Nikon Stuff [ Nikon Gear that matters ]

“Music In The Air”
©David A. Ziser

Here is another image I made of our beautiful bride which I featured in my Wednesday’s post, “Elegant Afternoon.” [link]. The home in which we were shooting was just beautiful – just check out the pipe organ on the left – pretty amazing.  The music room, once again provided us with a stunning location for portraits.  As I’ve said so many times previously, my lighting is simple and fast to use.  I had my assistant positioned camera left holding my flash which was shooting through my translucent umbrella.  Today I would have used my Zumbrella [link] – shameless self-promotion;~)  The challenge for this image was to keep the daylight coming through the windows from blowing out.  I had to select a shutter sped that would allow me to pick up a bit of the ambient light, but at the same time be fast enough to maintain some detail in those windows. I think we reached a nice balance. Camera specs: Nikon D1x fitted with 18-35mm Nikkor lens at 31mm, F5.6 @ 1/50 second, ISO 400.

Enjoy!  -David

“Love As Big As The World”
©David A. Ziser

Anyone following the blog knows I’m a fan of the fisheye lens.  I just love the way it “bends” the lines and maybe even a bit of the reality of the scene.  The fisheye really adds a visually different and hopefully exciting perspective to an image.  From my vantage point in taking this image, the sky takes on a “worldly” perspective behind the bride. Maybe not everyone’s “cup of tea” but I still like it. Lighting from camera left with my undiffused Quantum on full power. Camera specs: Nikon D1x fitted with 8mm Sigma Fisheye, F 14 @ 1/500 second, ISO 400.  Enjoy!  -David

During my visit to Saudi Arabia, the majority of my time was involved with teaching my workshops. My host Abdullah Al-Saeed made sure that any free time I had, was spent sight seeing and enjoying the hospitality of his country. I was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity extended by Abdullah, his friends and the Saudi people I met during my visit. This was truly a once in a life time experience, one I would like to have again!

GPS technology on my camera would certainly help me identify where this photo was taken. The gentleman shown in the photo at the top of this post is Mohammed Al-Musalli, he is a local artist from the town of Qatif.

If memory serves me, this is a very old fort build in the 16th century, it is the oldest castle in the Persian Gulf and was built by the Portuguese. It is located in the center of Tarut Island. Anyway, while being shown this wonderful location I asked to photography our host over looking a Mosque in this beautiful town.

In terms of lighting, this was a very quick set up. I first metered the background, underexposed it by a stop and a half and than turned on the strobe. Adam, one of my students at the workshop was with us this day and he hand held the SB-600 off camera and to the left. The photo really took only a few moments to achieve, having a VAL available doesn’t hurt.

Prior to visiting this historic site, I had the opportunity to visit Mohammed in his home/studio. Mohammed is an accomplished and well know artist in his part of the world. His a photographer, painter and 3D artist.

After visiting the castle at Tarout we went to a beach where there was a traditional fishing boat beached on the sand. I had a few moments to photograph this ship before we lost the sun for the day.

I managed to add a quick fill flash using an SB-800 with the help of my friend Adam. He held the strobe at camera left and he used a hand to flag the flash off the sand in the foreground. DT

Jason Odell has written one of the first reviews of Nikon’s new 16-35mm zoom lens and compares it to the 14-24mm f/2.8  and 17-35mm f/2.8 Nikkor wide-angle zooms. Read more…