Eric aims his Nikon D300s at some flowers during the macro portion of our DSLR photography lesson in St Petersburg
On a warm Saturday early afternoon, referral DSLR photography student (thank you Libby!) Eric and I visited St. Petersburg's downtown Saturday Market to practice some street photography. The market certainly did not disappoint as there were plenty of interesting people, including an extremely talented hula hoop dancer.
Eric recently upgraded to the Nikon D300s and had other pro gear like the fantastic Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G lens, arguable the sharpest zoom lens Nikon makes. He knew his way around all his gear well, but wanted to see what more he could do and get from his gear, as well as to see what practices I could pass on to him. One of the first was to make sure you always place the palm of your left hand under your lens, in order to hold your kit in the most stable position.
I shared some of my street photography strategies, which Eric quickly put into action. We finished the lesson by trying DSLR macro photography without a dedicated macro lens. I have Nikkon's flagship macro lens, the 105mm VR f/2.8G micro, but that stayed in my bag as I showed Eric what his Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.4D lens was capable of. A while back in Japan I produced one of my favorite flower shots with my 50mm f/1.8D len. There were, unfortunately, no cosmos hills around, but we worked on an out of the way patch of flowers in a small park. After dialing in the best settings on his D300s and 50mm lens, I showed him the even better results we could get using off camera flash.
I had a very good time during our lesson and it was a fun coincidence to find out we both have ties to Rhode Island and an appreciation for quality automobiles.