I took it out for a test run today.
Nothing challenging, but interesting to do nonetheless. On my D700 I have the vertical grip. I haven’t got it on the D800 (yet, primarily because I think the Nikon grip for this camera is ridiculously overpriced at 450+€ + 155€ battery). Having only the standard D800 without battery grip makes it feel rather flimsy when you’re used to the extra grip. But it’s only a matter of time. The LCD is superb. Much better than that of the D700. Even in bright sunlight, which it was today, the image is very good.
In terms of file size it really IS a monster. I’ve never really been the big card kind of guy. Rather have several smaller cards, so IF something happens, you don’t loose too much, but for this little guy you really do need some massive storage. I had a nice 32 gig card for my D700, which fit about 1200 shots on lossless compressed raw. I put this card in the D800, formatted it and I could fit 400 shots. The D700 NEFs are between 12 and 15 meg, the D800 NEFs are between 40 and 50 meg. That’s gonna take a whole lot of storage space…

But in the end it’s worth it, I’m sure.
I’ll do some more testing under more challenging circumstances and see what comes out of this. The first ones are very satisfying. The colors are stunning, straight out of camera.
What I did notice, first thing when I took some test shots out of the box, is that the color of the pictures on screen has turned more yellowish/greenish. On the D700 it’s more reddish. The pictures on my calibrated computer screen are spot-on, though.

D800, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/8, Nikkor 50mm

100% crop of a detail from the above image

It took only a month and a half of waiting, but it finally came… I believe words are not necessary…
Me = happy camper!

D700, ISO1600, 1/125 sec @ f/3.5, Tamron 90mm macro

Or your jpgs, of course, although if you have a sky as in my original image, there will be no detail left in your jpg.
The discussion raw vs jpg has been beaten to death. Many times over.
“Jpgs look a lot better when they come out of camera!” Of course they do. They are processes IN-camera with either the default settings from when you bought the camera, or the customized settings that you entered. Raw images always look flat and boring when they come out of the camera, because you’re looking at unprocessed data. YOU need to do the post processing, and here’s the good thing: you get to control what’s happening
In any case, fact is: raw files contain more data to recover than jpgs, so if you have the time to fuss around in post-processing, then do shoot in raw. If your end-goal doesn’t require high resolution and/or high detailed material, and you don’t have too much time on your hands to spend post-processing, you’re better off shooting jpg. Or if you have money to burn on memory cards, shoot both, so you can have the goodies of both worlds.

D700, ISO200, 1/125 sec @ f/8, Nikkor 50mm

The above is the originals. Yes, IS the originals, it’s only one file. It’s a fake HDR, basically. The left image is the original exposure @ 1/125 sec. The right one is the one where I pulled down the exposure slider in Lightroom almost all the way to zero. That gave me just enough detail in the sky to work with (try that with a jpg! ).

I opened both instances in Photoshop and copied the right one onto a new layer.

Photoshop layer palette screenshot

First two adjustment layers are to make the sky blue. The rest is for bringing out the colors in the walls and roof of the buildings. The last -curves- adjustment layer is for the street. The top layer was added to straighten the buildings.

The end result after the Photoshop work is done.

Let me warn you in advance. If you’re sensitive to graphic material, leave now. If you’re under 18, leave now. The last part is not pretty. And no, this blog is not going to feature this kind of material structurally.

I’ve written about Vappu before. It’s the Finnish celebration of Labour Day. It’s one of two days (together with Pikkujoulu – Little Christmas), where people are “allowed” to drink themselves into oblivion theoretically without *any* moral or ethical consequences.
I don’t drink alcohol myself, so drinking yourself into oblivion always gets my judgment. I don’t judge anyone for drinking alcohol, but if you get so wasted you don’t know or remember what you’re doing, you lose my respect (like that is worth anything, but let’s not go there ).

Anyway…
We’ll do the nice part first. The day after…
It was a beautiful day. I don’t think it’s ever been this nice weather in all those years I’ve been in Finland. Sitting with a stack of magazines and/or a good book on a picnic blanket drinking tea, sodas, champagne and/or cider (not for me, but thanks Eugene! ), crackers with cream cheese, chips… Few things can beat that.
A staggering amount of people sitting and roaming around, and at the location where we were the traffic was completely stuck. Those foolish enough to have come by car, or tried to wrestle their way back home got plenty of time to practice their patience.

