Ever since I have Nikon D700, I've always been wanting to get the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4. I've seen many beautiful low light as well as non low light shots. But I already have the 50mm f/1.8 so this f/1.4 was not on the top priority list. Out of nowhere last weekend I found a great deal on this lens from craigslist and was able to get it for $210. New lens would run about $330 or so and used one on craigslist would run about $250-$270. So now my Nikkor f/1.8 gonna be leaving me soon.
Also on my wish list is a super light weight tripod. I've been browsing around for one good and affordable tripod. And came acrossSlik Sprint Pro II. After seeing it on youtube, and try out in store, I have to have it. First trip I took it to was the Berry Creek Fall. After this trip, I decided I should not use this unless it involves air traveling, or extended long hike. Apparently it does not support D700 and 16-35mm. In portrait setup, the camera would tend to get loose and drop the lens toward the floor. Anyway, so I had it for that trip and Seattle trip. Very light weight and offer full features of high end tripod (btw, tripod head is not replaceable). I would if I could get a carbon fiber tripod but that's a little fancy at this moment :)
What: Labor day hunting... for more landscape pics in ... Seattle
When: So this labor day I decided to be in Seattle for a weekend. Hoping to get something out or it. The locations I went to was not depend on season at all.
Where/How: So I landed in SEA late pm and decided to relax to get ready for early Sat morning. Sat morning weather was not the best for landscape of downtown Seattle. I was up at 4:30am hoping I'll be able to get to see the crack of sunrise at about 6:30am. As usual, I got to the location Alki beach about 1 hr before sunrise. It was very cloudy that morning, so I didn't expect much out of it. Carry the whole backpack of lenses with me and the Slik Sprint pro II tripod. This location has some poles by the bank so I though it would give me some depth in the picture. On the other hand, the city was so far away that my 16-35mm will not be able to capture anything. The 70-200 would be too tight to cover these poles. I ended up using the 24-120mm the whole entire morning to cover the range I need. BAD BAD BAD decision. I would NEVER EVER EVER use this lens ever again for landscape. This lens was ment to be a walk around, family event fun lens.
This is what I got:
Shutter Speed: 3sec Aperture: f/5.3 ISO 200 Focal Length: 72mm
Shutter Speed: 5sec Aperture: f/5 ISO 200 Focal Length: 60mm
I then stopped by Gas Work park a little bit. It was early after noon, the light was not the best plus it's not much of my taste so I was not be able to get much out of it. I rather headed to Kerry Park for afternoon sunset shoot. Again, got here 1 hr before sunset to get ready and there were 2 pro photographers with their tripod up and ready already. So I joined them and still had my 24-120mm on at the time. I then decided to swap it out and used the 70-300mm. Good thing I did. Sun started to come down. Clouds started to glow... but not in the downtown area... ARG... oh well, it is what it is. So this is what I got, the data is approximated since I have quite a few layers to it:
Shutter Speed: 1.3sec Aperture: f/6.3 ISO 100 Focal Length: 70mm
Sunday morning was not much better. I slept in and headed to fish lader before heading Seattle pier. At this location where I stood on top of the Art Institute of Seattle, since it's a pretty tight angle, I had my nikon 16-35mm on at 16mm. It was perfect sunset with glowing clouds and a little windy just enough to make it move under B+W ND1000x. and this is what I got (also layered so data is estimated):
Shutter Speed: 120sec Aperture: f/20 ISO 100 Focal Length: 16mm
What: Bowling Ball Beach, Point Arena in California. Ever since I heard about this place, I want to drive there one beautiful partly cloudy weekend sunset for a another shoot to my collection. But life's been busy, no one want to come along and keep me company or enjoy the shoot with me. oh well, everyone has their busy life.... not me, at least for the next few years.
I wanted to go so bad after seeing this. It's really that popular? gotta have it. Doesn't matter who come or not. No? I'm on my own, no problem. Last time I remember by myself, I got a really nice afternoon and got something nice as well.
Where/when:
Learning from last trip to Crater Lake and come back by 3am, I don't want to do any long trip on Sun. But this weekend is an exception ;). Sat was cloudy. Only Sun is good enough for a nice sunset. So I decided to head there around 2pm from North Bayarea. On the way, I stopped by Point Bonita Lighthouse again hoping I'm on time this route. The horrible traffic did not help at all. So I started to leave Golden Gate area around 3:40pm. Expected to be driving another 2 hr or so since google map said it's a 3 hr drive. Once I left 101 and get on Hwy 1, I found out it's not going to be a short drive. The street itself is nowhere to be complained about. It's a beautiful drive if it's Sat and you have the whole day with a convertible. I'm driving on late Sun afternoon in my compact sedan... Wanted to enjoy
the beautiful view but I'll be late for sunset which will be totally suck. Btw, it's a good 4+ hr drive, I timed on my way back. It's as far as from San Jose to Yosemite. Oh and not reconmend to bring anyone with motion sickness problem...;) it's gonna be a really really long drive. Anyway, I got there close to 7pm. Started to hike down the beach and got confused a little bc the beach area is separated with bowling beach area by a cliff. I got all excited and decided to climb across this cliff. I had ti head back when I couldn't go any further bc the cliff comes so far out in the water. Headed back to this trail, there was a split off of the trail heading to a restroom area. I followed this path, up a little, there was a tiny trail straight up follow that all the way until I see some wooden steps, follow by
wooden ladder. Got down to the sandy beach and walked for another few hundred ft all excited is the
bowling beach area.
As usual, I had flipflop to the beach here. Bad idea, it doesn't really matter what you wear; the area is all rocks covered with moss and algae. Be extremely careful walking in this area. You will slip and fall with you camera using shoe or a little better barefoot and get all kind of cut at the end. I picked option 2 and got a few cuts.
How:
So I left my complete backpack there bringing with me down to the rocks area my D700, Nikkor 16-35mm, 24-120mm (did not use this lens at all), B + W 1000x filter, Cokin ND8 and of course the wired
trigger.
And this is what I got.
The rest of these are HDR from 7 exposure, then top off with another layer in PS to reduce the HDR look. (I don't like serious HDR too much but like how it's cover all color range)
