TwoThirtyAM

I will admit right off the bat that I have a photo and laptop bag obsession. There, now that’s out of the way. :) I have been eying this particular bag for a while due to it’s large amount of storage and it holds a 15″ laptop on top of all the photo gear. This bag is generally around $150 – $200. Price was really the only reason I was holding off on the purchase. Fortunately I was on eBay and found a seller with a Buy It Now auction that was accepting offers. I offered $90 not thinking they would take it, and they did! So now onto the bag itself.

You can easily hold 2 SLR bodies and around 6-8 lenses in this bag. You can customize the whole inside with the velcro padding. There are also several zippered pouches inside for storage. On the outside there are even more zippered storage areas. There is also a tripod holding system that can fold down and secure a tripod to the back.

The bag is very comfortable to wear. It has 2 very padded shoulder straps along with a chest strap and waist strap to secure it to your body. The zippers on this bag are big and easy to zip. I wore this pack for a photo hike that was about 5 hours and it was great. Everything was safe and secure with no issues. One thing I would like to see however is a memory card pouch on the shoulder strap that is easy to get to. Other than that, it is an all around awesome bag for your photo gear.

I recently went on a photo shoot with a friend of mine to the abandoned town of Drawbridge, CA. I needed to rent a lens because I recently sold the majority of my lenses with my old Nikon D40 camera body. This only left me with my Nikon 35mm f/1.8. A fantastic lens for sure, but not quite the right tool for the job. Since a lens like the 24-70mm f/2.8 is upwards of $1600, renting was the way to go for sure. This particular lens is talked about like a god, so I had to see what all the hype was about! I rented it for 3 days for about $50. Not a bad deal at all. The very first thing I noticed about this lens was the weight; it is hefty! It weighs about 2 pounds, compared to my Nikon D90 body that weighs about 1.3 pounds! Having a solid f/2.8 from 24-70mm is fantastic; I found this lens to be very versatile for my shooting. This lens actually stayed on my body the whole day. The autofocus on this particular rented unit felt like it might have been slightly out of whack, but when in manual focus it was pretty damn sharp. I realize this lens is probably better suited for an FX body, but even on my DX D90 it was a wonderful experience. I can see why everyone talks about this lens so much! If you have the almost $2000 to shell out, this lens should be in your bag!

On a side note, if you have a Nikon D90, you know it came with the LCD protective cover. LEAVE IT ON! During this last shoot, my plastic cover got scratched to all hell, not even sure how it happened, but if the cover wasn’t there, my LCD would be wrecked! So if you have it on, keep it on. If you don’t, put it on now! If your particular camera model doesn’t have a protective cover, research to find one that will suit you. You won’t regret it. A new $10 cover is always better than a permanently scratched LCD.

The Nikon D40 was my very first dSLR camera. A fantastic leap from the point-and-shoot side of the fence! I had the camera for about 4 years, but really only started getting serious about photography a little over a year ago. After shooting with the D40 body and mastering it (the camera, not photography) over the course of a year, I was starting to hit imitations of the camera hardware and it was starting to look like it was time for an upgrade. I really prefer and like the Nikon camera bodies, so I knew I would be upgrading to a new Nikon. I studied all the bodies and reviews for months to find out what would be the best upgrade for me. It came down to the D90 and the D300.

The two seemed to have pretty similar specs minus the video on the D90, although the D300 was touted as more of a “professional” camera. One of the biggest features I wanted was the command and sub-command dials for aperture and shutter speed adjustments.

The video on the D90 leaves a little to be desired. Especially compared to the new D300s that came out a couple months after purchasing the D90. Video is not all that important to me, so it is just a bonus to be able to shoot little video clips with the same camera I already have with me.

I find the build quality of the D90 to be much higher than some of the newer bodies coming out like the D3000. The body feels great in the hand and is a good weight. I like a larger camera body and this is just that. I found the D40 a little annoying to hold due to its small size. I had a battery grip on the D40 simply to make it more comfortable to hold with a longer lens.

The image quality on the D90 is great. A very nice improvement from the D40, although the raw files were a lot harder to work with on my old laptop. The D40 raw files were no problem, but the D90 at twice the size made the computer chug. I have since upgraded to a new MacBook Pro, so it is no longer an issue.

As far as lenses go with this new body, I bought the Nikon 35mm f/1.8. This lens is AMAZING! Super sharp and fast. And for only $200, you have to have this lens in your bag. I also rented the Nikon 18-200mm from Lensrentals.com and I WILL be buying that lens at some point. It was so versatile and handled a full day shoot walking around town without having to stop and swap lenses.

