Nikon announces the Zf

Nikon has announced the new Zf, a full-frame retro style camera. When I first heard about this camera, I really wasn’t that interested. After all, I already own the Nikon Z9 and the Nikon Z6 II. And I actually have a real retro camera, the Nikon Fm2n. But then I saw it. It looks really nice. Take a look for yourself.

Nikon has hit it out of the park with this camera. I’ve had my Nikon Fm2n film camera for almost a year and I love it. Shooting film is fun. And this camera has so many manual knobs on it, it reminds me so much of my Fm2n. But don’t be concerned if you want your camera to be as automatic as possible. You can still change all the settings in the menus.

Colors? Did you say colors? The Zf will not disappoint. There is the standard black and then six more colors to choose from in the Zf. The only downside is it will cost you an extra $100 for any color other than black. I haven’t decided which one I want yet. But I’m definitely getting one with one of the colors.

So what’s the price? Well, it starts at $1,999.95. Not cheap. But half the price of the Z8. Right now, outside of the Z9 and the Z8, it will be Nikon’s best camera. This will be my everyday camera. I’ll probably have my Nikkor Z 40mm f/2 attached to it. If only I had purchased the SE version of that to match the retro styling of the Zf. I guess I’ll have to order the Nikkor Z 28mm f/2.8 (SE). I have a Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 AI-s attached to my Fm2n pretty much all the time. I just love that focal length.

The Nikon Zf isn’t set to be released until the end of October. So I hope to get a review out sometime in November once I’ve received mine and had the chance to use it some.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in purchasing any of the Nikon gear I’ve mentioned, please use my Amazon Affiliate links. I’d really appreciate it.

Iceland 2022 Day 2

Our second day in Iceland began after a much needed night of sleep. I was worried that I would have trouble sleeping because it doesn’t really get dark there in May. But wearing a night mask, closing the shades and getting barely any sleep the previous 48 hours, it was no trouble at all.

We woke up after an amazing 4 hours of sleep. Haha. We had to be on the road early as we were headed to Vestmannaeyjar, also known as the Westman Islands, and needed to catch the ferry to get there in time for our RibSafari boat tour. It was about a 2 hour drive southeast to reach the ferry to Heimaey, the largest of the Vestmannaeyjar islands.

The ferry takes about 35 minutes to reach Heimaey. The waters were a little choppy for our trip and there were a couple of times I thought there was a chance I might get sick. Pro Tip: If you are prone to sea sickness, get there early so you can get a window seat. Also, be sure to book your ferry ride in advance. The trips sell out.

The ferry arrived at Heimaey, the largest island of the all the islands in the Westman Islands, and in fact, it’s the only one that’s populated. The first thing we wanted to check out was the lighthouse at the top of the island. Heimaey is known for many things, amazing scenery, strongest winds in the northern hemisphere, puffins and sheep. The weather wasn’t too bad. The temperatures were in the low 40’s Fahrenheit. But they aren’t kidding about the winds.

After visiting the area around the lighthouse and seeing the sheep, we made our way back down to the town and grabbed some lunch at Krain before heading down to the water for our Rib Safari boat tour around the island.

We had to put on these dry suits just in case we fell overboard. The water there is quite cold and these suits will save your life. I had my camera wrapped in plastic, but once we got out on the water, I realized that there was no way I’d be shooting with it due to the splashing from the waves. So I stowed the camera in a storage bin on the boat. No way I was going to risk getting salt water all over my Nikon Z9.

After the boat tour, we drove around the island some more and learned about the Eldfell volcano which almost wiped out the town when it erupted January 23, 1973. The volcano’s lava flow threatened to close off the harbor, the island’s main income source via its fishing fleet.

Below is a view of the town from our walk on Helgafell, a dormant volcano

After walking around the volcano, we headed back into town and stopped at the Brothers Brewery for a few beers before boarding the ferry for our return to Kópavogur for some much needed rest before our next adventure.

Iceland 2022 Day 1

To celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, my wife and visited Iceland in May. We planned our trip for months, well, I should say she planned our trip. I just provided suggestions. She did all the heavy lifting. Luckily, her cousin lives in Kópavogur, minutes from Reykjavik. Scott and his wife, Sunna, operate an AirBnB in their house and graciously allowed us to stay there for the week.

We flew from Norfolk to Newark and then from Newark to Keflavik and arrived in the morning of the 18th. We rented our car from Ice Rental 4×4 which is located close to the airport. Warning: They will warn you about the winds and holding on to your car doors when you open them. The winds can rip the doors right off the cars. After driving to Melissa’s cousin’s house in Kópavogur, we dropped our stuff off and proceeded to head out on our first adventure.

