Photo(s) of the Week: Urban Macro by request

Nikon D7000 w/ 105mm Micro Nikkor, 1/800sec at f8, ISO400

I had a personal request recently that I shoot more macro photos, and who am I, if not someone who honors personal requests!  So I slapped my 105mm Micro Nikkor on my camera and went for a walk on what was a pleasantly sunny almost-spring day.  These two photos were from that walk.

The shot above is the corner of a wall, sort of an ode to brick walls.  The shot below is the top of a fire hydrant.  Though I'm quite certain they weren't singing about fire hydrants, the song Ready to Start by the Arcade Fire has popped into my head:

"My mind is open wide, and now I'm ready to start"


Nikon D7000 w/ 105mm Micro Nikkor, 1/320sec at f8, ISO400

Photo of the Week: branchscape

It's a shame I don't find more time to use my macro lens.  Whenever I do, I always seem to produce some interesting results.  I like this photo as a bridge between winter and spring-- perhaps I'll revisit this branch in a week and see if there's anything growing on it.

Nikon D7000 with 105mm Micro Nikkor lens, 1/1200sec at f8, ISO1000.

Photo of the Week: the holidays, unplugged

I'd love to claim I shot this on January 2nd, but I'm not that vigilant about taking down my Christmas lights.  This is from December.  I don't get a lot of sun in my apartment, especially during the winter, but on this day a bright crevice of light sliced through a dining room window and into my living room, lasting no more than half an hour.  It was just enough time to throw the macro lens on my camera and take some photos lying around on the floor.  A fine way to spend a winter afternoon.

Photo Details: Nikon D7000 with Micro Nikkor 105mm lens, 1/25sec at f6.3, and ISO800.  The lens' VR helped a bit to keep this sharp, but I really should have been using a tripod for this shot.

Photo(s) of the Week: urban macro continued

My photos of the week are a continuation of my long neglected urban macro series. Both were taken on Foster Ave, in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago.  The top photo is some interesting terracotta, the bottom a locked factory window.

Photo Details: Nikon D90 with 60mm Nikon Micro lens.  Top: 1/1250sec at f6.3 and ISO400.  Bottom: 1/125sec at f6.3 and ISO400.

Photo of the Week: stability

I took this photo while waiting for the EL on the Foster Ave. Purple Line platform in Evanston.  This was shot within the last 15 minutes of sunlight.  I like how this photo reads almost as a Macro shot, yet it was taken with my 16-85mm zoom.  I simply cannot say enough about how much I like this lens.

Photo Details: Nikon D90 w/ 16-85mm lens, 1/80sec at f5.6, ISO200.  The exact focal length here was 85mm.

Urban Macro is Really Hard

Another shot in my long neglected urban macro series.  I found this on one of the Purple Line platforms in Evanston.  I've neglected this series for a few reasons, but they primarily come back to this: urban macro is really hard.  It's hard from a technical standpoint, but more importantly, it's just hard to find compelling urban macro photos.  Oh sure, I could easily go out and shoot random picture of brickwork or cracks in the sidewalk, but those wouldn't be very interesting.  What I'm looking for are photos that say something unique about the urban environment, and if possible, Chicago. 

Ah well... the series goes on, just more slowly than expected.

CTA abstract series, part 1

I wasn't expecting this to be a series, but what hell, two or three photos make a series, right?  I had it planned all along!

The photo above is a macro shot of a sign on the Thorndale L platform.  I was facing east when I took this-- it was fairly late in the day so the low hanging sun was crossing sharply under the platform's canopy, illuminating this sign.

The two images below are of the metal grates that the CTA uses as dividers on the platforms.  The red blob in the first photo is an out of focus CTA sign in the background.  The second photo is actually of two dividers, spaced about 6 feet apart on a stairwell.  I put the focal point between them, which is what caused the kaleidoscope effect that you see as the patterns merged.  I'm not really sure if this photo works-- the fact that it requires an explanation leads me to believe that it may be a bit too abstract.





Details:

#1: Nikon D90 with 60mm lens, 1/1200sec at f6.3 (cropped square via photoshop)
#2: Nikon D50 with 60mm lens, 1/800sec at f7.1
#3: Nikon D80 with 60mm lens, 1/500sec at f5.5
(Note: these photos were all taken on different days)

Battery!

