Click the image to view the full-size versions at Flickr.
Several weeks ago I made a promise to myself to get back in the swing of posting up some of my photographic efforts. Part of that promise involved ordering some new toys for my camera, namely: a NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8 D AF lens and a Wide Angle/Telephoto converter kit for my Lensbaby 3G.
I’d always wanted to get another lens for my camera as I was never really satisfied with the standard kit lens. Not because the kit lens was at fault, as such. It seems a sturdy, decent quality lens, it doesn’t feel cheap and nothing’s ever broken (touch wood). But, it is what it is: a bog-standard, middle of the road, any-Jenny affair. I guess it’s good for those that have never used an SLR before (digital or ‘analogue’) and want to get to grips with the basic concepts and seldom veer away from the preset Programs settings. And, perhaps it is good for other types of photography like scenery or happy holiday snapping or something, I don’t know.
All I know is, it was never really suited to the sorts of images I wanted to make. I always felt like I was shoved up against the limits of what the lens could do and was always making compromises. I adore really shallow depth of field, but trying to achieve that whilst shooting 99% of the time indoors (read: with iffy light conditions), without a tripod and with a maximum aperture of f/3.5? You’re just asking for grief and an incredibly noisy or underexposed shot.
Whilst researching the sort of lens I wanted, I stumbled upon a Flickr group dedicated to 50mm prime lenses and fell in love.
I put the order through for the 50mm lens with one of my usual dealers, but as they’ve been having dreadful trouble with stock supplies from Nikon, I was put on a waiting list and after an agonising 5 weeks, my order arrived yesterday.
The images in this post are test shots that were taken yesterday in my Mum’s living room (a notorious sun-trap in the afternoon). With the exception of me shrinking them a bit and tagging them for Flickr, this is exactly what they came out like straight from the memory card.
I don’t ever want to take this lens off my camera.
Click the image to view the full-size versions at Flickr.
Camera: Nikon D70s
Lens/Filters: NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8 D AF
Focal Length: 50mm
Exposure: 0.0025 sec
Aperture: f/1.8
ISO Speed: 200
Post-Processing: Resized and tagged for web
Stand by for “Playing with the Wide/Tele Lensbaby kit”, coming soon.
My name is Claire and this is my blog. I live with my Partner and our 2 year old adopted Greyhound, 
This design was inspired by & made with the greatest admiration and respect for the work of the late John Heartfield.
Wow, those pics are amazing. Am jealous and also really need to figure out the bloody settings on the camera I got for Christmas!
Starrynite: Thank you, though the lens must take most of the credit, not me
Ooh, what camera did you get? (I heart talking about cameras)
A Fujifilm Finepix S7000. Not quite DSLR, but a bit more technical than your average point and shoot. I am just crap at reading instruction manuals and finishing my degree got in the way of just messing about and seeing what it could do. Now that is all over, one of my plans for the summer hols is to finally figure out exactly what it can do and move away from the dreaded ‘auto’ button!
Starrynite:
Ah, you’ve got a “Bridge” camera (so-called because they bridge the gap between point-and-shoot and DSLR). Hope you get on well with it this summer — my camera is permanently set to “manual” and it’s so much more fun to have that amount of creative control. You make tons of mistakes admittedly, but you end up learning just what a fine art it is to take a really good photo and you feel so proud of yourself when you get a really cool shot.
Well, I do anyway. 
Yeah, I can’t wait to get stuck in. Hopefully I will be able to get some shots I can be proud of and if/when I do I’ll give you a heads up on the Flickr link to see what you think.
Starrynite: I’ll look forward to it, that’d be cool.