We’re at our friends Auntie’s house who has created a delightful “shooting Gallery in her backyard. She has it set up for the 500PF so I grabbed her lens and started shooting. All sorts of birds came in and it was fun to shoot the Lesser Goldfinch and especially the Bushtits which I’ve not photographed for decades! I love Bushtits! They are smaller than your pinkie and weigh less than a dime. So darn cute!!!! I was handholding the D6 / 500PF which made the photography so enjoyable. I shot a lot of great birds in a short time with Autie’s great 500PF and shooting gallery, I fell back in love with the 500PF!
Bushtit
captured by D6 / 500PF
So I finished shooting as the hot sun crept around the corner and started to bake me and ingested my images. Right then I received a text from my friend at Bedford Camera that they just got some 500PF in stock. Oh man, it would be a great lens for The Ranch and my backyard birds. Am I just sayin that? Well my friend Auntie where we are, loves the 500PF SO MUCH, she has TWO! One dedicated to her backyard birds and one for her travels. Now that idea is in my mind … decisions decisions!
Just a reminder, you head to a 500PF to check out the 500PF, remember to ask for the “Moose Discount” which will save you real money!
Nikon has released a Beta of their Webcam software for Mac (Windows released a little while ago). The beauty of this FREE software is the ability to plug your Z or DSLR (only some of them) via USB directly into your computer for web conferencing. This is pretty darn cool and if you have a program subscription to Ecamm Live for example, you don’t need a HDMI cable and card. I’ve tested it and it works really cleanly and easily, basicly plug and play. With being “seen” virtually is so much of our lives now, this makes it simpler for you!
With my always recommending eyecups to achieve proper handholding technique for sharp images, I receive a good share of emails from folks who wear glasses. Finding eyecups can be a real challenge for eyeglass wearers. When it comes to Z Bodies, I didn’t have any good answer for folks until now and I’m so happy I can share this. My dear friend Vertical Bob showed up last week with the Hoodman Z Eyecup. Bob swears by them so I got myself a couple. They rock and if you wear glasses, you will think so too. It’s such a little thing but they can make all the difference in the world. Check them out!
For the recent Landscape Photography Conference, I needed to copy some of my old slides. My Nikon LS-5000 was still in its box from the move and getting it out, setting it up on the Mac simply wasn’t in the time budget. That’s when I remembered about the Nikon ES-2. I didn’t own one so I headed to Bedfords and a short time later, I had it in the gear locker.
This thing is brilliant! All you have to do is screw the Nikon ES-2 onto the front of either a 40mm or 60mm Macro (DX or FX), point it at a light source, and go click. Be sure to clean the slide first, shoot through the emulsion side (flipping once in post) and you have a gorgeous copy. It’s simply too good to be true! You can copy negatives or positives with the same ease. Bring the Nef copy of your image into ACR, do whatever image adjusting you want with your normal workflow, and bam, you have a gorgeous digital copy! I’ll probably never use the LS-5000 again, the Nikon ES-2 was simply too simple.
Finally dug in and updated My Gear Locker page. It was a bit outdated, my apologies. But it’s all there now with all the links to settings for bodies and links to all relevant videos. At the bottom of the page is the archive of gear past with their settings and videos linked. The goal of the page is to aid you in your gear decisions, from possible options, how I incorporate them in my photography but more importantly, providing ideas on how you might move your photography forward with the right piece of gear!
LensCoat has been protecting my gear for, gee, decades I guess now and I love the stuff! I just added to my kit their BodyBags for the Z6, Z7 /grip and D6. These cases add such an important level of protection from the bumps of our passion to the weather we put it through. I love the “new” yellow cases especially. Not only is it darn close to the Nikon yellow of years past, but in a dark bag, my eyes can easily pick them out. Right now, LensCoat has a special going on a number of their products, 10% of BodyBags with the code 10body.
Z6 / Z24-200 inside LensCoast BodyBag + Lens case
And LensCoat’s BodyBag +Lens fits my new favorite combo perfectly! So stop by and protect your gear with the best today!
