Double Dose

Sam Power, June 8, 2009
Georgetown Playfield, Seattle, Washington
Nikon D80, Nikkor 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 @ f/8.0, 1/640s, ISO 1600
Developed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3, Camera D2X Mode 2 profile

Another shot from last week's game. ISO is lower so the noise isn't as bad. Still bad, though. I went for the high contrast look here. Not bad, except his skin tones are starting to bleed red, and it's a bit tricky to clean it up with the noise. Good enough for now.



Two Bridge View, June 15, 2009
Aurora and Fremont Bridges, Seattle, Washington
Nikon D80, Tokina 12-24mm (AT-X 124 II) f/4.0@ f/11.0, 1/25s, ISO 100
Developed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3, ACR 4.4 profile

There was a little extra cash burning a hole in my pocket, so I did what any good photographer does: I bought a new lens. Specifically, the Tokina AT-X 124 AF Pro DX II. This is the newer version of Tokina's 12-24 with the built-in focus motor and better coatings on the glass. I chose it over the competition because A) it was in my price range, and B) it goes up to 24mm, which the Sigma 10-20 does not. I find that I like that length quite a bit, and I even considered the Nikon 24mm prime as an alternative. But I also wanted to get the extreme wide end, so as a DX/APS-C format shooter, my choice was made.

This was taken on my first jaunt out with the lens, wandering along the canal side of my office. Not a spectacular photo, but decent. I'll need to work with the lens a bit more to figure out the sharpness and chromatic aberration behavior, but it's promising so far.