Street Photography Diary Number 10
I had thought that I didn't really have any new street photography shots for the last little while, until I was going through my library in Lightroom and discovered a whole shoot that I had forgotten about. With all my travel in December I hadn't fully gone through the shots from a photo walk I took through Dublin in November and I'd completely forgotten about it.
I did something a little different on this shoot. Normally I use one of my mirrorless cameras when shooting street photography, because I feel less self conscious with a smaller camera and you can be a little more inconspicuous. I'm often not specifically out to shoot street shots too, so I will bring a smaller camera with me. However, on this occasion I brought my Nikon D700. Having shot some film recently, I've found that the experience of using a nice bright viewfinder on my old film cameras has encouraged me to shoot more with a DSLR again, and I've really enjoyed the experience of shooting with a proper optical viewfinder again, and on the streets, people didn't pay as much attention to it as I had expected.
The D700 is particularly big and heavy mind you. Even using a small(ish) prime lens on it, it's probably the heaviest camera I own. But I still love it though, and even after all these years it's still my favourite camera to shoot with, despite the bulk and weight. The only things that I don't like about the D700 is that I find the resolution a bit limiting (as I often make big prints) and the dynamic range is not nearly as good as modern cameras. I still wish Nikon had given us a proper sequel, with the sensor from the D4 line in a similar body. I know there's the D750, and that will probably be my next DSLR but there's something special about the D700. Even having used the D800, I find it doesn't have the same magic that the D700 has.
Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked by nostalgia. Actually, now that I think about it I've noticed that a few of the people I follow who were mirrorless shooters have switched back to using DSLRs. (And incidentally, I can think of three of those who've all bought D750s). These people had all been shooting film recently too, so I wonder if they had the same experience that I did. I am still shooting both though, an sI'm keen to get my hands on the X-Pro 2 when it comes out next year. Oops, I'm doing it again! Ok, back to the street photography.....
I shot this set entirely with my Nikon 50mm lens. I have the f/1.4 G version of Nikon's 50mm, which I have to say, isn't a great lens. It's nice and sharp stopped down, but between 1.4 and 28 it's quite soft and suffers from a lot of fringing and optical glow. I really want to try out the Sigma 50mm art lens at some point. It's on my wish list for the new year. 50mm works well for street shooting, but I think 35mm would probably have worked a bit better. Given that these are probably the two most common focal lengths for street shooting, how cool would it be if someone made a 35-50mm f1/4 zoom? If that's even possible.
Ok, as my train of thought has gone completely off the rails on this post (it is new years eve after all) I think I'll wrap this up and get on to the actual pictures. They were taken in November on the busy shopping streets of Dublin and some of the surrounding areas including the park in the centre of the city (Stephen's Green). They're a mix of shots as usual. This will probably be my last street photography diary post of the new year, so I hope you've enjoyed this somewhat eclectic series over the past few months, and I'll see you in 2016 with diary entry number 11!
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