Lens and tripod update

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 across Slik 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 :)

Seattle

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

Bowling Ball Beach

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.

Shutter speed: 1/15s
Aperture : F/11
Focal Length: 20mm
ISO 100

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)

Last but not least, my favorite in this set...

Rodeo beach

What: Another Friday, another reason to head out of the zip code to shoot. This Friday it's Rodeo beach

When/Where: Got off work a bit early on Friday and headed to SF. Got to Point Bonita about 5:40pm. I headed down the trail hoping the gate is open but then realized it's only open Sat, Sun and Monday from 12:30pm to 3:30pm and I believe they have guided tour. That's not cool but oh well, I was not there for the light house this round anyway. BUT the craziest thing I've seen and probably would never know how/why and don't think I'd ever ever see this again...
When we headed down the trail. We saw a black sedan down at the end of the trail by the closed tunnel to the light house. I was like "no fkin way... Somebody gotta be that stupid to drive down this walking trail..." But how though... Anyway we headed down about to pass the little section look like a bridge and the car drove up. It's a black Dodge Charger with a female driver and seem to be a female passenger. Careless we headed to the tunnel and find out it's locked. So we headed back up. Little did I know... (and I kid you not, I still get goosebumps as I type to this part), there's no way out of that trail. both left and right side of the trail are cliff. Up a little, right side is still sliff and left side is the hill with trees and no drive way. Close by the gate is a little drive way to the portable restroom. That's IT. The gate to the trail is LOCKED. And the tiretrack disappeared around the restroom area. I went in and checked that area. It's dead end. OMFG. How ? The only way they could get out is to have the keys for the gate, which I think only Ranger has them... ?!?! OK If you know any other way to get down there by car without using that gate... PLEASE let me know. Not that I want to drive down but I want to have an scientific explanation. I hate to have a mind bugging "gosh" situation like this...

So we then headed to Rodeo beach, did a little hike to this location.

How: As usual, I had with me the whole backpack but only used Nikon D700, Nikkor 16-35mm, B&W 1000x filter and Cokin ND8.

It was not the best weather I've seen so I didn't expect much out of this trip. After extended photoshop editing, I was able to get this.

Due to weather condition. I had to mix and match in photoshop with 7 layers to get this photo. So no valid EXIF data. Just 1 shot to get the rocks, few with ND8 to get the waves, and a few more to get the sky. Pick and choose from about 60 shots in this trip.



UPDATE 09/01/2010: OK so I stop by the light house again this pass Sunday and was able to talk to the park rangers (all female). They said it was them who drove down there to check things out. They went down everyday not just the scheduled tour hour. Well... that explains it... I still don't know why old female ranger would drive a nice, new, all black Avenger... oh well, I guess she could. Because it's better be her that day! :)

Berry Creek Falls

What: Berry Creek Falls in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Yet another inspiration by Jim Patterson.

When/Where: So I did some homework prior to this trip. Sounds like the season (when water fullest) from Dec until Mar. And it's now mid Aug. Looks like I'll be running into an all dried up waterfalls. Anyway, it would not hurt to do a little hiking. After all I was busy and off exercise the whole summer. So we left San Jose 8am sharp and got to the park gate by 9:10am or so. It was a nice breezy summer day. It was high 50 or low 60 at the park. I did not bring any extra jacket thinking it'll get warm once I start to hike in ( and I was right). Down hill most of the way to the fall. BTW, the sign say 3.9mile but it's really an 4.8 mile hike to the fall. Got to the fall about 11am, had lunch and took some shoots, break until 12pm and head toward a little for another fall. It was not as attractive as Berry Creek Fall so we just went ahead and make a round trip which is 12.2 mile total. Got back to the parking area by 4pm. From 8-11mile was the hardest. It seems to take forever and ever. But once we see 0.9 mile mark, I was at it. Jogging in happiness all the way.

How: Since it's a 12mile round trip, I had to think twice what lens to bring. Obviously the macro and 50mm f/1.8 wouldn't help much. So those two stayed home. I had with me Nikon D700, Nikkor 16-35mm, 24-120mm, and 70-300mm because I had no idea how far away the fall is from where I'd be standing. The empty pocket was used for 3 water bottles (1 frozen). Also brought 3 sandwiches along to the hike. I got here when the whole waterfall were perfectly in shade with no burn. But a sandwich later the sun started to hit it spot by spot. Oh well, I'll try my best to make it glow. And this is what I had

Shutter Speet: 4sec
Aperture: f/14
Focal Length: 112mm
ISO-200

Napa, winery country

What: Napa, winery country trip

When: I was there mid July. It was not the best time of the year to be in Napa. It's definitely good enough not to see dead/dried up grape farm. I'd rather be there around end September or so for the fall color...