Vappuaatto was also very nice. Relaxed day, and a relaxed evening before going downtown. We had tickets to a concert of Aikakone, which we didn’t make it to. We ended up elsewhere first for a bit too long, and when we got to the place where the concert was, the line was so endless that we decided not to wait. And so we had a healthy bite of fast food and headed home. We got to our apartment building to find two people having at it in our portal (really, this is not the dodgiest part of town, so we were quite surprised). And not just having at it. The guy had his had up her crotch and her skirt was so far down that a nice tattoo just above the cheeks was prominently visible.
We were by bike, so we went around to the back entrance and got in from there. When we came to the hallway from the back entrance (from where we could see into the portal) the motion detectors switched on the lights, and that kind of snapped our horny visitors back into this world. She pulled up her skirt, he wiped off his hand and they took off. And that was it. Or so we thought.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against sex. I have nothing against porn. I’m a guy, I have no problem admitting I watched some (and -although I have no scientific proof for this- I’m convinced most of the guys have (and most of them who say they don’t are lying ) ). And I have absolutely no problem against people making out on the street, up to a certain extend, of course. And if you’re of the public type, I also have no problems with it if you want to do it in a toilet in a restaurant, bar, or whatever, for all I care you do it in the fitting room of a store.
But there are limits. Now we’re getting again to this point of Vappu, where people are “allowed” to do “anything” without consequences. I’ve been in this country for a decade, and I’ve seen my fair share of funny, questionable, shocking and unethical things. Vappuaatto 2012 takes the prize. By a mile.

We got to our apartment and before heading to bed we looked outside, and guess what…? Our steaming couple from the portal had moved across the street and had continued their session in the all-brightening illumination of the street lights. His hand was yet again in her crotch, and she was enjoying it. Clearly. And after that her head went into his crotch. I kid you not. There were people passing by from both sides and they didn’t even look up. They just went at it. And still for about 40 minutes or so.

I’m typically not a paparazzi. I tend to think I have respect for people and think that you’re free to do what you want (also up to a certain extend, of course). But this was a whole different thing. I took out my camera and put on the 70-200mm. Big Brother’s watching.
What you do in the confines of four walls is your own business. If I would happen to see my neighbors across the street having a go at it in their apartment I turn away. That’s their business, that’s their home, and I respect that.
Maybe you’ll ask: so why put up these pictures? Why not show respect for these people and stay quiet about what you saw? Why embarrass them by putting these pictures for the world to see? And I’ll answer you: why would I have ANY respect for you when you have no respect for yourself? No dignity? When you stoop so low, when you allow yourself to get so drunk that you engage in oral sex on the street in plain sight? When you embarrass yourself and others for having to witness this when they pass you?
My respect for people does go so far that I did blur out the faces. I’m not out to destroying anyone’s life, but I do kind of hope that one of them two happens to come across this blog post and realizes that this is simply not done. And that if I was there with a camera, someone else may have been, too. With less “honorable” intentions…

Anyway… Hope you all had a great and sunny Labour Day, and that y’all behaved

Our trip to Norway to shoot the Northern Lights was quickly on its way to turn into a big, expensive disaster. We had one more chance, one more night.
And it was a clear night. A beautiful night. A cold night. So nothing could go wrong, right?
Or so we thought…

We arrived at our destination, Ersfjordbotn, well in time. Just before sunset. We set up, and I shot some pictures of the setting sun.

D700, ISO200, 6 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 50mm

D700, ISO200, 10 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 70-200mm

D700, ISO200, 30 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 70-200mm

And then the waiting started… In the end you of course never know. 80% is a good chance, but there’s still 20% chance to nothing. Slowly, with frustration, cold and a tickling bladder (not yet tRickling) creeping up on us it looked like we hit the jackpot with 20% of zilch. The arm and leg we paid for the trip to this country where everything seems to costs nothing short of fluid gold, was going to fly by with nothing to show for. At least not that what we set out for…

We shot a few pictures in the hours that passed (and hours they were, and stubborn WE were).

D700, ISO200, 1/6 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 14-24mm

D700, ISO800, 6 sec @ f/2,8, Nikkor 14-24mm

We got company from a few other photographers and it didn’t help our mood when one of them told us that the previous night had been spectacular over Tromsø. We had been sitting out in the cold for about seven hours waiting for the Lights to come, because it was supposed to have been overcast over Tromsø and clear where we are, and we went home empty-handed only to find out that we should’ve best stayed in Tromsø and we would’ve had a great show. But no…

In the end it doesn’t matter how stubborn you are, how eager you are, how patient you are… After sitting in the cold for another six or so hours we accepted our losses and packed up our gear and headed back home. Our newly acquired photographer-friend hitched a ride with us back towards town. And I’ll be damned… we were just over the hills when he shouts “Look there! It’s starting! Pull over!”
Sure as I’m sitting here writing this… the sky turned all green on us and it was dancing like there was no tomorrow.

