Nikon D300 Goes Racing

This is an update on a article I originally published in 2010 on the original The Intuitive Lens blog.

Having just invested in the Nikon D500 (2016), I can tell you it's been a very, very long wait for the replacement of themuch earlier and very successful Nikon D300. I've yet to take the D500 out on its first motor-sport shoot, but I know what the benchmark will be against which I will be assessing its image quality and usability. The D300 and its update the D300s is well loved, and for good reason. Here are some images from a shoot at the Snetterton track to set the pace.

This shot is part of a set of images taken at a Formula 3 Single Seat Racing and British GT Car Championship meeting which took place at Snetterton in Norfolk a while back. All of these images were shot on a Nikon D300 DSLR (with the DX sensor), fitted with a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR telephoto zoom lens.

It's just over three years since Nikon announced, in 2007, what was then a major step forward in their DSLR offerings - the Nikon D300. 12.3 MP DX format CMOS sensor, ISO 200 to 3200, fast and accurate 51 point Auto Focus sensor, 3.0" 922,000 pixel LCD monitor with Live View, 6 to 8 frames per second continuous shooting and super fast power up to ready status. At the time, a huge step forward.

Here is what dpreview said about it:-

“My biggest problem writing this conclusion has been picking out the D300’s weak points. The usefulness of Live View would certainly be improved with an articulating LCD monitor (although I’m sure Nikon would argue that this could compromise the integrity of the body), auto white-balance is poor in artificial light (although this isn’t anything unique to the D300) and there’s still no true mirror lock-up feature. But really, these few niggles are really the only things we could pick out as criticism..............
............... There is price, but sometimes the best products demand a premium and the D300 is no exception. Nikon’s biggest problem now will be bettering the D300; it raises the bar to a new high, and represents the state of the art despite strong competition from the likes of Canon, Sony and Olympus. There’s simply no better semi-professional digital SLR on the market.”

Praise indeed; and, as I was to find out in practical application, very well deserved. The full dpreview article is still well worth a read, if only to contrast the capabilities of the D300 against it replacement. It has a lot to live up to.

At the time, I took the dpreview advice, including taking into account the hot debates on the dpreview forums, which were not entirely positive, and purchased the D300 from the very knowledgeable and experienced Stuart Culley at Robert White, my long time supplier of all the Nikon, Leica, Zeiss ad Voigtlander kit.

The D300's first assignment was a Formula 3 and GT race day at Snetterton in Norfolk. The light that day was very, very strong, contrasty and, to make it more difficult, the vantage point I chose was the famous Russel complex, which meant shooting straight into the light for most of the session. The compensation though was some great action shots, and a very red face from excessive sunburn - I forgot to take a hat!

One of the advantages (I would say) of the DX format is its 'problematic' 1.5x crop factor, which, of course, results in an increase in the effective focal length of all your lenses. For wide angle, close in work that's maybe a problem, but for photographing racing cars it's a big win. So, on the day, I coupled the D300 with the longest lens I had available which was the Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR Telephoto Zoom lens. The combination gave me an effective focal length of 140mm to 300mm to work with and, shooting from the Russel complex, that gives you quite an opportunity to get in close to the action.

This image was taken at f/11.0, 1/1250th sec, ISO 800 with the lens set at 175mm and is cropped from about thirty percent of the DX frame. What typically happens on this corner is that competitors come in too hot to the first right hander, sometimes in a last minute overtaking maneuver, clip the kerb, which almost always lifts their car into the air, then they try to make the immediate hard left over the vicious, serrated kerb on the other side. Ouch.

The Aston Martin DBR9 image was shot at f/8.0, 1/1250th sec, ISO 400 with the lens at its maximum focal length of 200mm and is also a thirty percent crop. All this rapid change of direction and shifting G-forces throw some cars into great poses - perfect for the camera! Talking of 'perfect for the camera' - how about this treat for sore eyes? It was sitting in the private car park all on its own - aaah.

I think this is a Jaguar XK140. The front grill, amber indicator lights and the bigger front and rear bumpers with larger overriders seems to confirm it's a 140; unless I've got that wrong? Sold in the UK from 1955 to 1957 with a 3.5 litre XK engine, the 140 could pull in the region of 120-125 mph; and it could drive round corners like it was stuck to the road! What a superb example of Jaguar's finest.

