Another day, another adventure; I went up in a Robinson R44 Raven 1 yesterday over Miami to photograph the Miami/Bimini Offshore race.  To say this was fun would be to miss the point entirely - it was a total blast.  Our pilot, who’s also an instructor, flew the machine very well, and at times pushed it pretty hard to keep up with the faster boats.

:: My ride for the shoot - a Robinson R44 Raven 1 - click to enlarge ::

My standard workhorse lens for most action shoots is the Nikon 70-200 AFS VR 2.8.  Originally I thought I would just use this lens and bring along my Nikon 16-85 AF-S VR for wide shots.  When I realized we would be in the air for only an hour, I knew the shooting pace would be frantic, and I would not have time to change lenses during the flight.  Looking carefully at Nikon’s lineup, I figured the 24-120 was a possibility, but its reputation isn’t so great.  The Nikon 18-200 AF-S VR is a lens I told myself I would never buy, but I soon found myself ordering the $700 lens for this shoot.

:: On our way to the race location at Sunny Isles Beach, Miami - click to enlarge ::

I was worried about shooting with a new Nikon 18-200 VR lens - I actually never use prosumer “superzoom” lenses, but in the copter I would not have been able to swap lenses and my Nikon 70-200 would probably have restricted us a bit.  As it turns out, the 18-200 performed impressively - it focuses fast and the resolution was pretty good.  One complaint I do have though, is that when facing forward, the wind would immediately compress the lens, and I had to grip the focus ring tightly to prevent this from happening.  This is another reason I do not like telescoping lenses, and the mechanism doesn’t look very robust either.  As usual, my Nikon D300 performed flawlessly, and after 1285 shots (using VR), the battery meter indicated a full charge.  Incredible.

:: Yes, the water was this deep shade of blue about 32 miles offshore - click to enlarge ::

Image quality with the 18-200 was very good, but not excellent.  It’s good enough to handle professional assignments, but compared to the 70-200, its optical limitations become clearly obvious.  But remember that the 18-200 is a multipurpose, ‘one-lens’ solution, not a professional-grade constant-aperture lens.  I’m not sure I’ll keep this lens though, since I would rarely need it specifically, but I had a good time using it.

:: A view of Miami Beach as we return from the shoot - click to enlarge ::

For the shoot, the right side door was removed which made shooting from the side of the copter very easy.  I also had a great view, but I would not recommend this type of activity if you’re scared of heights.  Miami is a beautiful city, and it’s even better as seen from the air.  The water went from beautiful bright green to a deep rich blue as we headed 30 miles out.  While we were shooting the boats, we spotted a few whales just hanging out at the surface since it was a very calm day.  It was a perfect day - life does not get any better than this.

I read Guitar World magazine religiously (what guitar player doesn’t?) and in the last issue, I noted the small sideline feature on their model contest for the upcoming Guitar World Buyer’s Guide.  I never even remember previous buyer’s guides being full of hot ladies, but heck, if they say so I thought it would be fun to submit photos of Donna.

:: Guitar World model contest photo submission - click to enlarge ::

So Donna and I had fun in the 90-degree south Florida sun, shooting some photos of her posing with my old Jackson Kelly Performer PS-6T.  That guitar has a lot of sentimental value to me, as it was a gift from my dad ten years ago.

We thought of some gimmicky poses with the instrument that would be cool for photos to submit, and it turned out to be a lot of fun, for laughs if anything else. As usual, Donna looked great, and although she did well in the hot sun, and my black guitar was radiating a temperature of over 100 degrees when it went back into the case.  That can’t be good.

::  And you haven’t even seen her race BMX yet!  Click to enlarge ::

For those that want to know, I shot these photos with a Nikon D300 and Nikon 70-200 VR 2.8 lens, using a Nikon SB-600 mounted on the camera with a diffuser. Anyway, I guess what matters is we had a good time and took some cool photos.  I hope she wins - it would surely help her modeling career that I’m already positive she will excel at.  I’ll be crossing my fingers for you, Donna - you deserve to win!

