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Lightshow
An interesting light show on the Grand Place in Brussels... shot at night with the D200+17-50 2.8 on a tripod.
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