This image is an almost 'straight from the D300' shot; just minimal processing in Camera Raw and simple Neutral conversion to monochrome in Silver Efex Pro and no further editing except a resize. Below is an unsharpened, 100 percent crop from the centre of the image, roughly where I think I focused the lens.

You can see the sensor noise on the front wing just where it curves down to the wheel arch. Not unpleasant, quite film-like, but noticeable and, in any case, easily removed with Noiseware Professional or similar. The image was shot on the D300 fitted with the Nikon 70-200mm zoom lens, set at 70mm, taken handheld at f/8.0, 1/1250th sec, ISO 400. A beautiful composition of sensuous curves, don't you think?

Finally, if you want to put an image like this more into context with its time, a little post processing in Camera Raw, Noiseware Professional, Silver Efex Pro and Photoshop CS5, with the slightest hint of Sepia thrown into the mix, you could create a rather more sumptuous, timeless image more suited to the subject. It reminds me of the sort of photos I used to drool over in my Dad's old Autocar magazines that I discovered in the loft as a child but which are now, sadly, long gone. Mmmmm.

If you're already using a Nikon D300 then you already know it's a winner. I see absolutely no reason to ditch mine. In the right circumstances, it's the best body for the job! But, now, there is finally a much lauded replacement, the D500. It will be very interesting to see how they compare under working conditions - never mind the specs!

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Dali Museum in St Petersburg Florida

surreal exhibits - sublime architecture

While in St Petersburg on a first time visit to this part of south west Florida, we had the opportunity to visit the Dali Museum. Now, I’ve seen quite a bit of Mr Dali’s work at various museums around the world over the years, but this venue houses what is probably the most comprehensive collection of his work. I particularity liked the painting of his other half Gala, which at a distance, morphs into a portrait of President Abraham Lincoln!

I can’t say I’m that much of a fan of surrealism, being more interested in representational art than this level of abstraction, so forgive me if I gloss over the various other highlights, one of which was a classic vintage Rolls Royce car containing a mermaid – in water! The main draw for me, I’m sorry to say, was more the architecture of the building and the visitors to the exhibits. Here are some images from that session:

All of the images were taken, hand-held, with the Sony A7 camera, in this case fitted with the Zeiss FE f2.8, 35mm lens. The images were processed in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop CC, and all but the last image was converted to monochrome using the DxO Optics FilmPack Agfa Scala 200x preset, as a starting point. The final image in the set, above, was converted to monochrome using a black and white adjustment layer in PSCC with modified colour blending and only a single curves adjustment.

All of these images were created using the improved techniques I learned at Ming Thein’s Masterclass in Havana, which I recently attended and more on which in a later post. So, these images incorporate the tonal separation techniques, advanced manual dodging and burning, masked and brushed contrast curve adjustment and soft light blending techniques I worked through to improve my renderings as part of his in-depth workshop. You can read more about that here on my review and here on Ming’s blog report.

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Candid to Landscape - Photographic Redux No 1

candidly - my photographic background

In a nutshell - I began seriously to explore photography in 1973 and, fortunately for me, I was mentored by two superb medium format based photographers, who helped me understand all the basics of film, candid photography and darkroom processes. After three years or so of club competitions, like many people at the beginning of their careers, I got very busy with life, further education and finding a better job. My photography went on the back burner, but intermittent bouts of withdrawal symptoms subsequently led to episodes of renewed photographic efforts.

Here are some of the surviving images from those bouts of renewed interest:

Feminine Study

film finale - from granules to pixels

The 'Feminine Study' image above was originally shot in colour on a Nikon F90 film camera with a 100mm Nikkor manual focus lens under simple studio lighting at a Buckinghamshire Camera Club event. The beautiful model was a local girl who had not 'posed' before, but volunteered provided that we all donated at least one finished print towards her portfolio. I don't know how she had the patience to sit for so long, but I think the end result was worth the effort. A classic pose which worked well in the confined space with so little time to get the shot. Scanned and post processed in Photoshop.

Beijing, Summer Palace

This silhouette was taken in the Summer Palace, Beijing in China, quite some time ago when I was on a breakneck tour of China, which included chugging 600 km down the Yangtze River before the major dam works flooded the valleys and villages along it's length. That was quite an experience.

