I’ll be hitting the world of air-travel once again, on a photo assignment to India. The aim is to capture stories of some of the poorest people living with disability, showing the link between disability and poverty: Poverty causes disability and disability cause poverty.
The trip will take me to two large Indian cities documenting some slum projects and community work.
I plan to update this blog as I go, depending on internet access – so watch this space.
Sometimes it is the simple things that make it. I’ve often wondered what actually makes one win a photo-contest or competition. Clearly it’s not always the fanciest technique, light, composition and beautiful subject that cuts through. Sometimes it is just the simple, easy, natural or everyday that stands out. In this cased I must have done something right .-) So, I am really happy (and also a bit surprised) to get this message today that my photo entry was selected winner of the orbis™ ring flash photo contest. Thank you orbis™, thank you James! Thank you Kayell.
“Congratulations to Christoph Ziegenhardt for winning the Stealth Sticker prize draw for photo gear from Kayell Australia!”
Check out the orbis’s gear on orbisflash.com or follow orbis on FB
For many years the 50mm f1.8 or f1.4 has been the photographers best friend. The 50mm provided a view that closely resembled that of the human eye. For film SLR that was true and for full frame DSLR it still is. However, with DX it is a different story. The 50mm becomes an 75 or 80mm lens (depending on your crop factor) which is still a nice lens, but much more suitable for portraits and close ups as it is zoomed in of course and provides a much narrower angle of view on a cropped DX sensor.
So finally Nikon has done what makes sense – create a 35mm f1.8 (which is an effective 52mm f1.8) – and makes the 50mm prime lens look available for DX shooters.
The 35mm f1.8 is lightweight, pretty solid build, very sharp and fast lens. It is a real joy to shoot with.
The bokeh is magnificient, much nicer that the older Nikkor 50mm f1.8. Focussing is very fast and the beauty of the wide aperture is of course that you can shoot in very low light conditions, without having to add any extra light (in form of speedlights and/or extra heavy gear).
The lens is really practical, for all sorts of street photography were you want to be less intrusive, carry less gear etc, and it has of course the beautiful look you only get from a 50mm lens.
That is the beauty of it. Finally there it is again – that look we’ve all been waiting to for, and gotten so used to – the golden 50mm look. And at the $190 this lens comes at, it is a bit of a no-brainer.