A perfect day.

Visit San Francisco on days like yesterday and it’s impossible to go wrong for those of the street snapping persuasion. Late sun, partly cloudy, no wind, pullover weather. As the Nikon D700 and 180mm Nikkor f/2.8D is a heavy piece of gear, I usually refrain from lugging along the iPad, but the iPad Mini makes all the difference. It’s a featherweight and makes reading and catching up with the markets over a celebratory beer a pleasure. Much nicer than reading on the iPhone.

All snapped using the 180mm f/2.8D AF Nikkor lens.

One lens only.

Because I tend to concentrate on a style I find it impossible to take a lens like a 180/200mm street snapping along with something wide. The style of seeing and thinking is so different it’s all long or all short for me. I am intellectually incapable of suddenly switching from long to wide, a process I have found results in mediocrity at both focal lengths. I don’t know, but would be prepared to bet that prime snappers have a far higher success rate than zoom users. For the former, economy of expression and intensity of focus come with the territory. For the avid zoomer everything is possible and all is mediocre.

Here are a few more from the outing the other day with the 180mm Nikkor which may explain what I’m rambling on about:

Never easier.

I wrote a year ago how easy it is to create gift photo calendars using Lightroom and a tailored plugin with the estimable Shutterfly online service. That linked plugin remains as effective in LR4.2 as it was in LR3.x.

So the other day I decided on a theme for this year’s gift calendar. Using keywords in LR to find the images I wanted, I put all like-themed pictures into an LR collection and then narrowed that down to 13 favorites – one for each month plus one for the cover. Invoking the plugin in File->Export I dropped the RAW files, converted to 5meg originals on export, into Shutterfly and some fifteen minutes later a dozen or so calendars were ordered for direct shipping to their lucky (?) recipients.

This year’s single theme idea came about when it dawned on me just how many snaps of the Transamerica building – 40 years old this year! – I had taken over the years in all light and weather conditions.

The 2012 calendar, featuring the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco.

The city has architect William Pereira much to thank for.

Calendars make great gifts – time to make yours!

Trivially easy to use.

I wrote about my bargain basement used 180mm f/2.8D Nikkor here, appending a few quick snaps at the time. Having now had a better chance to wring the lens out I can say with great enthusiasm that this is a dream lens on an FF body like the D700. The focus automation makes picture-taking exceptionally easy, despite the very shallow depth of field at f/2.8, and the balance and handling on the big Nikon body would be hard to improve. I use a first pressure on the shutter button to lock focus, recompose, then click. Center rectangle focusing is bang on every time; I do not believe in cockamamie concepts like Nikon’s matrix focus technology when one critical, know focus point is called for.

Here are some snaps from yesterday (hey, the markets were closed so I got out!), all at f/2.8 or f/4 and all (minimally) processed in LR4. Taken on and around San Francisco’s Embarcadero. On the D2X the lens has an effective length of 270mm, a little too long for this sort of street snapping.

I trust the azure sky is not lost on east coast dwellers!

I so like the handling of the D2X with the built-in battery grip that I have bought a used Nikon MB-D10 battery grip for the D700, to confer like functionality. It adds the advantage that regular AA batteries work fine. I’ll report back later.

Meanwhile, it bears repeating that even duffers will find their snaps improved with a lens of this calibre.

On Cypress Street.

“Is that the 160?” I asked.

A quick glance from the owner confirmed I was the real thing. Bikers know bikers. It’s a sixth sense sort of thing.

“No, actually it’s the 300. A 1969. I just bought it from a guy in the country”

“Nice machine. I love the way Honda used to do those chrome panels.”

“Yeah. Some people say it’s not very fast but at our age you are just happy when you get home alive, never mind fast!”

“Indeed. It has an overhead cam no?”

“Yes, you can get at it through those little side covers on the cylinder head. Very easy. Some say the bike is kinda boring.”

“They used to joke that the difference between a British bike and a Japanese one was the puddle of oil under the British machine. As for boring, I can handle that, as long as it starts first thing.”

Whereupon the owner gave the starter a couple of kicks and the machine sprung into a nice vigorous yet refined idle. Japanese engineering at its best.

These sort of chance encounters, I find, are common. I make it a habit to wander down alleyways and side roads when in the city and San Francisco’s Cypress Street is as wonderful as these things get, replete with dozens of Mission District murals. So that’s how I chanced on the biker.

Wishing him well I toddled off only to be met with a roar and sharp turn as he came by to show how well things were running.

To see the location, click the picture below, courtesy of the GPS unit in attached to the Nikon.

Click the picture for the location.

Biker babe on Cypress Street.

All snapped on the Nikon D2X with the 16-35mm AF-S Nikkor.