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Out and About with 3 new lenses

I finally got myself up and out of bed early last weekend to go and take some photos. Weve been having some great weather leading up to winter, so I decided to head out to Lake Brunner with a bag full of lenses - to try them out.

Nikon D200 with Tokina 12-24mm @ f8

First shot of the day - taken at about 7.00am. I started with the Tokina 12-24mm, mainly because I knew I was going to shoot predominantly landscapes, but also because it was the first lens I purchased after getting the D200 and I hadnt taken any shots with it yet! Pretty pleased with the above result first up. Im such a sucker for a good jetty shot :-)

Trees in the Mist. D200 with Nikkor 70-300mm @ f5.6

The mist was rolling in from the lake - which I knew it would - and I had hoped to take some moody boats in the mist type shots. Trouble is, there were no boats out on the lake, so I had to settle for trees instead. The wide angle wasnt getting me close enough, so I changed to the 70-300mm, shooting right at the 300mm end on a tripod. The slight softness at 300mm only adds to the mood of the shot - although its still plenty sharp enough.

Te Kinga Morning. D200 with Tokina 12-24mm @ f8

There wasnt much else happening at Lake Brunner, so I drove the five minutes to Te Kinga - one of my favourite places to shoot in any weather. The reeds in the foreground stand out in sharp and stark contrast to the misty background - and converts perfectly to monochrome. At the 12mm end the Tokina has quite a bit of edge distortion - but this becomes less evident towards the middle of its range.

Pontoon. D200 with Tokina 12-24mm @ f5.6

Even with a bag full of new lenses, I feel that my photography is suffering from a bit of familiaritus at the moment. Im not really getting very inspired whenever I go out with my camera - familiarity is breeding contempt. The above image, however, is a bit of a departure for me - a bit abstracty (artsy) - and I like it. I was originally drawn to it because of the light that was landing on the floating metal platform thingy - but when I took the shot it became more about the shapes, as well as the light. Anyway, its not my traditional landscape image and maybe thats reason enough to like it.

I also took some images with the Rokinon 85mm f1.4 - but they were mostly boring rubbish - so I havent even bothered processing them. Ill take some portraits with that lens and post them. Its really what I bought it for - not landscapes.

So despite my general photography funk, I enjoyed my early morning excursion with the D200 and lenses. I hope its just the start of many more.

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