Sure, you see it on pictures. And it’s beautiful on pictures. But when you see it for real, when you see it with your own eyes… It’s nothing short of breath-taking. Here’s a piece of nature phenomena which struck me silent on the spot. The first five-ten minutes we just stood there gaping at with mouths open. If it would’ve lasted for only that time, we still wouldn’t have had any pictures of it. But we at least saw it in its full beauty. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures. And I have pictures coming up. But I couldn’t possibly explain how it is to look at this in real life.

The only thing… Pictures are brighter. It doesn’t happen often that the pictures are more beautiful in terms of color, saturation and vibrance (unless of course you bump the sliders in post-processing), but the actual Northern Lights aren’t all that bright. They are very clear, and very visible, that’s not it, but the colors in the pictures, even in the unedited raw files, are so much deeper and saturated than what I saw with my own eyes…
Not that it takes away any of the awe that it gave me…

I’m planning another trip. I realize we pushed it in terms of time left before the climate changed too much for the chances to see the Northern Lights. Next year it’ll be early/mid February instead of end March.

D700, ISO400, 6 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 50mm

D700, ISO800, 4 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 50mm

D700, ISO800, 4 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 50mm

D700, ISO800, 6 sec @ f/2,8, Nikkor 14-24mm

(So yeah, the last one’s photoshopped, but that was because I was so frustrated and I so badly wanted to have a picture with the Northern Lights coming into that point where the mountains meet… I’ll get a real one of those next year )

Sometimes you run into the funniest things in the funniest places… Right there on the rocks, at low tide, all exposed Wouldn’t want to keep it from you:

D700, ISO200, 1/180 sec @ f/6.7, Nikkor 50mm

So… That was a disappointment… Beautiful day the entire day, and everything down the drain because it turned overcast in a few hours.
Ok, maybe not everything down the drain, we did get some good pictures, but still. We didn’t get what we actually came for.
That called for another night on the town. We were back at the hotel around 23:30. And so it appears that IF anything happens in the city of Tromsø, it doesn’t happen before midnight. We went to the same place as yesterday, which was actually full with people. Not so different from Finland, I must add, since there were a good number of them well beyond there quota. It must’ve been an expensive night for them.

We didn’t make it a long night, since we had another long day ahead of us. Last chance, as we were homeward bound the next morning. The weather forecast was good according to several websites now. We woke up in our brightly sunlit walk-in closets and that set our moods in the right direction
Today’s route would lead us around Hella, Bakkejord (the area where the first boat pics are from), and Sommarøy back to Ersfjordbotn, which is a typical place where many people before us have shot the Northern Lights.

D700, ISO200, 1/500 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 14-24mm

D700, ISO200, 1/500 sec @ f/8, Nikkor 70-200mm

D700, ISO200, 1/500 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 50mm. 180-degree panorama built from five images.

D700, ISO200, 1/350 sec @ f/9.5, Nikkor 50mm. 180-degree panorama built from five images.

D700, ISO200, 30 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 50mm, Singh-Ray VariND filter

D700, ISO200, 20 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 50mm, Singh-Ray VariND filter

After our first day of scouting we were sent to different bar, a place which was THE place to be on a Tuesday (!). Well… The place was positively buzzing with about 5 people. So after a few drinks we headed back to the hotel, tired from a long day of driving in the rain. We did check up on the weather forecast, never giving up hope that the trip to this godforsaken country, which was called The Paris of the North, where a drink costs you an arm and a leg, would be a total miserable loss. And guess what? Out of the 5 websites forecasting the weather for the Troms area one actually mentioned a clearing up for the next day. Of course with all our hope we fully believed that one website and with sunshine in our hearts we withdrew in our walk-in closets and called it a night.

Lo and behold… We woke up to patches of blue in the sky. We couldn’t believe our eyes!
Another day of scouting ahead, and bring out the sunglasses!
Tourist information told us we would better be heading east for the night, where the sky would be the clearest. Near Tromsø things would be clouded over come evening, so no use to stick around there. So off we went, in the direction of the Lyngs Alps, a mountain range east of Tromsø, topping just under 2000 meters. We drove all the way to the east tip of the island, to Breivikeidet, there where the ferry leaves to Svensby.
It was there were we set up “camp”.

D700, ISO200, 1/500 sec @ f/8, Nikkor 50mm. A 180-degree panorama put together from 10 images.

We had plenty of time to kill before sunset and darkness, so we got acquainted with the area a bit.

