pimgmx's photostream  

Taking pictures for over 20 years, and still can't make up my mind. Too many interests that scream to be captured: wildlife, architecture, industrial, motor sports, macro, ...

Several trips to Southern Africa catalysed my interest in nature photography, and there's still a lot to learn! Fortunately there's sufficient practice material where I live, lots of (water) birds and deer in the area, and flickr is a great 'how was that shot taken?' knowledge base.

Africa has proven to be more contageous than I thought, the trip counter has hit '4' by now, and we're planning our next 'outing' to Southern Africa, either a short trip to SA quite soon, or a long trip to Botswana a bit later on.

I have the luxury of living in a small country (not far from Amsterdam, Netherlands) and a healthy amount of spare time, which makes travelling easy! We tend to spend quite a bit in 'the neighbourhood', on weekend trips to e.g. Belgium, Germany, France.

My main interests are nature/travel photography and urban & abandoned. I grew up next to one of the biggest chemical plants in NL, which might explain the interest in both the industrial stuff and nature (well, you needed to go SOMEWHERE to not notice the smokestacks...).

I spend more time on flickr than I thought; looking at pictures of fellow group members, and learning from them along the way. I'm not too fond of those 'post 1, comment on many' groups, I rather spend time giving heartfelt feedback on those pictures and flickr members I really like.

For those interested in the techie stuff: I gradually moved up the equipment food chain, starting with an all-manual Praktica SLR as my first 'real' camera, and worked my way up to Nikon gear, having used over a dozen of different camera bodies in that period. There are still times when I miss the mechanical sound (and the utter reliability!) of my Nikon F2 or Bronica S2.

I am far from the type that bashes people for not being Nikon lovers, but am loyal to a brand whose tools allowed me to take pictures at -40C/F, at +45C/113F, in snowstorms, in deserts, and other places where conditions are less than favourable.

I got my first digital SLR around 2003 (a used Nikon/Kodak DCS200, 1.5 megapixels, wow!), and moved up into the wonderful world of multi-megapixels with a Fuji S2pro and finally 'left' film and my trusted F4 and F3 bodies in around 2007. My current workhorse is a Nikon D2x (the successor of a D2H), and I use my wife's D90 as a backup.

My lens bag contains:
Nikon 2.8/55 AIs Micro Nikkor: enormous value for money; buy one! This little manual focus gem really forces you to THINK about what you're doing. The shallowness of its depth-of-field means that you either need to be able to stand very, very still, or you need to use a rock-solid tripod.
Tokina 4.0/12-24: got that one for cheap, and it performs well enough for what I paid for it ;-)
Nikon AF-S 3.5-4.5 18-70: nice little allround lens, pretty decent for entry level glass, my wife loves it on her D90!
Nikon AF-S 2.8/300 mk I: got a great deal on this little beast of a lens, and use either a heavy-duty ballhead or a Wimberley-style swing head to cope wih it, used most of the time hooked up to a 1.7TC as a 'poor man's 500mm'
Sigma 2.8/80-200 HSM fits my budget better than a Nikon...
Sigma 2.8/120-300 HSM the new kid on the block. Will most likely replace the Nikon 80-400, and might even kick out the Nikon 300 if I like it enough!
Nikon 4.5-5-6/80-400VR great optical performance, but don't like the design and the slow AF speed, most likely on its way out. So: if you're interested...
Nikon TC-17E mk II and Sigma 1.4 APO convertors






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