Behind the Photos - October 2012

As I mentioned in my inaugural "Behind the Photos" post back in July, I am using today's post to highlight one of my favorite pieces of photography gear. The focus (I'll stop with the puns after this) of this piece is the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF. Here are a few photos of my copy of the "nifty fifty" lens:

Nikon 50mm 1.8 D

Wide open at F/1..8

As you know, this isn't a blog about the technical aspects of photography (so here are some more thorough reviews by professionals). I think photos taken with this lens pretty much speak for themselves. I will say that this lens is fast and produces sharp photos consistently. It's a very light and compact lens and it continues to be my "go-to" lens for walking around. What's especially impressive is that it's available new for around $130. The newer version of this lens is the 50mm 1.8 G, which retails for ~$200 new, but I have no problem recommending this slightly older model. On a DX "crop frame" camera like my Nikon D90 this lens is a nice length for a variety of situations. Here are just a few photos I have taken with mine:

So there you have it. This lens gets a five star rating from me. I only use Nikon gear but I hear that similar prime/fixed-length lenses from other camera companies are equally as competent. There's something about using prime lenses that is especially fun for the type of photography I do and 50mm is a good focal length for me  Feel free to use the link to below the check out this lens on Amazon. Any purchases made at Amazon directly after clicking this link will provide me with a small credit on the site (which I will probably use to purchase more camera stuff!):

Behind the Photos - July 2012

I think it would be appropriate to occasionally post about my photo gear, given the subject matter of this blog. Here is a photo of ironically low quality, taken with my laptop's webcam, of the gear that creates the photos on this site:

In the front is the Nikon D90, and the lenses from left to right are: Nikon 50mm f/1.8D, Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G, Nikon 70-300mm f4-5.6G,  and a Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6EX. None of these pieces of equipment are really top-of-the-line, but they cover everything that most hobbyists such as myself could want or need. Prior to purchasing this used D90 body last spring, I used a Nikon D50 for about five years. The lens I use the most is the 50mm, which is one of the cheapest Nikon lenses but also one of the best when measured by quality vs. dollars spent. The Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens, my newest lens, also gets a lot of use for photographing street scenes and buildings. I think in the next installment of "Behind the Photos" I will go into more detail about one of my lenses or perhaps on my post-processing techniques.

This post is also a good place to share some of the places where my photography has been spotted. Between selling photos, letting people or companies use them for free, or discovering that business or websites are using my photography without credit or compensation, you might have seen one or two of my photos in random places. Here are a few recent examples (the photos in these examples were sold or used with my permission unless otherwise noted):

On the back inside cover of the 2012-13 Portland Buy Local Guide in an ad for Casco Bay Eyecare, Portland's leader in eyecare and eyewear since 1998. 

I have had many photos on the Gr8PortlandME website (there's another one of mine up now) and on their Facebook page. 

Occupy Maine photo on The Maddow Blog on MSNBC.com. This was not authorized, but I would have let them use the photo if my watermark wasn't cut off and the photo was credited. 

I spotted this one randomly at a convenience store.  Since this appears to be a poster for a small non-profit organization, I would have provided a full resolution copy of the image for free.

I occasionally get photos on the front page of The Consumerist, a subsidiary of Consumer Reports, because I load my photos in their Flickr photo pool. 

Okay, that's all for now. I will have a few more screenshots of my work to share next month and in the meantime feel free to send me a heads up if you spot one of my photographs somewhere random.