Summer Leaves

There's something about trees. They have this incredible range of dimension, from the microscopic detail of leaf structure, to the sometimes impressively large structure of the trunk and root system. There's a lot going on inside this one living organism, and even more just outside.

 

Photographers, including me, love to shoot the autumn leaves. I found this tree, which happens to be at its peak summer health, equally interesting

 

Summer Leaves, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 28mm f1.8 AF-S G Lens

iso 3200, f5.6, 1/125 sec.

 

I spot metered a point on the gray tree bark to get this exposure. Of course, that meant blowing out the highlights in the white sky around the leaves, but that's okay.

 

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Kitchen Door

Last night, I went to a live music performance at Jammin' Java in Vienna, Virginia. I caught this scene out of the corner of my eye, quickly mounted the Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF-D, and captured it.

 

Kitchen Door, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 85mm f1.8 AF-D Lens

iso 7200, f2, 1/125 sec.

 

It's absolutely amazing how well the Nikon Df does at high iso settings. In fact, I find that much of the time I actually use Auto-ISO settings, since I really don't have to worry about digital noise. In this case, that's what I did. I set the camera to spot meter, set the shutter speed to 1/125 with the camera in Manual exposure mode, the f-stop to f2, and just trusted the camera to pick the correct iso. The sensor in the Df gives me nearly complete freedom in these types of shooting situations.

 

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Watermelon Park Fest 2014 - Mandolin Players Extraordinaire!

It's Sunday, and I just returned home at 2:30 AM from my favorite music festival of this and every year, Watermelon Park. I've been attending for several years now, and it's a big party with so many of my friends, I look forward to it all year long.

 

I'm pretty wiped out today, but thought I'd share a few images of a workshop of three of the world's best mandolin players - (left to right) Sam Bush (Sam Bush Band), Danny Knicely (Furnace Mountain Band), and Drew Emmitt (Leftover Salmon). Check them out.

 

 

These guys were great, sharing several tunes and lots of funny stories, like how Sam was accosted by several "locals" back in the early seventies while attending the festival. The nicest thing they had to say to him was that they were going to cut off his hair. Luckily, Sam escaped unharmed and came back some 40 years later.

 

I was right at the edge of the stage, shooting with my Nikon D700 and 50mm f1.4 AF-D lens. Being held in a big white tent, the background light was much brighter than that on Sam, Danny, and Drew's faces. I simply used the spot meter setting in the D700 to get the exposure right, and then it was a matter of catching a few moments and interactions. What a blast!

 

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