Although technically OK, these pictures really lack any kink of wow
factor or pop that would set them apart from any other ho-hum
vacation photo taken with any camera. The light looks pretty flat and
uninteresting in every shot. What times were you shooting at? The
massive amounts of foilage makes me or another viewer get lost in
excess foilage which distracts from any kind of focus on the
composition. The piles of rocks shot is sort of interesting, but I'm
not a huge fan of the quality of light or composition in any of them.
Please don't take this the wrong way, as its my attempt at
constructive criticism. Its just my opinion that with at $4500 dollar
camera and a $1500 lens that you would have the vision and ability to
make better shots with all that investment in fancy schmancy Nikon
latest and greatest. My recommendation (do with it what you will) is
to shoot earlier and later in the day, and try and exclude everything
rather than get it all in, since the use of filters is difficult on
the 14-24 at best and requires a homemade modification and you can
only get a decent sky and ground exposure in boring midday light. You
did most of the work getting there and being in a great place at a
great time of year though, so hats off for that. Most people just sit
here typing on this forum (like me) not making images at all.
Probably opening up Pandora's Box here.
--
pbase.com/spitfirestu
The D300 is not 4500. If you read in my original post, I would love a D3x, but there is none, and I can't afford it anyway
There is a lot of detail because I did not shoot the lens wide open. This is my first trip with this lens, and I wanted to take the guess work out of it. What I did not mention is that more than half of the shots on the trip are trash, mostly cause of the light conditions. This is also my first attempt at landscape shots, so bear with me while I learn
Most of these were taken between 10am and noon, and the light was rather harsh. The thing with Sedona is that before 10 you just don't have light in some places, and altough sunset is at 6, the light is gone on the hikes right after 3, when the sun is going over the ridges.
Next time I go there, I will try to get the gear I need, show up at exactly the right time, and pray for good weather - these all being highly variable there.
Funny story, I forgot my memory card at home, and had to go downtown to get one - the store in town(Rollei's camera, est. 1961) was offering off-brand 8GB 44x CF for $289. After wasting another few hours in town trying to find some store that lives in this century, I ended up making the long trip to the nearest Walmart to get a couple of Lexar 4GB 80x cards that costed me less than $90 - still, no steal....
This being said, I did not have the luxury to do bracketing, play with aperture, and shoot raw for all shots, and had to contend myself with taking vacation snapshots
As you well said, at least I got there.