Where/How: We left South Bay around 8 am or so and got to our first location for... shooting rather than a wine tasting ...

In this trip, I mostly use my Nikon D700, Nikon 16-35mm, little with 70-300mm for some model shoot.

First stop was Andretti Winery. Must say I really like this design and they have so many angle at this location ...

Focal Length: 35mm
Shutter Speed: 1/200sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 200


Focal Length: 20mm
Shutter Speed: 1/125sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 500


Second stop was Darioush. This place has a very attractive gate. You won't miss it.

Focal Length: 16mm
Shutter Speed: 1/1600sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 200


Focal Length: 16mm
Shutter Speed: 1/250sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 200


Focal Length: 16mm
Shutter Speed: 1/1250sec
Aperture: f/4
ISO 200



Last stop: Castello . This place is the place you must visit while in Napa area. It's quite new but the design, the structure is amazing. We bought the tour which is also has wine tasting at the end. The whole experience was worth it.

Focal Length: 31mm
Shutter Speed: 1/800sec
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO 200


Focal Length: 35mm
Shutter Speed: 8sec
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO 400


Focal Length: 20mm
Shutter Speed: 2.5sec
Aperture: f/8
ISO 200



Focal Length: 16mm
Shutter Speed: 1/25sec
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO 4000
This last one is the ceiling of the castle. The camera was about 5in off the ground so I had to hand held it. Thus crank up ISO to 4000. Well that's what the D700's for. ISO-4000 smooth as expected.

S.S. Palo Alto

What: S.S Palo Alto, the most famous concrete ship of the West Coast. Built in 1919 By San Francisco Shipbuilding Company in Oakland, California. The concrete ship was later purchased by an Seacliff Amusement Company of Nevada and towed to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California. An arcade, dining room, dance hall and even a swimming pool were built on the ship. Unfortunately, the Seacliff Amusement Company went out of business two years later under the financial crunch of the Great Depression. Then, in winter, a storm cracked the ship across her midsection. The Palo Alto was stripped of all salvagable metal and fixtures and turned into a fishing pier.

When: So I've been browsing Flickr and Flickriver a lot to find my next photoshoot location. And one of the best in this region, I gotta bring Jim Patterson into the picture. He has an amazing collection on Flickr. So I was browsing through and found this concrete ship. The color, the story, the age of this ship make me want to get there and capture it right away. Been busy, so I put it off and off until late summer 2010. It's been cloudy every morning all summer in the bay area. So I kept checking weather forecast in Santa Cruz area. I also search for live webcam there for better view of the weather condition. Kinda found AHA moment one day and drove there straight after work.

Where/How: Traveled on HWY 17 toward Santa Cruz, take South HWY 1 toward Capitola for about 5 miles. Then take State Park Dr. toward Seacliff State Beach. If you want to support State park, drive straight, pay $10 parking fee, and drive down all the way to the pier. If not, just before the park entrance, make a Left onto Santa Cruz Ave, then right on Broadway and park at the corner of Broadway and Seacliff Dr. It's street parking. Walk toward the beach you would see really really long stair down to the beach. The S.S. Palo Alto is right there.

So I got there about 7:30pm when sunset at 8:30 pm . I've been in so many situation where I have 10-15 min until sunset and I don't have the right gear to do anything thing. This time, I have 1 hr extra, the whole complete backpack with Nikon D700, and all my lens but I only used Nikon 16-35mm. Kinda used 24-105mm a little bit but didn't really need to. Got to the end of the pier, set up my tripod and frame ready for sunset. Did some practice shoots and find out it looks plain at eyes level (about 5ish ft.). So I had my tripod fully extended to about 7'. Now it's aproblem. I cannot see the frame. I can't change settings. And the gate has about 3.5-4in gap between bars so I have very little room to move my lens side to side when it's between bars. So I tried many many times to get the right ones. Everytime I want to view, I have to pull camera and lens back out from the bars which totally change my frame .

Nikon D700
Nikon 16-35mm

In this shoot, I also had B&W 1000x density.

Focal Length: 16mm
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 8sec
ISO 400



This one is combined of 5 shot and HDR using photomatix. I almost always do HDR but not to an extend that it looks not real anymore. This is another try :)