I bet Abigail and Grace could get into some awesome trouble together.
You truly "captured" Abigail! That is so "her!"
Eric,
you are so gifted. I love love the laughter, and motion in the picture. Your photography is refreshing and crisp. LOVE IT
Grrrreat pics! I love it. I have a big smile on my face I can almost feel the emotions and hear all the noises and laughing and cheering.
If you've ever got a $1,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you can pick up an Autofocus Nikkor 80-200 2.8 D. It's absolutely gorgeous -- I've got one myself. ;-)
Yes, the kit lenses work great with plenty of light. But if you want to start using shallow depth of field (even in the middle of the day), especially for portraits, you'd want to eventually get something with a wider aperture.
such opportunities lost. there's goes my one chance at fame and fortune...sigh.
Wow Eric, I wasn't expecting that detailed of a response but I really appreciate it.
The 50mm 1.8 sounds like it would really fit my needs. My primary need far a fast lens is indoor shots(like my daughter's gymnastics meets) where I probably wouldn't be using a zoom lens anyway.
Of course, I'd love to have a faster zoom but I can't really justify the cost. For my use, the quality of the kit lenses(28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G) is really pretty good - especially outdoors with plenty of light.
Thanks again for your help!
Brian,
Let me elaborate a bit here ...
A 50mm 1.8 is, in my opinion, an essential lens. It's crazy fast, crazy sharp and with the usual 1.5x conversion factor on digital cameras, it makes for a nice portrait lens. (You can use that 1.8 even outdoors to focus in on a subjects face without any background distraction.)
Of course, you've also got the option of buying a 50mm 1.4, which is even faster. But the 1.4 usually costs about $150 more than the 1.8.
Since you're wisely shooting with Nikon, I'd stick with only Nikkor lenses. Believe me, I've used third party stuff like Tamron and Sigma and it's all horrible compared to Nikkor lenses.
If you want to shoot semi-wide angle you can buy a used 24mm 2.8 prime lense from KEH.com (the most reputable dealer of used equipment in America) for only $179. Of course, that's in "bargain" condition but my experience with KEH is that even their bargain stuff is considered "excellent" by most other used camera dealer standards. I've never been burned by KEH -- they're wonderful.
You can also pick up a used, "excellent" 20mm 2.8 prime for $349 from KEH.
They've got similar deals on prime telephoto lenses as well. You should go to their site and browse around.
Go under "camera store" then "Nikon Autofocus" under the "35mm" heading. Even though they're made for 35mm AF Nikons, they work perfectly with the digital cameras except the D40x.
I use both film and digital and interchange my AF Nikkors between the two systems.
Unforunately, zooms can be up there in price. I'm thinking you probably don't want to spend several hundred dollars on a lens, but if you do I could give you some good suggestions.
Hope that helps!
Thanks, Brian. I'll see if I can think of a couple of options for you when I get some spare time. But for what it's worth, I think a standard 50mm 1.8 (yes, 1.8, even faster than 2.8!) is the BEST bang for your buck in photography. They run about $100 and they're ridiculously fast and sharp. Great for portraits.
Hey Eric! Surfed over from the Thinklings. Enjoying your blog.
You have any suggestions for a good 2.8 lens(prime or not) that won't break the bank? After having used manual SLRs all my life and digital P&Ss for the past several years I finally broke down and bought a digital SLR - it's a refurb Nikon D80 from Cameta.
The kit lenses it came with are ok but a faster lens would be nice - especially for indoor and low-light ourdoor shots.
Keep up the good work!
So true. Oh well, I could have quoted you in the story I wrote for Texas Baptist Communications. ;-)
I know! me too. so weird to think that you're a real person attending the same events and not just an entity that resides in my computer screen...haha
Congratulations on the "Decisive Moment" concept.
I'm very proud of you. All of these photos are incredible.
Continuing to pray for your success.
Lauren,
What a trip. I wish I had known you were there. Anyway, Charlie Hall was awesome!
I was at Focus. I even won a prize in a raffle. I'd never heard of Charlie Hall before, but he and the group were great!
great lighting and depth of field. nice.
As always, your photos show that you truly are gifted!
Looks like you had a great time and very cool photo's.
Thanks, Brian. I don't think that photo would have been the same without those lights shimmering in the background.
Great lighting on Mr. Stroope, Bird!
Beautiful pic