Dominique’s old stones (mostly)

Needa

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
As far as DR the 810-/850 are neck and neck until about 160 ISO when the z7ii is clearly superior. The .1 difference probably has no visible impact especial on image posted on the web. Without a doubt the Z glass is a step up. I have yet to move on from the DLSR world, I keep looking.
 
Blue439

Blue439

New member
I understand. I myself remained reluctant for a while, essentially because of the optical viewfinder which I thought could never be matched by the small TVs in mirrorless cameras. The Sonys I had tried failed to convince entirely. Then, I read interesting things about the Z7 viewfinder from some of the very few people I trust on the internet (Thom Hogan being one of them), and I walked over to my local dealership to see for myself. What I saw was very, very close to an excellent optical viewfinder, say like the one on the D850, arguably the best overall DSLR ever produced. I figured I could live with that sort of electronic viewfinder, and it could only get better in time (which it did)... That, plus the enormous advantage I had immediately seen when they announced the diameter of the new lens mount, and I was sold.

From time to time I put a lens back onto the D850 and give it a leg-stretching run. It is a great and lovely camera, but boy is it bulky and heavy! I don’t even dare lift the D3s for comparison any more! And a D850-based kit would not even fit in my Peak Design bags, I’d have to go back to the old Kiboko... Naw, barring exceptional circumstances that I cannot truly see happening in the foreseeable future, I’ve switched to mirrorless for good, however good I may be at nostalgia —and God knows I am!

Today’s photo I shot in August 2010 on a very high cliff in Portugal (say, 50–100 meters?). There was this mad fisherman in his 70s, frail and unsteady-looking, climbing down that vertiginous rock face to reach his favorite fishing spot... Unbelievable, and yet there he was! Suicidal. I stayed prudently on top, and even there, I thought it was quite a risky place to shoot from. I’m not afraid of heights but the Atlantic coast is a place where there is wind, and being a sailor, I know how one whirlwind gust suffices to unbalance you. Every time I see this photo, I wonder what’s become of him.

Nikon D3, Nikkor 70-200mm, ƒ/2.8 G VR II, handheld.

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Blue439

Blue439

New member
Today’s photo shows a scenic part of coastal France, near the city of Marseilles on the Mediterranean: the “Calanques” area. Calanques, in the Provençal language, are narrow and deep inlets carved by the sea in and around soft limestone cliffs. The calanques are usually difficult to access by land and best visited from the sea. Tours are organized, but you can also rent sea-going kayaks like those people did, to explore with friends or on your own.

I will post a couple more photos of the calanques in the coming days, so that you can have a better idea of what they look like.

There are no converging verticals in this photograph and the perspective was respected. The cliffs are naturally pyramid-shaped.

Photo taken in September 2008. Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm, ƒ/2.8 G lens, handheld.

calanques3.jpg
 
Blue439

Blue439

New member
Back to the old stones today with a 2012 photo of the ruined Mediæval castle of Léotoing in the province of Auvergne (central France).

Nikon D3S, Nikkor 70-200mm, ƒ/2.8 G VR II lens.

leotoing_2.jpg
 
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Blue439

Blue439

New member
That, or some weird compression artifact from the forum...

Today, another photo of those calanques I mentioned the other day: a refreshing view in those sweltering August days...!

Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm, ƒ/2.8 G lens. Handheld.

calanques8.jpg
 
Blue439

Blue439

New member
Back to the old stones... Now, you think this is a gigantic church? Well, you’re both right, because it is enormous, and wrong, because it is only a small part of it, the western end of the church that was there in the Middle Ages... The red sandstone wall that you see is where the three naves began, you can still see the V-shaped footprint of the roof of the central one. This is what’s left of the Benedictine abbey of Murbach in Alsace (eastern France, near the Rhine border with Germany), one of the most powerful abbeys that ever was. To be considered for admission, each would-be monk had to prove his quarters of nobility, and every abbot held the rank of prince of the Holy Roman Empire! The abbey was extremely wealthy, it even founded and owned the city of Lucerne in Switzerland, had an enormous and legendary library... Umberto Eco used Murbach to model the fictitious abbey in The Name of the Rose.

Telling the story of how it came down through the centuries, where all the wealth and all the books went, all the associated mysteries, would be much too long for this forum. Books have been written about it. So let’s just behold this magnificent remnant still standing proudly in its silent vale...

Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm, ƒ/2.8 G II lens. Handheld, natural light.

murbach2010_1.jpg
 
Blue439

Blue439

New member
One of the funniest one-liners I’ve ever heard in a movie was in Ocean’s Eleven, when Elliott Gould’s character, Las Vegas’s casino owner Reuben Tischkoff, makes a passing reference to “the Leaning Tower of Pizza”... :ROFLMAO: No one onscreen seems to notice, and I’m convinced millions of spectators never batted an eyelash... which says a lot about the level of general knowledge and culture people have nowadays... It didn’t make them laugh because they had no clue.

But as it is definitely not the case of this forum, I am happy to show you, as my photo of the day, a picture of the “Campus” of Pisa (with just one “s”) showing the famous tower, completed in 1372. The tower was closed for consolidation works between 1990 and 2001. Its leaning maximum was in 1993 when it passed the 5-degree marker, but has been straightening ever since. One day, if it continues like that, it may even not be leaning at all, which would be, I suppose, disastrous for tourism... ;)

Nikon D3S, Nikkor 70-200mm, ƒ/2.8 G VR II lens, handheld.

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Blue439

Blue439

New member
The little beach near Porto Flavia on the western coast of Sardinia, with the enormous Pan de Zucchero (“Sugar Loaf”) rock —which I personally dub “The Crouching Lion“. This is a 60-second exposure with ND1000, ND grad and polarizing filters attached on the lens. The filter system I used at the time was, I think, Wine Country Filters (see behind-the-scenes below). I have since then ditched that system which was very nice but too bulky and heavy, in favor of a NiSi one. During the exposure, I also shot a handheld Nikon SB–900 flash onto the rock in the foreground, at low power, just to give it a little bit of shine. I think I heard that technique called “open flash” somewhere. The flash was snooted with a piece of black tinfoil so the light wouldn’t spread.

Nikon Z7, Nikkor Z 24-70mm, ƒ/4 S lens. Gitzo tripod, Arca-Swiss Cube C1 geared head.

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And two behind-the-scenes snaps:

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Blue439

Blue439

New member
One of the fountains on Saint Peter’s Square in Rome. According to the inscription, this one was restored by Pope Paul VI during the 4th year of his pontificate, i.e., in 1966.

Nikon D3S, Nikkor 85mm, ƒ/1.4 G lens. Handheld.

rome2012_86.jpg
 
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