tuesday the eighth. playing with sir richard israel
Tuesday the eighth I spent the day with, a most amazing photographer and person, Richard Israel. If you don't know him you should. In this day and age of bland photographer soup it's refreshing to see a big fat cheeseburger. Richard is a big fat super rare cheeseburger. The kind you sink your teeth into and the blood runs down to your elbows and you hope the last bite never comes. Sweet! His images have that same blood.We rovered through the hills around Asheville, NC with camera in hand ready to click at anything interesting. More jawing than clicking actually occurred Tuesday the eighth but I did make a few images of Richard and I finally got to use some on my new Nikon glass!! Thanks Richard. We will do it again soon. Next time with fly rods...
The Nikon 35mm f1.4G is just so sweet. Wide open she sings! Sharp and contrasty with a beautiful bokeh the way it should be. I just love the look of a long wide angle portrait. It doesn't work for everything but when it does it just has a great feel to it.
The Nikon 200mm f2 VRII is a one eyed monster! To give you an idea of how big this thing is, imagine a 40 of olde E sitting on top of a gallon paint can. Yea, crazy big. I think it weighs in at just shy of 56lbs! (ok, I can't back that up) When I was a canon shooter I shot the 200/1.8 and couldn't imagine life getting better. Well, tack on the new nano coat glass, VRII and a focus speed that is blazing fast and you have life getting better. Way better! The VRII technology is truly amazing. The images below are at 1/13th of a second handheld. Keep in mind that I am holding up a 40 of olde E and a paint can. (for those of you that have not experienced a 40 of olde E, sorry, you have not lived) I made several tack sharp images at around a 1/2 second but didn't get the expression from my subject. So I will just have to impress the pants off of you with the 1/13th speed.
Ok, so tomorrow is Sunday and will be the first installment of Photo Church. I am not sure what that means quite yet but I am sure I will come up with something tonight. Me and my 40.
Keep on clickin'
Parker J