Happy New Year 2011

Well I have been away from the blog for a while. Sadly most of Christmas was spent with the Flu so I have not had much time to play around with my camera.

I do have a new flash unit the SB600 which I have been desperate to pick up. I have also not really done many test shots with the Nikon 10-24mm so I have some work to do.

Perhaps even talking about Flickr and Picasa would be a useful subject.

Ok so lots to talk about.

See you soon and Happy New Year.

Best way to find cheap UK prices

Seems an obvious post now that I think about it. I am one of those people that has to research until my eyes go dry in front of the monitor. I need to know I have got he cheapest deal and that I have not been ripped off. There are a couple of sites, one just for photography equipment and the other for pretty much anything, but they are both UK based. Over the years they have save me a fortune.

The first is www.hotukdeals.com This site allows users to submit deals they think are cheap. All the other users will then decide to give deal some heat or to cool it down. The hotter the offer the better the deal for you. In the past they have included substantial misprices so it is worth checking out.

The next one is related to photography and is a godsend for making sure you have got a good deal. It is called www.camerapricebuster.co.uk and serves to show you what is the current best deal available on any camera, lens or kit. It shows you all the deals from listed suppliers and then even better it tracks the prices drops or increases over the period the product is available. This then gives you the all time lowest prices and the all time highest so you can see whether you are paying a good price or not.

If you are UK based then I strongly recommend that you become followers of these sites. My Nikon D90 and the Nikon 50mm lens both came from deals I found on camerapricebuster.co.uk.

DX Wide Angle Shots Sigma 10-20mm

Here are a couple of the shots taken in Petra, Giza and Cairo. For the cheapest option, the Sigma really seems to be a good option. Sharpness never feels like an issue, nor does low light. However, some thought needs to be given before each photo to ensure you have taken into account the warp that will appear at the edges, particularly in the corners. For some reason on my lens this is most evident in the top right hand corner.

The first view of the Treasury at Petra. It was truly an amazing sight.

Apparently the whole building was carved from the top down out of the mountain. Look closely and you will see a lot of design that in the UK is believed to be of Victorian origin. 

Back in the UK

Well after an amazing holiday in Egypt and visit to Jordan, I am now back in the UK. My last post ended up being slightly inaccurate. I could not find a copy of the Tokina 11-16mm anywhere at all. In fact after scouring all the shops in the UK I could only find a single copy of the Sigma 10-20mm. With only hours to go before I left for Egypt I decided to purchase it and see how it did.

These were my first images after getting the lens. They were taken as test pictures while still in the UK:

Well I was very happy with the colour and the sharpness of the image, but having been aware that there would be some warp in the corners, I was pretty disappointed to see how badly this affected the sun in this image.

This was much better but it has got me thinking already about how this might affect images where straight lines are evident in the corners. Over the next couple of weeks I was able to take a large number of shots using the widest setting and in the main I think the images were pretty good. The Sigma 10-20mm certainly does not suffer any issues with low light. In fact quite the opposite, in the Mosque of Mohammed Ali there was almost too much light.

More pictures to be shown in the Egypt section.

Wide Angle Lens

I will be going to Egypt shortly and amongst other things we will be travelling to the Pyramids and Petra in Germany.

With the likelihood that this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity as we want to travel everywhere else as well, I have decided to purchase a wide angle lens. This is where things get a little expensive.

Just as big a problem as the expense is that I still don't really know what I am looking for. I am therefore reliant on the professional reviews out there to let me know what is good and what is not. Of course these reviews are in many ways subjective.

In short if you want a wide angle lens for a Nikon D90 then you are pretty much limited to 4 main lens manufacturers. Nikon (of course), Sigma, Tamron and Tokina. Sigma and Tamron are well known for being suppliers of good quality lenses with Tokina being a little newer to the scene.

My first review was one carried out by the fantastic Ken Rockwell http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/digital-wide-zooms/comparison.htm he is not frightened of making bold claims and despite being a die hard Nikon supporter, will always give a very fair review on other manufacturer's products.

In the initial review it seemed that the Tokina was the best lens to go for overall without paying Nikon's exorbitant prices. However that review was in 2006 and each manufacturer has brought new products to the table.

The new Tokina lens is the 11-16mm - http://www.kenrockwell.com/tokina/11-16mm.htm

The reviews are particularly good but I waited to see what the conclusion would be for the new Nikon 10-24mm which is here http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/10-24mm.htm

In the end when looking at the cost saving, durability and sharpness elements, there really was no choice for me but the Tokina 11-16mm. I will upload some images when it arrives.

Light

When I first started taking photos, they were dreadful. In fact I was not allowed to take any family pictures. Invariably my photos would have the subject dead centre and far away. I always thought that I needed to create perspective by having a fair amount of scenery visible all the way around my subject. With the digital age and photoshop I can get away with this by cropping. But with old film cameras you could barely see the expression of my subjects.

(The above is a great example. I look at these now and wonder what the hell I was thinking. The post on the right is part of the truck we are riding in and not one element of this photo is good or carries some point)

The above meant I spent more time framing the shots then considering the available light. Quickly I learned that the use of the inbuilt flash pretty much ruined my shots and so I have been spending as much time as possible trying to work out how light affects my images.

The following pictures were taken with the 50mm lens on the D90 on a sunny day in a forest. No flash was used for any of them and I have taken them against sunlight in some cases to see how the camera would cope:

The next three showed my problem trying to get the colours accurate. In this the green is about right but the blue is washed out.

The next effort had a much better blue but now the green looked distinctly ordinary and not realistic.

Some more fiddling about with the exposure compensation and the following was about the best I could achieve.

Again you can see that the sky has become washed out.

Lynton, Lynmouth and the Valley of the Rocks

This was a quick break earlier in the year. I think it was Easter. What I cannot possibly convey with these photos is how horrendously cold it was. We were all miserable and could not wait to leave, but did at least manage to enjoy some scenery.

Feeding the wild horses.

We came across this bridge. We were in a large camper so I had some doubts.

Well founded doubts. No chance the camper would go over this. Not even sure I would like going over it in a car to be honest.

I wandered across to the little pub/post office/village shop and asked if we could go through the ford safely. On the walk back thought you could better see how unlikely the bridge was.

Welcome to quintessential Britain.

A random photo but I was quite attracted to the light and shadow in the scene. I have failed to capture it fully but you get the idea.

This strange looking object represents the very latest in Devonshire high speed rail. Its over a hundred years old and seemingly works with water.

And off it goes. Whooosh though rumble rumble is a little more accurate.

Here you can see the two carriages passing each other. I have to say it is a bloody amazing invention.

The view from the top of the Valley of the Rocks. Quite a stunning view.

Same as before but other direction. Again I still have work to do if I am ever going to capture the view faithfully.