Our first destination was Thingvellir (Þingvellir) National Park. Iceland is divided by the Mid-Atlantic Rift; some parts of it are on the North American tectonic plate, while others are on the Eurasian plate. The rift runs through the park. This guide explains it better.

From here, we drove to the Geysir Geothermal Area. Even though there was a light rain, and it was in the low 40’s Fahrenheit, we decided to visit two of the famous geysers here, Geysir and Strokkur. Geysir has been active for the last 10,000 years. However, it is fairly dormant now, only erupting about three times per day. Although we didn’t get to see Geysir erupt, we were fortunate to see Strokkur erupt several times.

Strokkur erupts

We had one more stop to make this day and it was to visit Gulfoss Falls. Now just to remind you, we’ve been up over 24 hours at this point and my energy was definitely gone at this point. The rain started to pick up here so we looked at this amazing water fall and headed back to Kópavogur to get some much needed rest.

Day 2 coming soon

Not too early to make goals for 2022

I was having a conversation with my wife at dinner tonight and I said I felt like 2021 was a wasted year for me with my photography.

I really started picking up clients in 2019 and 2020 was a fantastic year for senior portraits. But in 2021, it really fell off. There were many reasons for this as I look back to try and see what happened. I was still getting clients in the Spring of 2021, but my two kids graduated high school in June. Meanwhile, the software development company I work for was bought in May. So I put a lot of time into tuning up my software development skills over the summer. In late June, we took a family vacation to DisneyWorld.

Summer is always the down time for me and my photography. It’s usually too hot and I don’t like to be crawling through bushes and grass near water when the snakes are out. By August, I was getting the itch to shoot again. But first, it was time to take both kids to college. I finally got my first senior portrait session of the Fall and was able to schedule another one for September. However, with one child at East Carolina University and the other one at Virginia Tech, my wife and I started making trips on football weekends. We’ve been to four football games so far and we’ll be at each school over the next two weekends. This has seriously put a halt to my portrait sessions this Fall.

Tailgating at Lane Stadium, Blacksburg, VA

I do have two, maybe three more senior portrait sessions before the end of November. So maybe I can build up some momentum to help get me through the Winter and get ready for a busy Spring senior portrait season.

So what can I do to get my photography business back on the upswing? Well, first, I plan to get back into shooting some high school sports, particularly girls and boys basketball. Last year’s season was, for all purposes, cancelled. I love shooting. basketball and I can’t wait to get back to shooting basketball.

Second, I’m going to advertise more beginning in January for both sports photography as well as senior portraits. I’m pretty sure the Spring season will be a lot easier to schedule shoots since I won’t be traveling to colleges every other weekend.

I’ve been posting my images on Instagram for several years now, but I want to be more creative in 2022. I’m definitely planning to blog more and I’m going to make a goal to blog at least once a week. I also want to finally dip my toes into YouTube. I’ve been wanting to do this for a couple of years now, but only since I picked up my Nikon Z6 II, do I have a camera capable of shooting good video. The Z6 II, along with my new Apple iPhone 13 Pro, I have no excuse not to make some decent content.

If you are in the Hampton Roads area, and interested in senior portraits, sports portraits, or family portraits, please reach out to me. And visit my website to look at my landscape and wildlife photography. If you see something you like, please help me out and buy a print! Thanks.

Thinking of North Carolina

With Hurricane Florence making landfall in Wilmington, NC this morning, I’m thinking back to earlier this summer when I was on the Outer Banks and went out to grab a picture of the sunrise. Unfortunately, the clouds were not cooperating with me on that morning so I had to shift focus to something else. I wound up getting a long exposure shot of the Avalon Pier in Kill Devil Hills. This image is simplistic and minimalistic, which I love.

If you would like to purchase a print of this image, click on the image and it will take you to this image in my portfolio. And please visit my portfolio to see my other images I have available for sale. Thanks!

Back Bay Evening

Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge is located in the southeastern corner of Virginia Beach, VA. It is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a thin strip of land less than a half mile in width. I like to frequent it several times a year. There is a rich diversity of wildlife, including deer, snakes, raccoons, wild horses, wild pigs, birds of all types, bobcats and even some coyotes.

The refuge borders the Sandbridge community and reaches south to the False Cape State Park.

Here is one of the images I have for sale. I made this one evening after sunset during the summer while fighting the mosquitoes! I love how the crescent moon is in the image.

