Steve Murphy Photography

Nikon D600, Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 lens announcements | Nikon Rumors A poor man's D800 but you won't find a cheaper DSLR with full-frame sensor.

So the first step is staking out a spot in the park or wherever that will give you the best vantage point. Last year, at Central Park in Roseville, we and several hundred others were faked out by the show being on the other side of the park!  Oh well, not all was lost and I will tell you why: It is better if you have a frame of reference in these shots.  For the above picture, it was trees. The year before, it was buildings near downtown Minneapolis: Maybe not the most ideal scenery but believe me, it's better than no surroundings. Ok, the setup: Use a tripod.  Do not even try it without. If you can, auto-focus on a very distant object otherwise just set your focus to infinity and change from autofocus to manual and leave it there. Set your camera to manual shutter and aperture. Aperture f /11, to darken the sky.  You can go smaller to experiment (higher 'f' number) but probably no more than f /16. Shutter 4 seconds. ISO100 or 200 Auto ISO off....

Gallery This was our second time covering this event and I have to say the creative flow is a trickle now. How many different pictures of cars can you take? Karen and I still came home with over 700 image files. 611 made the cut. Old, rusty stuff has an appeal to me. There were a number of (highly) used parts and even whole vehicles that looked like they sat outside for years so I applied some filter magic to a few of them, for example: Click on an image to see a larger size The harsh sunlight provided a lot of exposure challenges throughout the day. I kept the aperture usually f/11-14, not that fast a shutter, 1/250, 1/320. But shiny cars can be fun to "artify" such as: It was an unpaid gig but at least we were given a golf cart to drive around in and a free t-shirt. Karen used my old D70, she got some great shots that day. Soon after arriving, we met up with my 2 buddies, one a co-worker (Kevin, a Dodge Challenger club member) and...

I will try to get out there, maybe up on my roof.  Maybe I can avoid killing myself, waddling around on a slope in the dark. Here is a good article on shooting the moon: http://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-photograph-the-moon Hint:  Low ISO, small aperture, f/11 - f/16.  I will try aperture priority but will probably go full manual.

See the review here It's here... Nikon has announced the 16mp D4 DSLR. 16.2mp Nikon-developed CMOS FX sensor Dust reduction system Dual slots (1x XQD, 1x CF Type 1) 100% viewfinder coverage, 0.70x magnification. Carbon fiber shutter rated at 400,000 cycles, max speed 1/8000s 1/250s flash sync speed 10fps shooting speed with full AF, 11fps with no AF 91,000-pixel exposure metering system ISO 100-12,800 (50-204,800 expanded) Multi-CAM 3500FX 51-point autofocus, down to f/8 and -2ev USB 3.0 interface New EN-EL18 battery, 2600 shots per charge 41.6oz (1180g) camera body only Illuminated function buttons If you have an extra $6K or so lying around, you should get this.  Peanuts compared to the Canon 1DX coming soon.  Me, I am holding out for the D800 but, practically speaking, the D700 will have to do me for the near term.  Not a problem, it's a great camera (doesn't do video, though).