The May Rig

Impressive, no?

I'd known since February that my 366 Snaps photo for April 30 would feature the D300 with the 300 mm lens. By May Day the birds have arrived and the baseball season's underway; that's what this setup's for.

Early in 1998 my mom wrote me a rather large check and said I should buy "something I really wanted" with part of it. "Something I really wanted" turned out to be a Nikon N90s; a few days later I added this lens (it's an ED AF Nikkor 300mm 1:4) and this tripod. (Truth: I figured the N90s would be my Last Camera. Little did I know. But I've still got it, and it still works.)

The 300 mm has served me well, and is my favorite--if not my best--lens. The D300's its third camera, and the lens still suits my needs. Some of you know I take lots of baseball photographs; this is the lens I most commonly use in the ballpark. (FWIW: I usually shoot hand-held at the games; occasionally I use a monopod.)

Here's the thing, though. Mounting this lens on a DSLR body makes for a massive camera. People notice it. You really can only comfortably use it in places where people don't much care that you're taking photographs.

Besides, there are lots of photographs a 300 mm prime really can't take....

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A perhaps-relevant story:

I occasionally attend railfan conventions. Perhaps 25 years ago I had a chat with another photographer (let's call him Steve, since that's his name) at a party after an afternoon spent touring a large switching and service facility. He'd just talked with someone else (we'll call him John, which I think is also true-to-life) who'd wanted to know why Steve's photographs, while framed similarly to John's, where consistently better. Steve attributed it to "expensive glass."

I agree with Steve that better equipment helps, but it's not the whole story. I've proven to my satisfaction that I can take excellent pictures with a throwaway camera, and terrible pix with my expensive Nikons. Partial evidence: Compare the FujiFilm F10 count to the Nikon count in this set.

The really odd thing about the conversation was that Steve knew that the only camera I was carrying that weekend was a mid-range pocket camera. It appears that I look like a Serious Photographer even with a toy camera.

There's a clue or two in that story about why I changed cameras every month for 366 Snaps. Enough said.

For now, anyway.

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This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps.

Number of project photos taken: 29
Title of "roll:" Next Month's Rig
Other photos taken on 4/30/2012: Since I had the D300 set up, I shot about a hundred pix of birds at the feeder. And, of course, the Daily Flower Census continued--39 shots with the V1.