Calm on Stumpy Lake

Early morning at Stumpy Lake

Stumpy Lake is a man-made lake located in Virginia Beach, VA. It gets its name from all the tree stumps that are located in the lake. Because of the all the stumps, the lake’s water almost looks like tea. Here’s a long exposure I made one morning. I made this shot with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the Olympus M.Zuiko 7-14mm PRO f/2.8 lens.

First month with the Nikon AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens

I finally purchased a Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens the other day from someone on Fred Miranda. After receiving it, I went out to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge to test it. Ever since buying my Nikon D500 last November, I’ve wanted this lens. I had hoped to get it last January or February with the help of some Amazon gift cards, but spring rolled around and I had to use the gift cards on a new vacuum for my swimming pool.

I’ve only heard great things about this lens from other photographers. The images on the Fred Miranda 200-500 image thread are amazing. Many have said it’s a steal at $1399. So I just had to get it and try it out myself.

Day One

I grabbed my D500, the 200-500mm, and my monopod and headed to Back Bay in my Jeep. As soon as I got out, I spotted a Great Blue Heron on some rocks and started shooting. He was a good 100 yards away but with the lens zoomed in to 500mm (equivalent focal length of 750mm on the D500), it took up the whole view finder. After getting a few shots, I walked around to the other side of him and got some more of him. Unfortunately, his fishing was going about as well as mine when I go fishing! So I moved on to search for other subjects. I saw some ospreys in a couple trees from a distance, but I was never able to find them when I got there.

I found another Great Blue Heron, or maybe the same one, in another part of the refuge later, but the sun was getting low and the sky had been cloudy. It might have been a great day to shoot the sunset, but I was only there to test this lens.

Day Two

I decided to venture out to Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday morning. So I grabbed the D500 along with the 200-500mm lens and headed down to Knotts Island, North Carolina to find some wildlife. I saw a small bird sitting in a dead tree so I decided to “warm up” and get some shots of him. Luckily, I was facing east so I got a great silhouette shot of it.

They opened up the trails to vehicles for the Labor Day weekend. The first photo opportunity I came across was this raccoon sleeping on a tree stump that was about ten feet out on the North Landing River.

I honestly didn’t know if it was sleeping or dead because it didn’t flinch at all when I drove past it. Fortunately, I saw several other photos of this raccoon by others confirming that it was alive and well.

After about another ten minutes of slow driving with the Jeep, I finally came across some wetlands and a lot of Great Egrets with a few Little Blue Herons mixed in.

Soon after, I came across a Green Heron but I didn’t have a good angle from in the Jeep. So I got out and tried to come around to get a shot but I spooked him and he flew away. So I went a little further and was able to get some good shots of a Great Egret that was pretty close.

Day Three

I decided to try a new park near my house. I read up on Bells Mill Park and saw a Birder’s Guide on the website for it. That sounded like a great place to visit! So I arrived there around sunrise and saw a few joggers while I was getting my camera and gear out of my Jeep. The beginning of the trail was dirt and gravel. There was a pond off to my right that looked very promising, but I didn’t see any birds at this time. Over to my left was the marsh that was part of the Elizabeth River. However, there was a lot of growth and small trees that really prevented me from being able to see into the marsh. The dirt trail ended in an open grassy field. Trails were cut in the grass for walking or running, so I followed one of the trails for about 15 minutes. By this time, walking on the wet grass, my shoes were soaked, I was being eaten by mosquitoes, so I decided I was done. The marsh was separated from me by about 20-30 feet of trees, bushes, and weeds. So much for seeing some birds.

I walked back to my Jeep and decided to head back to Back Bay again. This time I parked in the Little Island Park parking lot and crossed the street to an area that is used as a kayak and canoe drop-off. I had my Nikon D500, Nikon 200-500mm lens, my brand new Oben ACM-1400 monopod and a chair. I was ready for some birds! In the distance, I saw a couple of ducks, but even with the 200-500mm lens, they were too far away. So I waited. Then I spotted a dragonfly and got a shot of it. Not a osprey or an eagle, but it was a start.

So I waited some more. Another ten minutes goes by. And then out of the corner of my eye, a cottonmouth moccasin started swimming across the water to the other side.

I watched him for about 10 minutes. But the birds weren’t cooperating here. I finally decided to head up to the refuge. I parked the Jeep and started walking the trail. I headed to a pond that I’ve seen herons hanging out at in the past. I arrived there and what do I see? Nothing. No birds at all. So I walked over to a observation dock that stands about 6 feet off the ground and looked out at the bay. There were a few Caspian Tern’s flying so I got a couple of shots of them.

