Ferry Building, San Francisco

What: Ferry Building, San Francisco.

When: any beautiful sunset, SF is a heaven for cityscape photographer.

Where/How: For this Ferry Building shot, you'd have to be in Hyatt stair exit at the end of building looking toward Ferry Building. This is pretty safe and quite place. For this shot, I think I was on floor 14 or so. All level are locked to prevent re-entree from outside except 2nd floor. So if you are stuck by the end of the shoot, try second floor.

I took the whole camera bag with me but ended up use only D800, 16-35mm, GND, 3 stops and 10 stops in various frames.
Nikon 16-35mm at 16mm
f/8
ISO 100
5 sec
Cokin xpro GND
Lee 3stops
B+W 10stops

Washington trip

What: Mid July I had an opportunity to did a road trip around Seattle. The purpose of this trip was to get to Steptoe Butte for Wheat field

When: I was there the week of July 22, 2013. It was late for the beautiful green color. The wheat field already turned to golden color, still beautiful never the less.

Where/How:
First stop was Steptoe Butte. When we got the Hume Road was under construction. So if you are heading there after this post, most likely the construction is completed and a nice paved road on Hume Road. I got there a little late in the season. The Wheat has already turn golden for the most part. At the top of the butte, you can look in any direction and be amazed what human can do to nature. As usual, I took all my lenses but for this particular location, I used Nikon D800 with Nikon 400mm f/4 AIS, Sigma 150-500 and 70-200mm f/2.8.

This was shot with Sigma 150-500mm at 500mm
f/8.0
ISO 1000
1/250sec

As I was driving along 26, we caught this little guy doing its dirty job and I got my random shot of the day.
Nikon 70-200mm at 150mm
f/11
ISO 400
1/500sec

This was also with 16-35mm at 16mm
f/8
ISO100
1/60sec at sunrise

 

And color version 

I then headed to Palouse Fall for sunset. I got there about 2 hours prior to sunset and scout the area. Decided to stay and wait for sunset to get this
Nikon 16-35mm at 16mm
f/16
ISO 100
30sec.
I had tried number of filter on including the Cokin Zpro GNDs and 3 stop as well as BW 10 stops. After trying the B+W 10 stops it gives me another reason to go back and place order on Lee big stopper. I'll post a separate post to compare the 2.

I headed back to Seattle the following day for sunset of the Seattle cityscape. The sun was setting right behind the buildings and I was not able to get the glowing buildings but the city was busy enough for a fantastic view behind the camera. Next time when I'm back, for sure will try again at sunrise

 This was shot with Nikon 16-35mm at 16mm and 3 stop filters 

f/11

ISO 100

60sec

Sunset the following day we headed to Kerry Park .
It was nice clear day and I was able to get a nice clear view of the city and mt. Rainier.
This was shot with 70-200mm at 70mm
f/11
ISO 100
0.6sec

This was shot with 70-200mm at 135mm
f/16
ISO 100
30 sec

Wide angle options for Nikon FX

I had the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 when I bought my first FX D700. The main reason was Tokina 11-16mm was my best lens with Nikon D90 when I go out for landscape.

When I upgraded to D800, I questioned all my zoom lens and opened to prime lenses. Few months ago, after I had a good line up of prime: 20mm f/238, 35mm f/2.0, 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4; plus the busy work and wedding shoots, I have not use 16-35mm much. I decided to sell that lens.

I since then trying to look for a new 16-35mm... And here are my reasons.

1. 20mm does not give me the wide effect I wanted in wide angle. Sometime that extra wide is what I needed.
2. Other options that I looked at :

• Zeiss 15mm: hm... Even before I look into image quality, I just cannot justify spending $2950 on a lens. Plus I depend on filter heavily while shooting landscape and I really prefer something straight out of the box to work with filter and not have to do DIY
• Nikon 14mm: again, similar to the Zeiss. Price and filter is a big no no.
• Rokinon/Samyang 14mm: Price is definitely a plus. But the sample images online didn't give me the confident on this lens also the filter compatibility is a negative. Plus I need something that can be used in landscape, wedding, and events when I want to. And this lens doesn't offer auto focus. So it's out.
• Sigma12-24mm/Tokina 16-28mm: These were at some point my top candidate. But if I have to go without filters, I'd rather pay more for the well known to landscape photographers Nikon 14-24mm.
• Nikon 14-24mm: I can totally justify the cost for such a well performance lens. But comes withe the lens cost, I looked into options for filters. All I have now are 100mm Lee and Cokin filters. I have ND 3x, GND in all different level, and a 10 stop 77mm. Going with this lens meaning all these filters almost non usable. To convert the whole setup to fit Nikon 14-24mm is what I cannot justify for the price

3. My only option left is to go back to 16-35mm. So which is better: 20mm or 16-35mm ? I looked at:

• Sharpness:  I did some simple test and it seems they are equivalent.
•  Star: I do shoot night, cityscape thus the star effect overall is important. It's kinda decision point for my wide angle option. In this category, 16-35mm won. 

 I clearly prefer the star on 16-35mm (right) over 20mm (left).

So I placed order on 16-35mm again and will soon be posting 20mm up for sale.

San Francisco view from Ina Coolbrith Park

What: San Francisco view from Ina Coolbrith Park. Just another magnificent view of San Francisco

When: I was there early Jun. There's no particular time of the year to be here. Pick the best nice partial cloudy day and you are set!

Where/How : As usual, I got here about an hour prior sunset. For this location I tried on 16-35mm lens. At 16mm, the trees around it might get in the frame. Also the buildings and Bay bridge became really small for the frame. I picked 35mm prime and shot with it
Nikon D800
f/16
2.5 sec
ISO 400
35mm

San Francisco view from Ina Coolbrith Park

Gear update again :)

My taste changed again over the last year. I've looked at picture and became more interested in long end of the business so I tried out byt getting Sigma 150-500mm

Body:
Nikon D800 as landscape main, wedding backup
Nikon D700 as wedding main, landscape backup

Lens:
Nikon 16-35mm f/4
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII
Nikon 20mm f/2.8
Nikon 35mm f/2.0
Nikon 50mm f/1.4
Sigma 85mm f/1.4
Sigma 105mm macro
Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3
Sigma fisheye 15mm

Flash:
Nikon SB-28DX
Nikon SB-600 x2
Nikon SB-900

Filter:
Cokin P series ND8 (0.9)
Cokin P series GND8 (0.9) soft
Cokin Z series kit U960: filter bag, holder, 121L, 121M, 121S (soft GND 1,2,3 stop respectively)
Lee ND 0.9 proglass
Lee holder (FK) with wide angle ring adapter (WAR77). I've discovered vignetting problem with Cokin holder. I'll post comparison between Cokin Z and Lee in a separate post since UPS still has my package at this point.

Other:
Radiopopper JrX trigger x2
Radiopopper JrX receiver studio x3
Radiopopper JrX receiver basic

So far I'm happy with this setup. I mainly grew into prime since it provides better quality image when shooting with D800. My next buy would be Nikon 600mm and sell my Sigma 150-500mm. GO PRIME!