Dave Benham

Nikon D700, AF-S 24-70 @70mm, 1/125 @ f/5.6

It’s been a busy week in the Forest after the relaxing Bank Holiday weekend. The long weekend turned into lots of preparation at work and expectant kids at home. Poor old Harry does get a camera pointed at him more than most kids, and I loved his expression above. Has he turned into a teenager over 10 years early?

Nikon D700, AF-S 70-200 VR with 1.7 teleconvertor @340mm, 1/160 @ f/6.3

Our garden is attacting all sorts of visitors at the moment (and I’m not just talking about the in-laws). I was really impressed with this shot, not only because of the detail, the pleasing bokeh in the background and colours – and also as it was shot handheld at 340mm using a slow shutter speed. Yes I was supporting the lens properly, but I have Nikon’s amazing VR technology to thank for this one.

I’m writing a more detailed account of the Red Kite shoot from last week, and I’ll include some of my landscape and waterfall shots from the weekend as well. The Kites were featured on Springwatch on Monday, if you missed it check out the episode on BBC’s Iplayer.

Over the Easter weekend I set myself a challenge – instead of using my 24-70 f/2.8 or 70-200 f/2.8 zooms I had to stick to a single fixed focal length – my Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.4 lens.

As nice as it is to travel light (and it is much lighter than my other zooms!) I was a little apprehensive as we approached the minature steam fair at Sammy Miller’s motorcycle museum, near New Milton. I was envisaging close cropped portraits of grizzled steam enthusiasts, and detail shots of their lovingly restored engines. How would I cope with the 50mm alone?

Harry helped me out here in a strange way. He was spooked by a little pocket steamroller shooting past us and decided the safest place to look at the steam was from within the playground. So against the fence we waited while he soaked up the atmosphere a little more.  There’s nothing like a climbing frame to inspire confidence, and provide a few photo opportunities!

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D700, AF-S 70-200 at 175mm, 1/80th at f/4.5, ISO 200

As I haven’t been to the gym for a while it was high time I got out with the Nikon AF-S VR 70-200 f/2.8 zoom that I acquired recently. It’s brilliantly balanced on the D700 and feels great, but it isn’t half heavy. On the plus side, a couple of hours of wandering around with this lens makes the 24-70 f/2.8 seem as light as a feather! Mental note: leave the 50mm f/1.4 off for a bit…

First impressions – the AF is insanely fast. It tracks well in low light and is pretty quiet too, but you can hear the VR servos fire in from time to time. On that note, take a look at the shot of Harry above. That was taken at 175mm using a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second, handheld. All the rules say that image should be completely out of focus but it works for me thanks to the VR.

D700, AF-S 70-200 at 95mm, 1/80th at f/4.5, ISO 200

I found myself using the motor drive more than usual, switching the camera into high speed mode for the first time in a while. Perhaps this lens made me feel like a journo – during our half hour walk around the park I certainly got a few strange looks. Most of them must have been about the camera and lens, surely!  It was interesting playing with the compressed perspective you achieve with a longer lens, and the longer reach was great. Looking back at the shots I can’t see any of the vignetting or softness that some people report with the 70-200 on full frame.

D700, AF-S 70-200 at 80mm, 1/80th at f/8, ISO 3200

Thanks to the D700 I’m shooting so much more natural light stuff these days – this shot shows why. Even at ISO 3200 in really low light I was able to get a usable portrait, and although there is visable noise it’s no worse than my D200 was at ISO 800. I’m itching to play with off camera flash soon though, the new Pocketwizards for Nikon can’t come soon enough for me.

D700, 24-70 f/2.8 at 28mm, 1/400th at f/5.6, ISO 200

D700, 24-70 f/2.8 at 24mm, 1/800th at f/5.6, ISO 200

Harry persuaded us to take him to the local park on Saturday, the first warm(ish) day in a while. As Mum was around I didn’t have to watch too closely as he clambered around and instead the D700 got an airing!

These two shots were amongst my favourite from the day, the converging lead lines up the slide work well for me. The second shot is using the Awesome bw Lightroom plugin, I don’t normally play around too much with shots but this effect and the gaze into the horizon is effective.

On Sunday I took the camera down to get some shots of my neighbour’s son playing football, but was roped into running the line. C’est la vie!

Train of thought – 1/50th sec at f/5.6, ISO 1400

Contrary to popular belief, there is a way to spend time at a railway station, camera in hand, and not be treated like an anorak-burdened geek.

Take a small child with you, preferably cute, with a limited but increasing vocabularly.

Having helped me retrieve wood and coal from the garage little Harry wasn’t finished with the outdoors, despite the cold. So off we wandered, camera in hand, and Harry decided that he wanted to look at trains.

I didn’t take any shots of trains (honest!) but I liked the symmetry of the shelter frame with the bench – Harry’s just pointing out the 16:27 to London Waterloo as it pulled into the station.

We’re meant to get snow in the next couple of days – very rare on the south coast. I can’t wait!