Then, I heard something in the marsh below me. There’s a small trail that runs out to the bay from under the deck I was standing on. I looked down and saw a giant snapping turtle crawling through the grass. He must have been about three feet across! I tried to get a shot of him, but I had too much lens. I was amazed at how quickly he actually crawled through the grass, mud and water.

So I decided to head back. On the way back, I came across this frog. He was more than willing to pose for me.

Final Thoughts

The Nikon D500 is a wonderful sports and wildlife camera. The Nikon 200-500mm lens is an incredible lens for the money. It’s a steal at $1400. If you own a D500, you have to own this lens. They are made for each other.

Pros

Focuses fast
Sharp
Affordable
Can be hand-held

Cons

Not weather-sealed
Maximum f/5.6 Aperture

High School Football

Football season is here and I will be shooting several football games for the high school that I graduated from many years ago. On Friday night, I arrived at the field around 6:30pm to set up for the 7:00pm kick-off. I packed light, bringing only my Nikon D500, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC, and Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. I didn’t even pack a monopod since the one I have is very cheap I found it to be to flimsy for the combination of the D500 and the 200-500mm lens.

I knew the 200-500mm is a fantastic birding lens, but how well does it handle sports? I’m pretty sure it would perform well in a NFL or big-time college stadium. But how would it perform under high school quality stadium lighting?

I decided to start the game with the 200-500mm on the D500. I figured with sunset around 7:20pm, the 200-500mm should work well enough for at least the 1st quarter. I positioned myself on the visitor’s left side between the goal line and the 30 yard line. The sun was off to my left. Most of the field was in shade by the start of the game. I set the D500 up to be in Aperture Priority mode using auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed of 1/1250th and auto white balance.

The visiting team, Oscar Smith, is a state power in Virginia, and it didn’t take them long to score their first touchdown. And second. And third. Fortunately, for me, all the action was taking place in at my end of the field on the closer side of the field. So I was shooting mostly in the 200mm range. Honestly, the Tamron 70-200mm would have been the better choice here. But I really wanted to test the bigger lens.

The first shot was taken about 20 minutes before sunset. There was still some sun shining on the bleachers of the home team. The field, however, no longer had any sun on it.

High School football — Nikon D500 (taken at 7:06pm)
Nikon 200-500mm @ f/5.6 200mm 1/1250th 2,000 ISO

Not much change in the camera settings here. Slightly higher ISO with the sun all but gone.

I decided to switch out the 200-500mm for the Tamron 70-200mm. The next image was taken 18 minutes after the previous. It was now dark and the stadium lights were my only source of light now. Having the 2.8 aperture dropped my ISO back down. Still not where I’d like it to be, but the lights at this stadium are really bad. In the future, I may drop my shutter speed down to about 1/800th or 1/640th to see if I can get away with that without too much motion blur.

Another 25 minutes have gone by. The ISO is now staying at 11400. This makes sense. The stadium lights are my source of light now and they aren’t changing. To me, 11400 ISO on a D500 with a little noise reduction in Lightroom is more than acceptable. I’ll play around with shutter speed to find the sweet spot between noise and motion blur.

All the photos you see here have been edited in Adobe Lightroom with Noise Reduction applied. The photos have been cropped as well.

Next time, I’ll provide a comparison of the RAW images with the processed images. I just want to show that you don’t have to be afraid of bumping the ISO on the D500. Lightroom, or whatever software you use, is more than capable of cleaning up the noise. I’d rather have a image with some noise than an image that has too much blur from motion. Unless that is what you are aiming for.

All in all, the 200-500mm is a perfect match for the D500. It focuses fast and works well with the D500. However, because of the wide open aperture of 5.6, it’s not ideal under high school lights. You really need to shoot with a long lens with an maximum aperture of 2.8, but we all know what that means: money, money, and more money.

East Coast Surfing Championships 2017

The 55th Annual East Coast Surfing Championships took place last week in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It is the longest continually running surfing competition in North America and the second longest in the world.

I’ve been attending the competition off and on since high school back in the 1980’s. Some years, the waves cooperate. Some years, the waves never show up.
While there were waves this year, the winds were blowing out of the East causing a lot of chop in the water. Still, the surfers put on a great show.

I showed up Sunday morning for the Vans Pro Junior final, the Bobby Holland Memorial Pro Longboard final, and the Vans Pro final. Here are some of the images I captured. If you are interested in purchasing any of these, just click on the image and it will take you to my gallery.