Steve Murphy Photography

With a camera, of course! We like watching the birds at the feeder from our kitchen window, it's one of the reasons we got it.  After months of thinking "I've got to get pictures of these guys", I finally acted on it. First we break out the D2X, the old workhorse and put it on my studio tripod with the Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead: This bad boy got me through my first few years of sports shooting. Unfortunately, it was terrible with low light situations, such as night games and indoor without flash.  Very bad digital noise.  At the time, Nikon had no alternative and all the top sports shooters used Canons, who handled low light very well.  Nikon has since caught up, beginning with the D3 and the D700.  Attach the usb cable: Zoom, get focus on the feeder, as close to the prong on which they stand. Be careful not to let the distant background throw it off.  Set focus to Manual, turn off VR.  Set shutter and aperture.  I used 1/200 ...

Click Here I am hearing the Sigma Artisan version is sharper.  And cheaper.  I would probably use this more than the 50mm I currently have. More Nikon stuff, including new releases of NX2 and Capture: Nikon Rumors

Glossary: Histogram: Digital Photography Review A good rule of thumb is to get the image as correct as possible in the camera and not so much post-processing (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.). If your camera has a histogram display, this is a good overview, check it out!

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.