Overall, If you are in the market for a Nikon body upgrade from one of the lower tier bodies I would say this is definitely a camera to look at. If video is more important to you, you may want to look into the D300s instead. For me, stills are where I want to be, and this camera body does not disappoint!

Lamborghini Reventón and Bugatti Veyron. Two cars I never thought I would see in person. Well, scratch that, I saw them both…at the same time! Insanity! I was out on a photowalk with a friend and we happened upon a high end car dealer. We were drawn to the dealer at first because we saw a MINI GP out front. After shooting a few photos of the GP I was standing there talking to my friend and suddenly a strange feeling came over me and I just happen to turn to my left. Upon turning, I saw the ass end of the Lamborghini Reventón. After a quick double take, the freaking out began. One of the guys that worked there (and owner of the GP) came out and we chatted with him for a bit and then he invited us in to check out the rest of the cars. They had a ton of sweet cars; Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porches, etc. You name it, they had it. However compared to the Veyron and Reventón, the rest all but disappeared! After taking tons of shots of the Veyron from every angle, I moved outside to the Reventón, where I took probably double the number of photos. Right as I was about done shooting, one of the employees came out to move the Reventón inside, so I switched over to video mode and shot a little video of them moving the Reventón inside. Everything about the Reventón is absolutely perfect. Every line, every detail, flawless. Needless to say it was a fantastic day!

Lamborghini Reventón Photo Gallery
Lamborghini Reventón Video
Bugatti Veyron Photo Gallery

This weeks photopost comes to you thanks to a new software package that I have fallen in love with! The software comes from Nik Software. They make these plugins for both Aperture and LightRoom. I personally use Aperture and love it! The particular plugin I used for this image was SilverEfexPro. A fantastic little plugin, and at the $199 price point you would hope so! The good news is that Nik offers a “Complete Collection” for $299 that includes five of their plugins that separately would come to a grand total of $750! So needless to say, go for the $299 Complete Collection. I can’t wait to work with all the plugins more!

This photo was taken during the Worldwide Photo Walk on July 18, 2009 in San Jose, CA.

This past saturday was the Second Annual Worldwide Photowalk! I had an absolute blast going out with the group of 50 people and taking amazing photos. My photowalk location was San Jose, CA. A great time was had by all. I shot around 300 or so photos and exported around 150 out of Aperture and uploaded to my SmugMug in the following gallery 2009 Worldwide Photowalk – San Jose, CA.

Along with this photowalk there is a contest that goes along with it. Each walker can upload 2 of their photos to the pool, and from the pool they will pick one grand prize winner and 10 runner-up prizes, and I must say the prize packages are amazing!

There are my two photos that I picked for submission. Fingers crossed! :)

I will absolutely be going to the photowalk next year, and highly recommend you do the same. Oh and it’s free, so you really have no excuse not to go! :)

I have been using a new lens for the past couple weeks! The Carl Zeiss Distagon 2/35 ZF. This lens has a Nikon F mount so it fits right on my Nikon DSLR. This lens only works in Manual mode, so it was a little intimidating at first! You have to adjust your Aperture, ISO, Focus, and Shutter Speed manually. Coming from my Nikkor lenses, this was a whole new world! This lens has been the best teaching agent of photography for me. It was a situation where I had always wanted to shoot manual, but was afraid I would miss the shot because of an incorrect setting. Well when you have no choice but manual, you learn real quick what settings work in what kind of shooting condition. For me, this lens was all about trial and error. Too dark, too light, too grainy, not in focus. As they say, practice makes you better! Ever since getting this lens, I think it has only come off my Nikon body maybe 3 times. I am that attached to it! It has really shown me why a lens that has say a f/2.8 all the way through costs 10x more than one that is a f/3.-5.6. It all makes sense now. I think until you shoot with a lens like that, it’s hard to imagine there is a difference as great as the price. But believe me, there is!

I am currently saving to get a new Nikon Body, the D90. And I really hope I get it while I still have this lens, and I really hope I have both of them in time for the July 18th photowalk in San Jose!

If you have a chance to shoot with a lens like this and you are a beginner like me, I really really really encourage you to do so. I have learned more in the past month using this lens that the previous 6 using standard kit AF lenses.

Check out this lens at B&H!

It has often been said that Apple hardware is a thing of beauty, and I have to agree. Just look at this Apple Xserve RAID array, stunning!

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 35
Camera Body: Nikon D40
Camera Lens: Nikon 18-55

This week’s photo comes from our Mexico trip as well. This was from the day we went out to look at some California Gray Whales. It was a fantastic trip, and we saw a pretty good amount of whales. :)

Click the image to see larger

Here is a link to the whole trip gallery. Mexico Trip Feb2009 – Whale Watching

Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 85mm
Camera Body: Nikon D40
Camera Lens: Nikon 55-200