It's one of the few images that survives one of those regrettable clear-outs of 'old stuff' that afterward you really wish you hadn't done. It was also shot on my Nikon F90 using colour film, probably Kodachrome. I found the negative by accident and scanned it in color, then turned it into a monochrome image, which I think better suites it.

There was a long gap between the club work I did in Thurrock in the 70s until I restarted local club photography in the mid 90s. Work triggered that, in that we needed to build a product imaging studio. In those days digital cameras had only just begun to be commercially available with the Sinar at £20,000 and later the $5,000 D1 in 1999, but getting involved in that project caused me to start shooting again. It was a while before Nikon's first decent digital cameras were any challenge to film, so like many, I stayed with film until the early models became more affordable and usable. For me, that was around April 2004, when I invested in my first personal Nikon DSLR, the 6mp D70.

Escaping the Surf - St Ives, Cornwall

nikon D70 - my first digital love.

This shot was taken on my, then, brand new Nikon D70. Not the first digital camera I owned but the first serious digital SLR and lens system worth its salt. It comes from a set of images snatched on the beach at Saint Ives Cornwall in July 2004 with a 70-200mm telephoto lens hand-held at quite a distance. It is only part of the frame. Transformed into monochrome with the aid of Silver Efex Pro. Now I know better, but in those days it was the way everyone was working. Wouldn't dream of using that workflow today, but given the dynamic range of the camera's sensor it was the best available at the time at that price. This Cornwall trip reignited my interest in Landscape work, although I was later to return to Candid work with a vengeance.

Headless Climber, St Agnes, North Cornwall

Where's his head?! Caught these chaps un-roping, having reached the summit of a steep headland climb near Saint Agnes in Cornwall's mining coastal area. Very dramatic views from this area. You can just see the derelict engine house on the hillside in the middle of the picture. This was shot on the Nikon D70 fitted with a Nikon 28mm to 80mm Zoom lens, set at f10.0, 1/400th sec, ISO 200, hand-held.

Engine house, St Agnes, North Cornwall

gradual shift to landscape work

Millions of years ago, during the cooling of Cornwall's landmass, vertical fissures opened in the granite and boiling magma bubbled up through them from the earth's molten interior. These intrusions contained many minerals, and, as they crystallised, they formed seams of tin, copper, zinc, lead, iron with even a little silver. Those seams could not be mined horizontally, so numerous vertical shafts were necessary. Many engine houses were built to house the pumps needed to keep those mines dry and viable.

Inevitably, falling world prices for these minerals led to the eventual demise of the Cornish mines and so to the ruin of all these engine houses, which, despite the onslaught from Atlantic storms, still stand as sentinels on the Cornish cliff tops today. The image above was taken high up on the St Agnes cliffs, overlooking the North Cornish Atlantic coastline, using a Nikon D70, with a 28-80mm Nikon zoom lens set at f9, hand-held at 1/500th, ISO 200. One of the first images to mark my wholesale change to Landscape work in the subsequent years.

High and Dry on the Isle of Skye, Scotland

No doubt the result of falling water levels or an extreme spring tide lifting her beyond retrievable, and much subsequent neglect. Taken on the Isle of Skye using my Nikon D70 DSLR, this time fitted with a 12-24mm Nikon zoom lens, shot at f10.0 at 1/400th at ISO 200, exposure compensation -1/3rd stop, saved as JPEG, so not yet using RAW files! The camera was mounted on a Gitzo tripod and the full frame image was transformed into monochrome with the aid of the now dreaded Silver Efex Pro and Photoshop CS5.

exploring the isle of skye, scotland

At this point my photography underwent a sea change. There is no doubt in my mind now that, if I had taken the step of joining mentored workshops earlier in my efforts, I would have developed my 'second wind' much faster and made far more progress than just bumbling away on my own.

The irony is that we spend a shedload of money on improving our equipment without giving our understanding of how best to deploy that gear a second thought, or, indeed, any thought to investing in the education necessary to progress our photographic goals.

So it was that the lights went on for me. In fact it was a trip to the Isle of Skye in Scotland that started my work on seriously progressive photographic projects. That first one was to capture those wonderful scenes on Skye I had seen in books, but to do it in monochrome only. Naturally, I upgraded my camera first!. Here are the curated images from that and a subsequent workshop on those beautiful islands.

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