Flower Show Photography and a bit history of my camera choice
Flower Show Photography and a bit history of my camera
choice… by David HK July 2016
I have been going to the HK annual flower show in March
almost every year in the past 10 years, but the photos I took looks the same
year from year, you wouldn’t know which year you’ve taken which by just looking
at the photos, if not due to the latest digital technology which records the
date time of the photo, some even records the GPS location, and auto upload to
the cloud (if your camera is equipped with such technology, and of course most
smart phones cam already have these features built-in).
I bought my 1st DSLR in 2008, a Nikon, before that I was
using a Canon EOS-10 when it was first launched, way back in the late 80’s. The Canon was a great camera, had been accompanied
me to all my travelling (Boston & San Diego USA, most European countries,
Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus, China, Taiwan, and of course UK & HK (my home
countries in different timeframe of my life).
Why I switched to Nikon? Well, my girlfriend (now my wife)
was using Nikon when we met, I got to use her camera from time to time, and I
kind of like its heaviness and more mechanical feel (both the sound and the
touch), and most importantly, I bought a secondhand 80-200mm f/2.8D (1993-1997)
Nikon lens from a colleague. It was one
of the world’s best photographic lens money can buy, so the old saying that
“the lens is more important than the body” is really true, hence when it’s time
for me to buy my 1st and only DSLR, I bought a Nikon body, the D80,
which was an amateur body that supported the mechanical AF interface with the old
AF lens (ie the lens AF feature is driven by a motor in the body, not in the
lens).
Now back to the flower show and flower photography, I use
mostly my macro lens, the Nikon 60mm f/2.8 Micro-NIKKOR AF-D, this lens was
introduced in 1989, made in Japan, and you need to search very hard to get hold
of one as not many places still sell it nowadays. It is one of a few macro lens that can
produce 1:1 scale of life images, with wide aperture (you need wide open when
doing close up, to get sufficient light so you can use higher speed of shutter,
to avoid camera shake), and can focus your subject at around 4” away. It is
ultra-sharp (if your hands are not shaking) also!
Below are a few photos I took in this year flower show, just
to show you the macro lens’ magic!
In every year’s flower show, I noticed a large number of
people carrying heavy equipment, with big tripod / long lens etc to take
close-up of the flowers! Which required standing a certain distance (eg at
least a few feet) away from the subject, meaning other people could stand in
front of you and blocking your viewing path. Also, a slight movement of the
long lens will result in very blur photos.
I still do not understand why people don’t buy a short macro
lens like I do that can focus in very short distance (meaning you can stand
very close to your subject and have the whole subject to yourself while taking
the photo), and most importantly, no tripod is necessary! May be for them, such a short macro lens has
only narrow usage, ie taking close-up macro images!
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