Dave Benham

Despite being a gadget person there are times when I see converging technologies built in together without proper thought. One of these, and a bugbear of mine, is video on a DSLR. Yet today news emerges of a feature film produced entirely using a Nikon D90 DSLR.

If this is true then well done guys. I’m a firm believer that you should use the right tool for the job and I’d personally use a nice 3CCD high definition camcorder. Then again I’m not a film maker so what do I know?

Reverie’s synopsis is as follows:

Set in the remote wilderness of the Illinois River Valley six years after a catastrophic fire devastated the area, a series of events draws the paths of two former friends towards intersection. Their reunion reopens the wounds of a dark past and threatens to collapse the fragile lives they have constructed since.

I bet their wounds were caused by the inclusion of HD video on DSLRs. Check out the details at IMDB.

Check out this great video from LensRentals.com comparing the different sizes of Nikon telephoto lenses. I’m never going to grumble about the size of my 70-200 f/2.8  again!

To think that wildlife shooters use a 600mm f/4 regularly as well – at least their wallet would be lighter…

Nikon D700, 24-70 AF-S @ 70mm, 1/640th at f/7.1, ISO 200

The New Forest confuses some people in that it’s not just trees. There are lots of wide open spaces to enjoy, often shared with the odd New Forest pony or twelve. A walk on Sunday took us into the forest near our home and presented an ideal opportunity for practising panning.

By panning I don’t mean criticising; there’s enough of that going on at the moment elsewhere. I was having fun with my parent’s dog, chocolate labrador Molly, and a bundle of hair apparently concealing another canine. As they approached I switched the D700 into continuous focus mode, and multiple frame advance in shutter priority mode, selecting 1/640th second. By continuing to track the dogs as they ran past I was able to get four or five sharp shots. This was my favourite, mostly because the mop is in full flight and there are little catchlights in both dogs’ eyes.

A little different from the Red Kites and cricket recently, but another technique that’s good to practice on. Watching a little of the Formula 1 racing this weekend has tweaked my interest in a little motorsport, where panning is really critical. Watch this space!

Nikon D700, 70-200 VR with 1.7 Teleconverter at 340mm, 1600th @ f/4.8, ISO 450

Nikon D700, 70-200 VR with 1.7 Teleconverter at 340mm, 1600th @ f/4.8, ISO 800

Summer’s arriving – which in the sleepy village of Sway in the New Forest means that the sound of willow on leather can again be heard on the village green. Well, the sound of willow wafting at leather anyway.

The second XI were at home to Beaulieu on Sunday, so off I went complete with D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 and teleconvertor, and a monopod to keep me stable. For the second time in as many weeks I was left feeling a little inadequate – filling the frame from the edge of the boundary was proving difficult. This time I was shooting in shutter priority mode, and varied between 1/500th and 1/1600th of a second.  I wanted to make sure the ball was a little blurred to give the impression of motion while the batsmen were frozen in their pose.

Sadly I had to go before Sway’s bowlers began their onslaught, but I’m pleased to say the end result was a well earned 154 run victory. The shots above show top scorers Rick How and Nilantha Atapattu on their way to 74 not out and 52 respectively.

Nikon D700, 17-35 AF-S at 24mm, 6 seconds @ f/22

A quick postscript on the Red Kite trip – arriving at Welshpool late Friday and keen to make the most of the weekend Andy Keen took me to Lake Vyrnwy, about half an hours’ drive from the station. The sun and the heat of a five-hour train journey rapidly turned into drizzle, but as the last elements of light started to disappear we weren’t to be dissuaded. Even a close encounter with the slope didn’t put us off as we clambered with our tripods.

I didn’t get many shots that were usable and spent more time wiping the rain off the lens than anything else. This final shot had potential, and with a little tweak in Lightroom on the saturation and a vignette effect I’m pretty pleased with the result.