Sun light

france 2010-66, originally uploaded by gugs.

Shot on the atlantic coast in France. I liked the evening light on the wood...

180mm 2.8

gear-6, originally uploaded by gugs.

A not so well known Nikon lens, a compact alternative to the 70-200 zooms with excellent image quality even fully open. That lens is not too popular because of the old AF design (no AF-S, needs a camera body with motor) and the fixed focal length. It is however among the best portrait lenses on FX format, with a creamy bokeh and nice transitions to the out of focus area. Highly recommended.

Sekonic L-358

I have been using a simple flashmeter mainly for studio photography: the Gossen F Digipro. While that flashmeter perfectly satisfied my needs, I recently discovered another reasonably priced option: the Sekonic L-358, a more high end option. This flashmeter has a number of significant advantages like possibilities to record info but also, and that's a very interesting feature, the possibility to add a wireless module to drive, for instance, Pocket Wizards, making it a very useful tool for any "mini-studio" photographers using standard flashes piloted with Pocket Wizards.

For people in Europe, you can find the Sekonic over here:


And the wireless extension module over here:

Samyang fisheye

DSC_6087, originally uploaded by gugs.

A very interesting alternative to the Nikon fisheye (or other brands if you are using Canon, Pentax, Minolta, Sony...). This lens is ridiculously cheap and actually delivers better pictures than the much more expensive equivalents. A more detailed review is available here:

http://www.techniphoto.com/wiki/index.php?title=8mm_fisheye_Samyang 

the lens is available under different brand names, among others here:

Flash in the sun

DSC_6018, originally uploaded by gugs.

An interesting effect: using a flash full power on a sunny day to "kill" the sun. This shot is outdoor under the sun. The background was dark and has been darkened a little bit more in Lightroom (3.0 Beta). Shot with the small D40x camera, and a remote SB-600 flash using an iTTL cable.

Effect with flash

DSC_5994, originally uploaded by gugs.

A simple special effect with an SB-600 flash connected to a D40x camera through an iTTL cable. The flash is positioned on the left to get the colored shadow on the wall.

Florence by night

firenze nikon-207, originally uploaded by gugs.

night view on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy. Shot with a 35 1.8 lens on the Nikon D40x, a nice small consumer grade camera, on a micro tripod.

Night photography with P&S

firenze canon_-19, originally uploaded by gugs.

A hand held shot with the Canon S90 point and shoot camera, the best (as of today) for high ISO, low light photography. The cathedral in Florence, Italy by night. Amazing quality for a P&S. The noise level is quite acceptable and comparable to the quality you could get from a reflex camera just a few years ago. ISO 1600 is usable on such a P&S (like here).

Hockey

hockey-gvh-2, originally uploaded by gugs.

Photographing hockey, not an easy task because of white balance issues and the ice. WB should be measured on the ice to take care of the lighting, and a +1.3 up to +1.7 EV exposure correction should be applied because the camera will underexpose to get the ice neutral grey.
A general overview shot taken with the 200-400VR zoom on the Nikon D3 camera @ISO6400.

85 1.4 AIS

BE0_2532, originally uploaded by gugs.

Amazing what you can still do with a very old lens, the 85mm 1.4 AIS Nikkor, a manual portrait lens. A wonderful choice on a full frame camera body, to play with very thin depth of focus. Here shot fully open on the Nikon D3. Center weighted metering on the face, playing with the harsh contrasts. Focus on the eye.