Tagged: Mirror

22May

Lake Panic. White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides)

Posted in Bird Sanctuaries/Hides, eShop, Flora and Fauna, Gear, Hardware, Locations, Mirror, No Metering, Portfolio, Print for Sale, Wildlife | Leave a comment

White-fronted Bee-eater at Lake Panic, KNP © H Grohmann

White-fronted Bee-eater at Lake Panic, KNP © H Grohmann

I’ve never had a chance at getting this ‘close’ to them so this was a first. The 500mm Mirror (750mm effective) was used as I wanted to rekindle my manual shooting prowess. I deliberately left the 150-500mm at home. The (enlarged) image is a bit noisy but acceptable for a 30 year old lens design (but manufactured 2009)…and a 2006 sensor (D80) that’s quite noisy at 400 ISO never mind the 1000 ISO I have to be at to get an exposure with at least double the focal length in shutter speed to get a sharp(ish) image, and then cropped in by at least 50%. Whew…Breathe!

A number of 18-270, 100-400 and 150-500mm (Nikon) photographers came and quizzed me about the mirror :) The 400, 500 and 600mm (Canon) prime users ignored us…and they call “us” snobs! LOL.

Read about the Mighty Mirror here.

White-fronted Bee-eater at Lake Panic, KNP, RSA © H Grohmann

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leopard Look © Harvey Grohmann

Contact me for tuition and tours as well as event photography!

Gear I use: Bodies: Nikon D-SLR’s / Lenses: Nikon, Sigma, Tokina, Vivitar
Filters: Hoya UV & Polarizing / Flash: Nikon Speed-lights / Bag: Lowe Pro
Tripods & Heads: Manfrotto / Grips, Triggers, Timers, Batteries: Phottix
Editing Plug-in: Topaz Labs Noise Reduction, HDR, B&W Conversion & more!

26Apr

Sedgefield – Kingfisher River Lagoon

Posted in eShop, Glass, Land/Seascape, Lens, Portfolio, Print for Sale, Road Trip, Sunrise / Sunset, Tripod, Ultra Wide Angle | Leave a comment

Up bright and early, around 4:30am to get this shot. Minimalist landscape. The fabulous CCD based D80. Needless to say a tripod was used and a longer exposure at ISO 100, f/22 @12mm. The Tokina is shaping up.

Sedgefield - Kingfisher River Lagoon

Sedgefield – Kingfisher River Lagoon (c) HarveyG Photography

Gear I use:
Bodies: Nikon D-SLR’s / Lenses: Nikon, Sigma, Tokina, Vivitar /
Filters: Hoya UV & Polarizing / Flash: Nikon Speed-lights / Bag: Lowe Pro /
Tripods & Heads: Manfrotto / Batteries, Grips, Timers, Triggers: Phottix /
Plug-in: Topaz Labs for Noise Reduction, HDR.

15Nov

Freedom – (Road Trip)

Posted in Daily Awards, eShop, Flickr, Photography 101, Print for Sale, Road Trip, Sunrise / Sunset, Tips-Tricks | 1 Comment

Freedom (Road Trip)

Freedom (Road Trip) (c) HarveyG Photography

I noticed this image appear in the mirror driving home yesterday and conjured up this concept of a road trip with no-one else in sight.  Stopped the car in the rain, grabbed the D90 and bolted across the road to get a few shots. I waited until only one car was visible coming over the rise to get that feeling of independence and freedom that the open road is renowned for.

Unaltered photo, no Photo Shop post processing except USM (UnSharpMask)

Photo 101: As a photographer you should ALWAYS look behind you, especially when shooting.

Entry here at DPChallenge.com

23Jan

Flickr Groups – Mirror Reflex Lens & Catadioptric/Mirror Lens

Posted in Flickr, General, Other sites | Leave a comment

I joined the Flickr Mirror Reflex Lens & Catadioptric/Mirror Lens groups a short while ago. Some amazing work by the group’s members. Well done on breaking down the misconceptions! Below are a few images from them…awesome!

Read my initial review on the Vivitar Series 1 DX 500mm f/6.3 here with supporting images.

Click on any of the images to see the full size originals.There’s a great group of photog’s with advice and tips on getting that sharp, colourful, shallow DOF long range image with your mirror. Dust off your old mirror, or get a new reflex mirror lens here and then go shoot!

I hope to see some new members and images flaunted there!

Quarter Moon - thoughton

Quarter Moon – thoughton

Peregrine Falcon – Splinx1

Fun with Bokeh – rfrobenius

Mallard – Ken M Johnson

I joined the <a title=”Mirror Reflex Lens” href=”http://www.flickr.com/groups/mirror_reflex/” target=”_blank”>Mirror Reflex Lens</a> group a short while ago. Some amazing work by it’s members. Well done on breaking down the misconceptions! Here are a few images from there…

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/splinx/4289944879/”><img title=”Peregrine Falcon” src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4289944879_8799541183_m.jpg” alt=”” width=”200″ height=”134″ /></a>

Peregrine Falcon by Splinx1

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/iuli72an/4277683841/in/pool-mirror_reflex”><img title=”Fight for Life 2 – iuli72an” src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2766/4277683841_2480634c2b_m.jpg” alt=”” width=”200″ height=”200″ /></a>

Fight for Life 2 – iuli72an

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/39323104@N00/4206796553/in/pool-mirror_reflex”><img title=”Fun with Bokeh – rfrobenius” src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4206796553_a97f72c96b_m.jpg” alt=”” width=”200″ height=”134″ /></a>

Fun with Bokeh – rfrobenius

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/carpmeister/4232880021/in/pool-mirror_reflex”><img title=”Mallard – Ken M Johnson” src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4232880021_50aa64eceb_m.jpg” alt=”” width=”200″ height=”134″ /></a>

Mallard – Ken M Johnson

28Dec

Vivitar 500mm f/6.3 DX Series 1 – The Mighty Mirror – Review

Posted in Hardware, Lens, Mirror, No Metering, Reviews, Specifications, Super Telephoto | 23 Comments

Vivitar VIV-500-6.3 500mm f/6.3 Mirror Lens

Vivitar VIV-500-6.3 500mm f/6.3 Mirror Lens

Note to readers: Please leave a comment! It would be nice to know where you are from and if the article helped you in any way!

Christmas 2009. A new Vivitar 500mm f/6.3 DX Series 1 Mirror Lens.I’ve always been fond of them.

A lightweight(1.4 lb – 651 g) manual focus, multi-coated, catadioptric (reflex), fixed aperture “Super” Telephoto which, despite the “DX” label, can be used on full and small frame DSLR sensors as well as on regular 35mm film SLR’s. On the D90, with it’s DX sensor and 1.5x crop factor, that’s an effective 750mm! Make sure you are a good 15+ meters from your subject unless you want to shoot that Lion’s eyeball. These mirror lenses can be attached to virtually any (D)SLR using common T-Adapters. My first set of images can be found at the end of this post. You deserve to see what some lens manufacturers may not want you to see and thus why reviewers (and others) often unfairly malign these marvellous mirrors…

 

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