D700, ISO200, 1/180 sec @ f/8, Nikkor 50mm

There was an actual beach there. I’m not quite sure how often per year you could actually lie on the beach this far north, but pretty it was. And the water… Shockingly clear…

D700, ISO200, 1/180 sec @ f/8, Nikkor 50 mm

(I didn’t position them like that…)

D700, ISO200, 1/250 sec @ f/8, Tamron 90mm macro

And some more landscapes:

D700, ISO200, 1/250 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 70-200mm

My buddy spotted a totally unexpected guest when he was standing here: a seal! Unfortunately he didn’t manage to get a good picture of it and it took off too soon. I managed to only get a glimpse of it from where I was standing

D700, ISO200, 1/125 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm

And they had boats, too

D700, ISO200, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 50mm

D700, ISO200, 1/350 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 50mm

And while we were waiting for the darkness and the night to set in, which it finally did after us spending about six hours in the cold there, we saw happening what we were dreading already for a few hours. More and more clouds came in and what was supposed to be a clear night was about to go all wrong.

D700, ISO200, 10 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 70-200mm

It ended up clouding over so much that we decided to get away from here and hoping we would drive towards some lighter skies.
On our way back, for just a brief moment, we thought we saw something over the mountain range, but we didn’t capture it on sensor. It might’ve just been our eagerness…

D700, ISO200, 15 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 14-24mm

So Norway… What a beautiful country…

The Troms area is supposed to be one of the best areas to view the Northern Lights. I’d never seen the Northern Lights in my life before, and it’s been on the top of my list for quite some time. Finally we made the decision and booked our trip. A 5-day stay in Tromsø was supposed to be opportunity enough to see the Northern Lights in an area where the chances to see the Lights are according to statistics, especially in this year and next year when the solar activity is at its highest in 7 years, close to 80%.

We kept an eye on the weather forecast and a week before departure things looked ok still. The closer we came to departure date, the bleaker things got. We checked several forecast websites and they pretty much all had a different forecast. Even the best forecast was still 5 days of overcast weather with rain, slush and snow.

We came in on Monday in the late afternoon. Needed to pick up the car and check into the hotel, so we didn’t have much time to do anything. Not that the weather would allow us much anyway, since it was raining cats and dogs.
We asked at the lobby of the hotel for a good place to go have a drink and got an address which was guaranteed buzzing on a Monday (!) night. With about 10-12 guys watching a football match, this place called Blå Rock Cafe, was absolutely thrilling *ahem* The food was good, though, gotta give ‘em that.

Tuesday we went scouting. Forecast for this day (and the coming days for that matter) were dramatic, with more overcast sky, more rain, more slush and more snow. We were set to leave on Friday morning and according to the forecast Friday night was going to be the first clear night (of course!). We were silently talking about extending our visit to Saturday, but with Norwegian prices (fuel @ €2,10 per liter, €115 for a walk-in closet with a too short bed, €14 for a pint of beer), I tell you: NOT funny!
Anyway… Even if this day wasn’t the beautiful clear day, we nevertheless took beautiful pictures. Overcast sky and some foggy clouds can make for a great landscape.

We drove from Tromsø almost to Tromvik, but didn’t get out of the car much after the first 40 mins. It started raining so bad that one step out of the car would mean getting soaked. We had to make do with what we shot on the first stretch of the scouting trip.

D700, ISO1600, 1/1000 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 70-200mm

D700, ISO1600, 1/1000 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 70-200mm

D700, ISO1600, 1/1000 @ f/13, Nikkor 70-200mm

D700, ISO1600, 1/500 sec @ f/13, Nikkor 70-200mm

Following the previous post about Norway I have a few more examples of the boat. Approach was the same as in the previous post.

This image was combined out of three exposures.
Left, exposed for the foreground: D700, ISO200, 1/125 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 14-24mm.
Middle, exposed for the boat: D700, ISO200, 1/350 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 14-24mm.
Right, exposed for the sky: D700, ISO200, 1/750 sec @ f/11, Nikkor 14-24mm.

I’m sure I would’ve been fine with just two exposures for this one. There’s enough detail in the RAW file to bring out the foreground sufficiently from the middle exposure, but owwell… This worked out just fine, too.
And the end result:

The end result after all the work is done.

And the same for a detail of the boat.

Two exposures here.
Left exposed for the sky: D700, ISO200, 1/750 sec @ f/8, Nikkor 50mm.
Right exposed for the wood: D700, ISO200, 1/250 sec @ f/8, Nikkor 50mm.

And the end result:

The end result