Absolutely stunning images from Sean Stiegemeier of Iceland volcano action. Watch on Vimeo for HD goodness.

If you’ve ever spent time in NYC, particularly if you did your time in NYC post 1990, you need to look at this series of photos. It’s funny — the New York I know is in there somewhere, if I look closely, but it’s different, an erie alternate reality of the New York that exists in my head.

More than a few years back, I was walking up 40th past Bryant Park with my boss at the time, Jay, and he said– “You wouldn’t even recognize this place back in the 70s… you’d have been tripping over hypodermic needles, and fighting off the hookers back then.  It was nasty, man.” A chort was about all I could muster-up as a response.

Some of these things are really terrific. Worth exactly :42 of your day.

After yesterday’s tome of a post, I had a few questions hit my inbox looking for details on my own shooting equipment, specifically on which lenses I use most often.

I love my D300 and was wondering what glass you shoot with most often? For people it looks like maybe an 85 1.4? Great depth of field. Do you use any tilt-shift lenses?

Thought I’d answer this one as a continuation of yesterdays discussion on picking out your first DSLR. First, for the first time DSLR buyer, more often than not, I almost only shoot prime lenses. A prime lens, or a fixed focal length lens is a lens that doesn’t zoom. If you want to make an object bigger, you have to get closer to it. Most starter DSLR kits come with a zoom lens, most often something in the range of 18 millimeters – 55 millimeters, meaning you can zoom out to a moderately wide shot at 18mm, and zoom in to a less moderately wide shot at 55mm. This is not to be confused with a telephoto lens, which is typically considered anything that is larger than 200mm. So, rule of thumb, smaller mm number, the wider the image the lens is capable of capturing. The larger the mm number, the closer you’ll be able to focus on things far away.

Back to me. So, I shoot primes for three basic reasons.

1. I find that the quality of my prime lenses is generally higher than zoom lenses that contain the focal range of the prime. There are a number of reasons for this — the optics are typically tuned for the specific focal range, there are fewer moving parts, fewer elements to get in the way of a good shot. Whatever the reason, my own experience dictates that I have better luck when shooting under pressure when I eliminate as many potential points of failure as I can. Shooting fast with a zoom lens is one of those points of failure for me.
2. Given all that muck above, primes tend to be cheaper than zooms of the same quality. Can’t argue with the benjamins.
3. Primes force me to do things I wouldn’t usually do. I lay on the floor a lot with my lens kit. When I was shooting mostly zooms, I never did that. The floor is absolutely awesome. You should totally try hanging out there from time to time. With a camera.

85mm f1.8D - Courtesy of Nikon

My go-to lens of choice is an 85mm f1.8D Nikkor. The focal length on this thing seems to be the sweet spot for portraits, particularly in natural light situations. Since most people shooting with first time DSLRs will likely not have much in the way of external or fill lighting, having a lens that is a vortex for light is key. This one, I can’t recommend enough.

For people, in particular, the 85mm (and longer) lenses let you achieve those magical “Oprah” magazine cover shots. And that’s the real trick for getting a good shot of a person: back up. Get a longer lens and get as far back as you can, while maintaining a good tight shot. Set your aperture low and see what happens!

50mm 1.4D - Courtesy of Nikon

When I’m not shooting the 85, I shoot a 50mm f.14D Nikkor. This lens is fast. When I say fast, I mean the autofocus to lock is as fast as I think it. When I’m shooting events in close quarters, this is the place to be. The 50mm lens is as close to what the human eye perceives as you can get these days. That means, what you see outside the camera is about the same as what you see in the camera. It has a very natural look to it and it’s one that I can trust to deliver results that appeal, particularly to families and couples.

70-300 4.5 - Courtesy of Nikon

I don’t shoot sports or wildlife, so the only zoom telephoto I carry is a pretty junky 70-300mm. Needs lots of light which makes this lens tough to use on all but the brightest of events and it’s dog slow. Still, if you’re banking on the best camera being the camera you have with you, then the best telephoto has to be the best for the job if it’s the only one in your bag.

16mm 2.8 - Courtesy of Nikon

Finally, my favorite fun lens is my 16mm f2.8 fish-eye. It’s not the widest you can get, but it distorts enough to make the results really eye-catching. I have one client I use it for right now, for shooting big, dramatic scapes of a large warehouse they occupy. Makes for interesting dramatic effect in their advertising.

As for tilt-shift lenses, rarely. For those who haven’t seen one, a tilt-shift lens allows you to shift the optical elements in the lens at up to 90% angle from the sensor element of the camera, normalizing the natural parallax that occurs when looking at long/tall objects.

24mm Tilt-Shift - Courtesy of Nikon

One common use is in architectural photography, particularly of tall buildings. With a standard lens, there’s no way to capture a tall building with a 50mm  in total. If you slap a super wide angle on, you may get the whole building, but the lines will be bent with the curve of the optics. With a tilt-shift, you keep the wider angle, capture the building, and maintain nice parallel lines as the building rises.

They’re spendy. I rented the Nikon 24mm f3.5D for a downtown shoot some time ago and got some interesting results. If I were going to make my trade in architectural photography, I’d pop for the $2,000 and change to carry that bad-boy around, but for now, rental suits me just fine.

So, that’s what I carry with me day to day, shoot to shoot. If anyone’s interested in gear porn, I’m happy to shoot a quick tour of my gear bag — all the other goodies that helps make the pictures. Post in the comments or on facebook and let me know.

The first photowalk of the holiday season. We ended up on Mississippi Avenue at The Rebuilding Center, one of the coolest, most eclectic home remodeling stores I’ve ever seen.

I’d called Chris at the Rebuilding Center the day before — I know they’re sensitive about class-type things going on in the place, and wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings about shooting on a crowded Saturday. No problem. Downright appreciative that I’d called first, in fact.

We were focusing specifically on camera function this time. With so many people carrying professionally capable DSLRs around their necks, sporting inequitable skill in using them, I thought it a good opportunity to look at the top 3-4 things to do with your camera that can improve your photos and your confidence when working quickly and taking advantage of natural light.

So many wonderful trinkets and bobbles and textures make for a great photographic playground. If you’ve never been, take the time to stop into this treasure of other peoples’ trash and soak it in. I’ve posted the full gallery here and, as always, comments are appreciated!

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_singapore_grand_prix.html

Of particular note, make sure to look at 11 and 23, both taken with a tilt-shift lens to great affect.

Looks like the D90 is in the wild and Chase Jarvis and team take it for a hell of a test run. Of note: the D-Movie feature is absolutely stunning. 12.3 megapixels (kudos to Nikon for not shooting for the ridiculous 20). High ISO/low noise (the thing that most impresses with the D3 moves down to the D90).

Seriously considering:

Photo J possibilities. This camera will be a great second body for pro photojournalists. Commercial guys like me will be loyal to the D3 and its future, but for any PJ shooter, all the bells and whistles we’ve discussed already– especially video and audio capture–make this a no-brainer as a backup body.

Definitely worth checking out at chasejarvis.com.

Fearless

This is, after all, an example of how to describe the wonder of a beginning-middle-end story arch from a single point in space and time. The viewer wonders excitedly at how this story was set up, and with greater anticipation about how it will resolve. It is timeless.

I had never heard of Desroches, but will certainly be paying attention to him from now on. Congratulations on a wonderful capture!

Click here to head to flickr!