This weekend started with botched plans to visit Tainan in southern Taiwan due to some rainy weather, so I decided to go north instead and head to Taipei, where I would pick up some camera gear and run some errands. The rain isn’t a big deal with the subways and the fact that the city is made for pedestrians, rain or shine.
This gave me a good chance to test out a new 35mm prime lens from Nikkor. It’s f/1.8, which means it’s very “fast” and sharp in low-light settings. In addition, I’ve already noticed that it’s helped me work on my composition, as I can’t zoom in at all. My legs do the work.
I have many, many more shots coming from Taipei yesterday and Hsinchu today. In addition, I still have some waiting on my MacBook hard drive as they’ve been processe since earlier being rejected. Today’s post will start off a Taipei series with some shots taken in the streets and at Longshan Temple, which I’ve included before.
The first shot was taken with the 35-mil. The 1.8 was very, very nice in situations like this. This girl was announcing a deal for a skin care store (think “Bath and Body Works”) and I was intruiged by the wings just after seeing another girl in costume for an electronics store. This was taken in the Ximending area of the city, where I spent much of the night.
The following was taken at Longshan temple. Just visiting this temple is quite an experience in and of itself. I made sure to increase the f-stop (merely to 2.8) and give multiple focus points for the camera. I then processed it with a tint that matched the day’s cloudy weather. Also taken with the 35mm.
This moving train needed VR, which the new lens does not have. Luckily, the 70-300mm worked well for this. I need to do more shots of moving trains with longer exposures – especially in the subway.
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Shot data:
Photo 1: Nikkor 35mm AF-S at f/1.8 and 1/500 shutter speed at ISO 1600.
Photo 2: Nikkor 35mm AF-S at f/2.8 and 1/500 shutter speed at ISO 400.
Photo 3: Nikkor 70-300mm at 70mm. f/22 and .6 shutter speed at ISO 400.
Filed under: taiwan2010 Tagged: 35mm, 70-300mm, d5000, lens, longshan, movement, nikkor, nikon, photography, photos, prime, subway, taipei, taiwan, temple, train, ximending