Related Links:

• Guitar World Magazine
  

Alright, this is more of a ‘just for fun’ post rather than any informative BMX post.  My good friend and NBL Elite Pro Donna Snow is a very cool person and we have a lot of fun at the track (yes, she’ll kick my ass in a race).  She just started competing in pageants here in Florida, and unsurprisingly, she won Miss Sarasota USA 2009.  I knew she would win - she’s smart, friendly, and beautiful.

:: Miss Sarasota USA and my Haro Sport - coolness.  Click on image to enlarge ::

So I had this idea for a ‘glamour’ photo of my rare pink Haro Sport with Donna posing next to it.  I mentioned this to Donna and she loved the idea.  I also thought it had a good hook to it, and we might be able to have the photo featured in BMX Plus magazine.  At the very least, it will be fun.  Keep in mind that I’m mainly a sport photographer, so I generally do not shoot models.

In any event, we chose Matlacha County Park as the location, and once we started shooting photos, the locas started gathering around, snickering and making comments.  When that started, Donna and I decided it was best to end our photo shoot for the day.   Some people might think this idea is lame, but I think it rocks.

In case some of you were wondering, I used a Nikon D300 camera and Nikon 70-200 AF-S VR 2.8 lens to shoot the photo.

On August 27, Nikon changed the landscape of photography by introducing the first D-SLR camera that can shoot movies.  Is that exciting?  Not really to me, but I can see the advantage of having on-demand ability to shoot 720P HD movies.  Before I get into that, let’s see what the D90 really is - an upgrade to the existing D80.

 
:: Nikon D90 - Click on image to enlarge ::

Logically, the D90 inherits the same (or very similar) 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor from the pro-level D300.  This in itself is a significant improvement, in my opinion, as the D300 outperformed the D80/D200 in terms if dynamic range and high-ISO performance.  The D90 inherits the D80’s polycarbonate body, however this time it’s weather sealed.  As expected, continuous shooting performance is up from 3 to 4.5 FPS, however the RAW buffer’s 7-frame capacity is disappointing.  The D90 keeps the D80/D200 Multi-CAM 11-point 1000 autofocus system, which in my experience works very well for action/sports photography.  The final major improvement is the addition of the D300/D700/D3 3-inch, 920,000 pixel LCD, which is a beautiful display that shows far greater detail in images than the previous LCD.

:: Nikon D90 - Click on images above to enlarge ::

Aside from the many consumer-friendly features added that I will not bother mentioning here, D-Movie seems to be the show-stopper for this camera.  Shooting HD movies with the advantages of the large SLR sensor is an appealing prospect, but there’s a caveat with this camera - there’s no autofocus in movie mode.  Yes, you read right - this one confuses me, since the D90 can autofocus in Live View mode, however the user must manually focus in D-Movie mode.   Further, while the D90 shoots in 720P HD, the movies are limited to 24 FPS.  I know this isn’t a camcorder and it’s not designed to take the place of one, but I think at the very least it should do what even consumer point-and-shoot cameras can do while shooting movies - automatically focus.

Will I buy a D90?  Maybe as a backup camera, especially if its image quality is on par or close to that of the D300.   Canon also introduced their update to the 40D - not surprising called the 50D.  I’ll post more on that model later.

Like the Nikon D200, I was an early adopter of it’s successor, the new Nikon D300.  Having plenty of field experience with the D200, I think it’s accurate to say that the D300 is an upgrade over the already impressive D200 in every major way.

The new 51-point autofocus is more intelligent, accurate, and versatile.  It can track moving objects better than the D200, though a good lens also helps here too.  Another improvement worth mentioning is the high ISO noise performance - this has been greatly improved, actually.  Images up to ISO 1600 are almost perfectly clean, and ISO 3200 is perfectly usable.  The Canon shooters are scratching their heads and posting all sorts of ridiculous feel-good threads on message boards.  I stay out of that, since most of today “photographers” are gadgeteers more than anything.

