Did I ever mention how much I love my 50 mm f/1.4? I didn’t? I must’ve! Well, if I didn’t…: I love my 50 mm f/1.4. And why, would you wonder…? Because the right subjects shot with an aperture larger than f/2 give you this magnificent depth of field, this sweet bokeh which is such a feast to look at…

D700, ISO400, 1/125 sec @ f/1.7, Nikkor 50mm 1.4

D700, ISO400, 1/125 sec @ f/1.7, Nikkor 50mm 1.4

Some time ago I wrote about how our balcony’s facing west and how we enjoy frequent sunsets.
Now that the ever present snow clouds accompanying the winter on its way out, we get to see those sunsets again. Today was especially colorful and I was too busy to get out and find a decent spot to make a good composition of it. But I think this picture tells enough.

D200, ISO100, 1/45 sec @ f/5.6, Sigma 10-20mm

More to follow, without any doubt.

It’s been on the minds of photographers around the world since way back.
Many photographers are told to, and have, also get themselves familiar in the area of (digital) video and moving images. The time that stills are taken from video images is drawing near.
Red Digital Cinema is working hard on making digital camera manufacturers obsolete. The toys that they have announced for the coming period are… well… very interesting to say the least.

Image courtesy Red Digital Cinema

The Epic 617, announced for 2010, is said to have a whopping 261 MP sensor with a 186x56mm sensor size. Imagine an image of 28000×9334 pixels.
I hope by the time this camera comes on the market, Apple’s released a G15, because otherwise processing the images might be quite the painstaking and time consuming ordeal.

This kind of gadget are still well outside my budget. But how long will it take for these things to get available for “normal” people?
And what will happen to photography?
I’m sure there’ll always be photography and photographers, as there will always be newspapers and books, but boy, this is a development…

Ok, it’s not the best picture ever, and I know it’s out of focus, but it’s dang near the funniest picture ever.
I can’t help but go back to this image and every time it cracks me up.
For some reason it reminds me of Bill Clinton in court swearing to the judge and jury “I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN!”.
Don’t ask me why…

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/2.8, off-camera SB-800 with Photoflex softbox

I’m not a super avid birder myself, but when I see nice ones I do like to capture them. I think I got a bit of the fever from a friend of mine I met back in the US last summer. When we drove home from a shoot we passed through a place called Ninepipes, which is supposed to be a bird-heaven. We sat there with our camera’s at the ready for close to two hours and shot some really nice pictures.

D200, ISO200, 1/400 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 70-200mm, 1.4x teleconverter

Anyway… Last weekend when I went out on a hike with my better half we encountered a supposedly rare species (at least it was rare 18 years ago when my better half got her bird book ): a eurasian three-toed woodpecker. I missed a woodpecker already earlier that hike, because I had the wrong lens on, but this time I had it right.

D200, ISO100, 1/30 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 70-200mm, 1.4x teleconverter

So yesterday after my life-threatening operation downtown Helsinki I went to a big store where they sell fabrics. There was one piece missing still for my home studio table top: a black backdrop.
I went into the store and enthusiastically asked for black silk, thinking it would be some 30 euros per meter. You can imagine my surprise that the cheapest suitable silk they had in store was closer to 70 euros per meter. That was a good amount more than I had budgeted and seriously more than I was willing to spend on it. So I had to downgrade… I found a very nice piece of Lycra or something and that was really the best piece after the silk I could find. The others were not really black, or too shiny, or dusty, or what not. But this nice piece of cloth still cost me 39 euros per meter. And I needed two meters at least. So… *sighs* about 80 euros lighter (oh, and a 50 euros parking ticket, because I parked three meters from a pedestrian crossing instead of five – that’s TWO tickets in two weeks, for crying out loud!!!), but a nice backdrop richer I went home to test it out.

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm, off-camera SB-800 with Photoflex softbox

I went out to get a bunch of leaves and I even had a really nice conversation with an old guy who was working in the garden close by. That’s such un-Finnish behavior! And I like it

Oh… And when I was testing out the backdrop, I found out why it was so expensive anyway… It said with big bold white letters “GIORGIO ARMANI” on it
Hahahaha! Now that I come to think of it… How decadent is it really? I’m using a GIORGIO ARMANI cloth for my photography backdrop…
Oh my… where is it going with me?

It actually did stop raining. I took a good walk with my better half today (still walking off the extra pounds that I gained back in the US ).
Fall colors are really coming through now everywhere. I’ll save you a lot of reading, just look at the pictures.

D200, ISO100, 1/1000 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/4.8, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm, off-camera flash SB-800

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/5.6, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm, off-camera flash SB-800

I saw it already from the weather (well, if I may believe the stories it’s been fall here ever since the beginning of June), but nature itself wasn’t really sure yet what to do.
This afternoon I drove by this house and noticed this beautiful Thicket Creeper creeping up along the facade. You can really see the colors go from green to a deep burgundy red and it makes the house pop out instantly, even if it’s a bit further off the main street.

And I guess it means that fall’s really begun now.
I’ll probably get a lot more photos with all different kinds of colors. Looking forward to it.
If only it wouldn’t rain this much…

D200, ISO100, 1/45 sec @ f/4, Sigma 10-20mm