Popular Photography has an extremely useful review of double A batteries in their June issue.  I'm surprised that I haven't seen this examined by other photography magazines.  We all use them, after all.  The results are not entirely surprising-- it turns out that you get what you pay for.  For example, among the rechargable batteries tested, PopPhoto says the Energizer "15 minute charger" are a best buy.  They're also the most expensive of the bunch, at $29.87 for four batteries and the charger.



Of the disposable batteries, Energizer's E2 Lithium (seen above) costs more than twice as much as the next most expensive, at $16.84 for a pack of eight, but they last nearly 4 times as long!  I can attest to this, as I recently bought some of these to use in my pocket camera.  Granted I don't use that camera very often, but I can't remember the last time I had to swap these batteries out.

On a completely unrelated note, I suddenly have the song Battery, by Metallica, in my head.  Smashing through the boundaries, lunacy has found me... cannot stop the battery!  Yes, my head is a strange place.

Photo details: Nikon D50 with 60mm Nikon Micro lens, 1/640sec at f6.3.  If you click on the photo you can see a much larger version.

Urban Macro

A few months ago I purchased a macro lens.  At the time I suggested I wanted to use it for urban macro.  "Urban macro?" one of my friends asked skeptically... "huh?"  That seemed to be the general reaction.

Truth be told, it wasn't a fully fleshed out idea and still isn't, but I think these two photos are a good starting point:



Nikon D50 with 60mm Nikkor Micro lens, 1/200sec at f5.



Nikon D50 with 60mm Nikkor Micro lens, 1/500sec at f3.3.

I should also mention that the bottom photo was featured on Chicago Public Radio today.  Click here to see a screenshot.  Chicago Public radio also has an archive where you can see some of my other featured photographs.

Lens Review: AF Micro-NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8D

I'm a bargain hunter when it comes to lenses.  My favorite lens right now is the Nikon 50mm f1.8.  Not only is it light, compact, and sharp, but it can also be found for around $100.  Sure, the Nikon 50mm f1.4 is a better lens, but it's also three times as expensive.  So I was pretty excited recently when I found the Nikon 60mm Micro on ebay for less than $300, shipping included!  Can you say "BUY IT NOW."  Click, click, click. 

This lens, it should be noted, sells new for $394.00 (as of 11/07) through Adorama, itself not a bad price.  Nikon's other two fixed focal length Micro lenses, the 105mm and 200mm, sell for 759.95 and 1,339.95 respectively.

The build quality of the 60mm is impressive.  It's about the same size as my 18-70mm zoom, but it’s a little heavier and feels more robust.  It makes the 50mm feel like a kid's toy.  Still, it's definitely not too heavy and fits nicely in my camera bag.

This lens features several switches that you won't find on newer Nikkor lenses.  In addition to the focus ring and aperture dial, there's a dial which allows switching between manual and autofocus, and also a switch that changes the autofocus between "limit" and "full"  (The limit setting is for non-macro uses).  While I realize other lenses don't have these dials and it's an outdated design, I rather like the tactile feel of them.  My only complaint with the lens construction is the 62mm filter size, which doesn’t match any of my other lenses.  Not a big deal.

Here are some early examples (click on any image to see a larger version at flickr):







As should be obvious, this lens is extremely sharp.  I would say it's the sharpest lens that I own right now.  It has next to no vignetting or distortion that I can see, and is a fine lens for non-macro shooting as well.  I could see the focal length being very useful for portrait work.  Unfortunately the focal length is also very similar to the 50mm that I already own, so it's unlikely that I'll be putting this in my camera bag unless I have specific Macro photos that I plan to shoot.

A couple of additional, minor flaws:

• The focal length is fairly short for Macro work.  To shoot 1:1 Macro, you have to put the lens extremely close to the subject.  In other words, this isn't the best lens for shooting insects, but for anything stationary, this isn't really an issue.
• This is an older AF lens, not AF-S, which means the auto focus is dependent on the motor in the camera body.  Something to keep in mind if you own a Nikon D40, since those cameras lack that motor and you would be limited to manual focus. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with this lens.  If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them?  Although the obvious uses for a macro lens are in nature photography-- flowers, leaves, bugs, etc-- I'm much more interesting in finding ways of incorporating this into my urban work.

UPDATE 1/28/08: Nikon has released an upgrade to this lens, the AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED.  Looks like they added a Silent Wave Motor, removed the aperture dial, and made a few other changes.  I still recommend the older version for those on a budget, perhaps even more so now because the price will likely drop.