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Best of 2011 – Landscapes (Part 2)

Jan
26
2012
January 26, 2012
By 29 Comments

This is part 2 of my 2011 landscape favorites. Please note that some of the images you will be seeing in the “Best of 2011” wallpaper collection have already been posted earlier last year in various articles, but in much smaller resolution. If you are looking for technical data, like Camera type, Lens and Exposure information, you will find it in the EXIF data. Summary of cameras used for the below images: Nikon 1 V1, D5100, D7000, D700, D3s and Sony A65.

Enjoy!

Colorado Fall Colors

1) Colorado Fall Colors 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

Canyonlands

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Best of 2011 – Landscapes (Part 1)

Jan
2
2012
January 2, 2012
By 24 Comments

Happy New Year! The Mansurovs are back after a short holiday, with some photos to share from 2011. At the end of each year, I go back and start reviewing what I have photographed. It is a very long and painful process, because I have to sort through tens of thousands of images and pick the ones that I think are worthy of getting published as wallpapers on our website, in addition to being featured in our portfolio (I know, the images in the portfolio are very old, but I am working on updating it). While the process is very time consuming, if you have not gone back and reviewed your images from last year, I highly recommend that you do. It is a great exercise to re-evaluate your work and understand your weaknesses. You should be a better photographer now than you were a year ago, so see what you like and you don’t about your pictures. Are you seeing a significant improvement in your work? How do the images from last year compare to the images from the year before? Once you pick your favorites (which you should limit to 100 images max and don’t forget to flag them in Lightroom), invite your friends and family to look at your images. If you have any photographer friends, ask them to help you out with this. Tell them to be very critical and only pick the images that communicate with them. Let them vote on each images and give a star rating from 1 to 5. Walk out of the room and come back when they are done. Filter Lightroom by 5 stars and see how many images you are left with. Then ask your friends/family to tell you why they chose those particular images, find out what they felt about each photo. Also ask them what they feel is missing in each image they picked – perhaps there are some things they see that you did not see before. Trust me, this kind of feedback is invaluable. It is OK if the feedback is very harsh – you should welcome any criticism. In fact, you need to learn to be very critical of your work.

This is the first part of my 2011 landscape favorites. Please note that some of the images you will be seeing in the “Best of 2011” wallpaper collection have already been posted earlier last year in various articles, but in much smaller resolution. If you are looking for technical data, like Camera type, Lens and Exposure information, you will find it in the EXIF data. Enjoy!

Sunset Rainbow

1) Sunset Rainbow 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

Mono Lake Sunrise

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Nikon 24mm PC-E Review

Jul
2
2011
July 2, 2011
By 11 Comments
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This is an in-depth review of Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E, a special purpose wide-angle “Perspective Control” lens designed for architectural, commercial and nature photography, also known as PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED. The lens was kindly provided by B&H – the largest photo reseller in the world that I use more than any other to buy my photography gear.

Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E

PC-E Nikon 24mm f/3.5D ED

The Nikon 24mm f/3.5D PC-E is a very specialized wide-angle lens specifically targeted at three groups of photographers – architecture photographers, landscape photographers and macro/product photographers. Architectural photographers often work with a lot of straight, often converging lines both indoors and outdoors and the “Perspective Control” or “Tilt-Shift” lenses (from this point on I will refer to them only as “tilt-shift”) give the ability to avoid the convergence of parallel lines by shifting the lens upwards or downwards. Landscape photographers need to be able to get everything in focus – from the closest foreground object to distant landscapes. While proper lens and camera techniques, along with good post-processing skills can help in getting sharp images for both foreground and background objects, normal lenses have certain limits landscape photographers have to work around with. For example, stopping down lenses beyond f/11 results in diffraction, which can impact the sharpness and overall quality of an image. With perspective control/tilt-shift lenses, landscape photographers can change the angle of the focus plane without having to increase aperture, putting both closest and furthest objects in focus. The same goes for commercial/product photographers that photograph jewelry and other items for product showcases – everything from the front to the rear of the object must often be in perfect focus. Again, stopping down does not always work and unless angles are changed and subject is on the same plane, there is no easy way to get everything sharp without focus-stacking images in post-processing software like Photoshop. By using tilt-shift lenses, photographers do not have to worry about lens aperture limitations and can achieve the desired effect with minimum effort. One other use that has been gaining popularity lately is to use tilt-shift lenses for portrait photography. Due to the ability to apply selective focus on a particular part of the image via lens tilting (also known as “anti-Scheimpflug“), portraits can appear more interesting and creative. Distant subjects can even appear “miniaturized”, although the effect can be easily reproduced in Photoshop through various plugins.

Sample #10

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Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2.0 ZF.2 Review

May
4
2011
May 4, 2011
By 26 Comments
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This is an in-depth review of the manual focus Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2.0 ZF.2, a second generation 35mm f/2 prime lens from Zeiss for Nikon and Canon mounts. The lens was kindly provided by B&H – the largest photo reseller in the world that I and many other photographers use to buy photography gear. The lens sample I tested was for the Nikon F mount, although you can get the same lens for the Canon EF mount.

Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2.0 ZF.2

Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2.0 ZF.2

The Zeiss 35mm f/2.0 ZF.2 is a professional-grade fixed wide-angle lens targeted at enthusiasts and professionals that need high quality optics for different types of photography, including landscape, architecture, portrait and astrophotography. Similar to other Zeiss prime lenses, the lens is designed to work on both FX and DX sensor cameras (equivalent of approx 52.5mm on DX) and yields amazing clarity and contrast throughout the frame. The all-metal Zeiss 35mm has a very tough and high quality build and is sealed against dust and tough weather conditions. When compared to the latest generation Nikon AF-S lenses like Nikon 35mm f/1.4G with plastic exterior, it feels much more solid in hands – even the lens hood is made of metal. The focal length of 35mm is a good compromise between ultra-wide angle lenses and standard lenses. Thanks to the 9-blade diaphragm, the Zeiss Distagon 35mm f/2.0 ZF.2 renders background highlights in round, circular shapes, making it a good candidate for portraiture and street photography.

Zeiss 35mm Sample #10

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Nikon 35mm f/1.4 Review

Apr
26
2011
April 26, 2011
By 47 Comments
«»

This is an in-depth review of the new professional Nikon 35mm f/1.4G prime lens that was announced in September of 2010. The lens was kindly provided by B&H – the largest photo reseller in the world that I use more than any other to buy my photography gear.

Nikon 35mm f/1.4G

Nikon 35mm f/1.4G

The Nikon 35mm f/1.4G is a professional-grade lens for enthusiasts and professionals that need the highest quality optics of a fixed wide-angle lens with a large aperture of f/1.4 for low-light situations and shallow depth of field to isolate subjects from the background, making it an ideal candidate for many types of photography, including portrait, wedding, landscape and astrophotography. The lens incorporates the latest optical technology destined for both FX and DX sensors (equivalent of approx 52.5mm on DX), yielding amazing clarity and contrast in most challenging lighting conditions. The Nikon 35mm f/1.4G follows the release of the excellent Nikon 24mm f/1.4G lens, having similar lens characteristics. Although the lens exterior and construction seem to be almost identical, the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G has a simpler optical design when compared to the Nikon 24mm f/1.4G (more on this below). The focal length of 35mm is a good compromise between ultra-wide angle lenses and standard lenses – it is not too wide or too long. As for the lens interior and optics, Nikon integrated the latest technology into this lens, including AF-S silent-wave focus motor and Rear Focus (to eliminate front barrel rotation and lens length changes) and enhanced the optical formula of the lens by incorporating Nano crystal coating and Super Integrated Coating (SIC) to reduce ghosting and flares. The lens is of high quality build, similar to other AF-S Nikon primes and is sealed against dust and tough weather conditions. Thanks to the 9-blade diaphragm, the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G renders background highlights in a round, circular shape and the maximum aperture of f/1.4 makes this lens a great portrait lens for both images and video, especially in low-light conditions.

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Best of 2010 – Landscapes (Part 4)

Jan
26
2011
January 26, 2011
By 8 Comments

This is the last, fourth part of the “Best of 2010” for my landscape images. The first part can be found here, the second (BW) part is here and the third one is here. I hope you enjoyed my wallpaper collection from 2010 and I will be posting more of these in 2011 as well.

Lake Reflection

1) Lake Reflection 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

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Best of 2010 – Landscapes (Part 3)

Jan
25
2011
January 25, 2011
By 6 Comments

This is the third part of the “Best of 2010” for my landscape images. The first part can be found here and the second (BW) part is here. As I have pointed out before, some of the images were already posted earlier as wallpapers, so I am simply reposting them.

Hells Half Acre

1) Hell’s Half Acre 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

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Transformation v2

Jan
24
2011
January 24, 2011
By 7 Comments

Are there places you go to several times a year? If you are thinking about the next photography project, I suggest finding something interesting/unique and then coming back to the same spot at different times of the year to photograph the location. Two of the three images below were shot by accident at the Rocky Mountain National Park – I just liked the way the four trees leaned to the left and were all very unique and beautiful in their own way. I photographed the image in the middle first, then when I was at the same location in fall, I happened to photograph those four trees again. I was reviewing my images in Lightroom one day and noticed that I have two different images of the same trees – not sure how I even remembered them. Next time I visited the park in winter, I went to the same spot and took another picture (left) to add to the collection. Now I need another image in the spring and I will have a complete set :) Note that all three images were taken at different angles, which is why the backgrounds appear so different.

Seasons

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Best of 2010 – Landscapes (Part 2, BW)

Jan
19
2011
January 19, 2011
By 24 Comments

This is the second part of the “Best of 2010” collection for landscape photography. I have not done much of black and white photography, so the below images are sort of “experimental”. Let me know what you think of these! If you like the way they came out, I will post a quick tutorial showing how I did it.

Turret Arch BW

1) Turret Arch BW 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

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Best of 2010 – Landscapes (Part 1)

Jan
17
2011
January 17, 2011
By 20 Comments

To be honest, I have not had the time to go through all of the pictures that I have taken in 2010, so I’m only posting some of the ones that I rated as my “picks” in Lightroom. I surely did photograph a lot more in 2010 than I did in 2009, but I am also getting more and more picky about my work. I believe that a stricter self-critique can only improve a photographer and while it sometimes can be discouraging to look at other people’s works and compare them to yours, I still think it is a good idea to do it every once in a while. Not only will it be a source of inspiration for you, but it will also make you want to get better. I often spend time looking at works of some of the masters of nature photography and their images not only motivate me to go out and try new things, but also remind me that I have a lot to learn!

This is the first part of my 2010 landscape favorites. Please note that some of the images you will be seeing in the “Best of 2010” wallpaper collection have already been posted earlier last year. Enjoy!

Colorado National Monument

1) Colorado National Monument 1920×1200 Widescreen Wallpaper

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