Return to beauty (redux) - Trang

Welcome.

Since my February post on beauty (and addiction thereto), I have had the pleasure of photographing Trang, an acquaintance of whom I have the highest esteem.

We met nearly three years ago and clicked almost immediately. In that time I have watched as she has gone through various situations including personal tragedy, career changes and recently, marriage to a wonderful young man, Han.

No matter what the situation there remains a certain constancy about her. She is kind, gentle of nature, funny, caring, generous of spirit, strong and loving.

She is the epitome of beauty in more ways than one.

A couple of months ago she asked me to photograph her wedding. In the ensuing discussion it became apparent that Trang had a distaste for the current in-vogue style of wedding photography practiced by most wedding photographers these days.

Instead, she preferred the images to capture what happens on the day. This fitted in with my own strongly held beliefs on wedding photography.

My personal philosophy is that once the photographer takes charge or 'directs' the scene, it is no longer the couple's day, but the vision of the photographer. My own preference is that the photography should record the authentic happenings of a sacred event on a special day.

Of course that does not preclude making a few formal or semi formal portrait images on the day. After all, weddings are a great opportunity to get images of family and friends who may not have come together for some time.

So a handful of so-called 'setups' may be ok. What I seriously object to is the overwhelmingly staged, contrived, controlled images which are a product of the photographer's idea of how the wedding should be, rather than a genuine, respectful observation of the day.

Now, that is not to decry the very talented practitioners of the other style. Far from it. I am in awe of the talent that some of those photographers possess. It is the style that I detest, not the talent or the photographer.

An analogy could be that while I acknowledge the great talents of musicians, there are obviously, like everyone else, some genres that I cannot stand. Likewise with photography - I can respect the artist, if not the style of the art.

So I was somewhat pleased when Trang voiced the same preferences.

Prior to the wedding day the three of us spent an afternoon in Melbourne as a kind of pre-wedding shoot. Ironically, this involved more 'direction' than the wedding shoot itself. Most shooters have it the other way around - a semi-relaxed pre -wedding shoot and a highly directed wedding! You just got to love irony.

Anyway, to cut the story short - the wedding was a delight. I spent the day with Trang and her lady companions (there's that addiction to beauty again) photographing whatever happened pre-ceremony, the actual ceremony and the reception. It was a joy to witness the event and I am grateful for the experience. It was one of the best weddings that I have ever attended.

As a bonus, they loved the images. Now that is always a relief!

Thank you both.

A little footnote for the photographers. The light at the reception was so low that the ISO was often around 4000 or so, lens at f2, shutter at 1/25th! Low is not the word!

This is where the recent tools such as the D700 come into their own.

The image below was 6400ISO, 1/200th at f2.8 on the 24-70 nikkor (set at 35mm), auto -white balance. Pretty capable little camera!

To Trang, Han and all lovers of beauty -
Stay safe

Nikon D700 and street photography

Welcome.

Sunday saw the Chinese/Vietnamese Lunar New Year festival being held at Footscray in the west of Melbourne.

Along with friend and fellow photographer Shelton Muller - that's him on his back getting a shot of a martial arts performer - I decided to spend part of the day enjoying the festivities.

It was a perfect opportunity to see how good the Nikon D700 is for street photography. Up until now I have been using Nikon's D300, D200 and D90 coupled to various Nikkor lenses. I had for some time been interested in the alleged benefits of the 'FX' format as Nikon likes to call the mis-named 'full frame' format.

However I wasn't all that keen on lugging a D3 around for street work.

So when the Nikon D700 was released it seemed to be the perfect combination of D3 ability shoe-horned into a D300 body. Just what the doctor ordered!

Let me tell you in no uncertain terms. The D700 is superbly designed, produces awesome images - especially in low light/high ISO situations - and has all the ergonomic benefits of the Nikon D300 with a few extra features thrown in.

There are plenty of other sites where you can find comprehensive reviews of this fine camera, so I won't rehash any of the info that you already know.

Suffice it to say - if you are looking for a capable tool brilliantly designed and able to perform under virtually any situation, the Nikon D700 should fit the bill.

Most of the images made on the day were with the Nikkor 35mm f2 AF-D lens. I find this lens to be wonderfully suited to this type of work.

Oh - with all the horror price rises about to hit in most parts of the globe - get the camera now if you are planning on getting one. Why the heck would you want to wait and pay hundreds more?

Happy shooting and stay safe.