Genie in a bottle

The strobist page is just sensational. He's got so many useful tutorials on there that I cant understand how he has time to be a newspaper photographer as well?! Anyway, one of the posts got me thinking a bit. It basically explains how you can override your cameras max sync speed (1/250th in my case). Sadly, my D2Hs hasn't got the electronic shutter needed for this, so I am stuck at that max speed (we're not discussing FP sync here, by the way, a different beast altogether). I also sold my old trusty D70 earlier this year. However, I know that before they upgraded to D2Hs here at the newspaper, they used to shoot on Nikon D1H. Not a great camera, I know, but it has the required electronic shutter. I brought one home to try out over the weekend and I have been charging its batteries ever since.


© Magnus Andersson

The above bottle was shot as follows: SB-800 (left) on PC cord, SB-80DX on slave, both on 1/128 power, f/20, 1/16,000 sec, ISO 800 (no post processing at all). Yes, sixteen thousandth of a second - that's 0.0000625 seconds. Insane. I just wish I could use this for work, but it seems unlikely as the batteries for these old cameras are completely knackered. Lasts maybe 30min, maybe less, so I cant risk it on a job just yet.

70 minutes fo your life

Picture: David Hobby

This is ridiculous. I've just watched a clip on youtube and it was 70 minutes long. Normally I don't get too much joy out of that site, other than the odd 'loving' cat up for adoption, but this is fantastic stuff. Part of the Authors@Google series, where they film guest speakers and put it online, this time featuring a photographic legend; Joe McNally.

Check out Joe's blog here. He's also mentioned on Strobist, with a ridiculous looking flash set up, seen above. See more shots from that shoot on David Hobby's (aka Strobist) flickr page here.

I'm also enjoying my time off this week, sleeping late and watching entire seasons of good TV series such as Prison Break and The Wire. Very productive, I know.

Also planning a couple of trips, one to Brighton for some shopping and to look at the sea, and another to Oxford where they are exhibiting original Ansel Adams handmade prints. If you've ever seen one you will never forget it. He invented the zone system, you know. I used to read those books when I was much younger and it really made me understand photography a whole lot better.

Shockingly, a photographer I know - who shall remain nameless - hadn't heard about the zone system at all. I worry sometimes...