:: Nikon D300 with Nikon 70-200 AF-S 2.8 VR lens mounted ::

Back on topic, the D300 is one of the best pro SLR cameras I’ve ever used.  It’s not too large, it’s as fast (or faster) than a D2xs, and even the optional battery grip is built as well as the camera.  This is the best APS-C sized camera money can buy, in my opinion.   I’ll get around to updating my gallery with more photos from the D300 soon.

The Mercury Racing calendar is much like the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue - it’s eagerly awaited every year by performance powerboaters. Mercury Racing powers the fastest boats in the world, and the calendar is a showcase of their technology and the boats that are powered by it. Only the best, fastest, and sexiest boats are worthy, and the calendar is printed on extra-glossy, oversized stock that looks almost as amazing as seeing the boats in person.

:: Sample images from the 2008 Mercury Racing calendar - click on image to enlarge ::

For 2008, Andy Driver is featured with his Quartershot T1 and Mercury 2.5-liter Drag outboard. Driver is a world champion, and I had the opportunity to photograph him for the calendar. The boat is not only fast, but beautiful, and my thanks to Andy for accommodating me and Mercury Racing for this shoot.

Equipment used for this shoot was my workhorse Nikon D200 and Nikkor 70-200 AF-S VR 2.8 zoom lens. The camera performed flawlessly for the shoot, with highlight retention and image quality absolutely stunning. That morning we had a thick haze in the air due to all the fires that were sweeping the state at the time, so I was a bit concerned that image resolution would suffer. Once I loaded up the raw files, those concerns were instantly put to rest - which was no real surprise anyway since the D200 always got the job done without fail.

:: Image featured in calendar for Drag engine - click on image to enlarge ::

These days my D200 is relegated as a backup camera body, with a D300 replacing it. I recently had a chance to give the D300 a small workout shooting BMX riders, and it lived up to my expectations as a fast and accurate performer, so stay tuned for a follow up with more details on my results with the D300.

The Mercury Racing calendar is only $12.00, and can be ordered by following this link.

My weblog photo gallery is now online.  Instead of integrating the gallery into this site, I thought it would be better to have it situated as a stand-alone installation.  That will allow greater flexibility and update manageability.  For now, the gallery will host photos highlights from my event photo work at Scream And Fly Magazine and BMX photos.  It likely won’t be a comprehensive photo gallery, since I’ll only be updating it when I have free time and this is really just a personal project.

For the time being, I’ll be tweaking the gallery and possibly making some changes to it.  If you have any suggestions or photo requests, please feel free to contact me anytime at screamandfly@aol.com.  Until then, keep checking back as I populate the new gallery.

:: New photo gallery is now online - click on image to enter ::

Many people on the Scream And Fly message forums know that I use Nikon D-SLR cameras when I’m covering events and shows. Although the D2xs remains in my field case, I always preferred the D200 due to its lighter weight, smaller size, and near identical image quality and performance. A few weeks ago Nikon announced two new models: the full-frame D3 and D300 - both models are major upgrades over their previous counterparts, the D2xs and D200 respectively.

The recently announced 12.3 megapixel Nikon D300 seems like a more compelling upgrade over the D3 since it offers the same CAM3500DX 51-point autofocus system, 922,000-pixel LCD, weather sealed magnesium-alloy body, and live preview with auto focus ability. For sports shooting, the autofocus system will matter most, and I won’t need the full frame benefits of the D3 most of the time. For full details on the new D300, check out Digital Photography Review’s preview article.

:: Nikon D300 - Click on images above to enlarge ::

How will the D300 perform? On paper it’s superior to Nikon’s former flagship D2xs, but the rest is the topic of heated debate. Simple physics dictate that the D3’s large full frame sensor will be a fantastic low-light camera and preliminary test images seem to support that assumption.

• Nikon D300 Brochure in PDF format