Our last evening was spent at the Old Mission Lighthouse. It was a delightful evening as we worked the area which included forests and beaches, old log cabins, squirrels and bats. The D3 had to go back home, so I was in a photographic frump but I was able to make a couple of images I really liked, like the fence photo above. This is simple shot which was just converted into B&W using CS3.
While the pounding of our blog has slowed down, emails in regard to the D3 haven’t. I want to thank all who have sent emails thanking me for the little information I’ve been able to post on the D3. It was a privilege extended to me by Nikon to shoot the D3 so early on in its prerelease. Can’t thank them enough for the opportunity, it’s a great camera. The images I shot and I was able to posted here are from processed Nef files so I could see just how gorgeous the files truly are. Here’s a simple example of that.
I had no means of mounting the D3 on a tripod, simply no plates. To shoot in the forest in the very dim light, I cranked up the ISO of the D3 to 800 (which I never do) just so I could shoot at 1/15 of a second. When I went through the mornings images later on the computer, I had totally forgotten I had shot at ISO800 until I was in NX and only than, after seeing the meta data did I remember. I couldn’t tell by looking at the images, there was no noise structure hinting at shooting at a high ISO. More importantly to me though was how well the D3 handled recording the very subtle changes in the greens in the forest (at this high ISO) as that was what I was after. It’s called photography, solving problems to visually communicate the passion your feel at the time of the click and the D3 does it so very well.
I’m a photographer and as such, I create images based on my emotional response to the scene and through my photography, try to draw the same emotional response from the viewer of my image. The amazing nuisances of detail the D3 captures aren’t going to be seen here in these small files posted on the blog (and I’m truly sorry for that). The very subtle color grads that the D3 can record that the D2Xs doesn’t is what’s important for me to discover in my first shooting of the D3 (and it does just that). The D3’s ability to pull in highlight detail beyond the traditional 5stops was important to explore and exploit (and it does that too). The amazing, just bloody amazing sharpness of the D3 files were enough to make me ecstatic beyond belief and something I had to really explore. The detail in feathers (even if they were just gulls) the D3 captures just blew me off my chair!
I am a photographer, first and foremost. My shooting with the D3 was for MY photography. It had to be since that’s the only measuring stick that is meaningful to me. I was very, very, very fortunate to first, have the D3 to shoot with and than at the same time, have it to shoot with when I was my good bud Joe McNally who has had extensive time shooting with the D3. He made it possible for me to instantly and with knowledge, jump right into MY style of photography with the D3. I want to thank those who emailed me understanding this and were able to take what morels I can post at this time and use it in their own photography! It’s my desire to provide you the same help I was fortunate to have shooting with Joe McNally by my side with what we’ll post in the future on our website about the amazing D3.
Photo captured by D2Xs, 105VR on Lexar digital film