“Trinity” Complete

Now I’ve only very extreme limitations left and everything else pretty much covered.

• AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED
• AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G
• Nikkor-H 50mm f/2
• AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED

These give me awesome duo combos to take with me, and not have to break my back or my bag. If I’m only doing day time and want wider angle- 18-70 + 70-300. If it’s a mix of day and night and I want wider angle/AF- 35 + 70-300. If I’m doing strictly artistic shots day and night- 50 + 70-300. Else if I want completely light-weight and day and night kinda pack- 35 + 50. By its usefulness, the 35 falls into the actual trinity far better than the 50, but 50 cost me next to nothing for the quality it delivers, so having a quartet wouldn’t really hurt at the end of the day.

First Impressions – AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED

At loooooong last I got my hands on this beauty, and from only playing with it for less than an hour in the dusk, I’m impressed! Mad kudos to Exe163 on FM Forums for an awesome deal that helped me pull the trigger on this one.

First off, lens itself shots with my 50mm f/2:

(Quick note on this shot- it really shows the full focal plane of the 50mm f/2 @ f/2 since the very bottom of the shot is blurred as is the rest about 1/3 across the 70-300′s front element.)

And now for the quick test. Mostly did shots at 70mm end and then 300 end to see how both turn out.

300mm indoors. Pretty good quality considering ISO wasn’t that high, and VR worked incredibly in the Active mode.

Quick outdoor snips @ ISO1600 @ 70mm, 200mm, and 300mm-

The rest of the shots were done in RAW and processed to show what this baby can really do when all is said and done.

@300mm again-

Another two duos of 70mm, and 300mm-

Another two 300mm-

Given all our modern tools, this lens is a serious pro-sumer contender, though I’m yet to see its full beauty in sunlight and see if it fringes or vignette’s much. AF did hunt a little bit given lower lighting situation, but it was quite manageable and given this lens’ cost, it will do the job just fine.

Do What You Want And Don’t Get In Others’ Ways

I feel that today, (gay) Pride festivities celebrate simple human rights for freedom to be who they actually are. Prude or easy, homo or heterosexual, whatever as long as you don’t shove your belief into other people’s throats (like Christianity tried the day of the parade) nor harm the members of the society/break any laws.

Lots of expected, but still entertaining things happened both days and regardless of how wild people were unlike their regular day to day basis, seeing so many open-minded and socially free people was awesome.

Members of the force were nice to see being a part of this community, especially in DC given all the stereotypes about being assholes and power-hungry bullies.

Frankly, if it wasn’t for uniforms these 2 days, you wouldn’t tell them apart from the rest of the crowd.

Next up, of course, came religious preachers with their masked hate or perhaps jealousy of not being able to set themselves free in a real lifetime. The crowds did their best to protest peacefully AND get their message across, as follows:

And some were just plain old creative:

And as we say these days- haters gonna hate.

Other than that, the parade was very colorful and awesome, and I did manage to get some nice shots given my crappy spot in the crowd.

Check my Facebook page for the full albums.

Two of 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners Rodrigo Abd and Javier Manzano at the Newseum.

Last night, Newseum had 2 of the 2013 Pulitzer prize winners, Rodrigo Abd (center) and Javier Manzano (right), tell their stories of how they won the prize in their respective categories and about their experiences while reporting in Syria.

Rodrigo found out that he won from his boss, while Javier found out from his roomate/Facebook.

Both of them said that while it is a great honor and an accomplishment, winning Pulitzer will not affect how they will continue to do their work despite increased attention. The best response to one audience question as how to take a winning photograph- no one really knows whether they would win or not, and this award is probably the last thing on your mind when you take photographs. It’s kind of like winning a lottery, but through hard work and dedication to what you do.

Their stories about Syria were similar and such experiences always take a toll on someone who depicts them. Opening the world’s eyes to brutal reality, while an extremely noble cause, is also a heavy burden since the journalist has to partially live through the stories that they cover and through experiences of everyone around them all at once. Taking certain photos, such as inside hospitals or during funerals, isn’t the easiest thing to do either since you’re living through others’ tragedies then and there with them.

The whole event was excellent, and was covered by several media as well as recorded live.

Javier telling some of his stories about Syria.

Rodrigo taking a shot of the audience while Javier sips a coffee at the very end.

One of Rodrigo’s shots that is already featured in Newseum’s Pulitzer exhibit.

This Made Our Week

So this airheaded Asian girl from Cali (based on her #) forgets her phone after making a purchase and while waiting for security to come pick it up, I say we look through messages since phone didn’t have any security locks on it. Another customer who overhears it kinda agrees since you never know what people might have on their phones.

We proceed, die on the floor laughing seeing the first thread, and decide to send a friendly reply just in case the girl doesn’t realize her phone is missing.

Then she comes back, but after the security guy picks it up to process. She says it was that exact phone. We decide to try calling it but it doesn’t quite go through. Security asks her about last person she texted and what the message was. She nonchalantly repeats it exactly, so security walks with her so she can reclaim it.

We simply die once again. Priceless.

Then and Now – Turn A and X Gundams

So a couple months went by, and I feel I’ve improved quite a bit. From shooting jpegs hand-held, to at least a crappy tripod and RAW + a more suitable backdrop.

Somehow I keep revisiting Turn A figure. Perhaps I really love that show and its designs. Perhaps Turn X’s features make really nice photos. Who knows… The latest shot ended up quite nice.

Disco Isn’t Dead

SkateDC.org‘s occasional Disco Skate night. Weather kind of crapped on our parade, but even then we had a pretty fun night and roads dried off not to long after we started.

Full album here.

Battery powered music rig with a rotating disco ball, and a bunch of us bladers hauling through U Street.

And a little bit of live action-