Avebury Stone Circle

I was unsure of Druid etiquette but seeing no photographer, and being handy quite by coincidence, I filled in without formal invitation. The bride looked happy anyway.

This pre-dates digital and is a copy of a print from the 1990s. The location is the Red Lion at Avebury.

For a while I used more or less exclusively an AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G lens, sometimes coupled with a Nikon D90, as here, and others with a D50 which was inferior yet strangely often preferred. I look back on that period with wonder. The lens seemed to do everything I wanted it to; the much-criticised distortion scarcely bothered me; and it was of little weight for carrying around. Oh well.

A new edit. Nikon D90 with AF Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G. A long time ago.

This is a reminder to myself to take stock. To stop being over-ambitious; not to expect much from modest equipment; to accept that some opportunities will be missed simply because I am too distant. Although I am no longer a flickr user, I occasionally look in to see what can be done with this or that bit of kit. I have seen what Alex Eganov accomplishes with two lenses which I happen also to use and I am put to shame. I realise my limitations. I would like to improve. Meanwhile, the occasional excursion into my old photographs - with better editing - will underline the long road I have to travel. Nikon D90 with AF Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G. A long time ago.

This was never a good photograph. It was under-exposed and badly composed, yet there were engaging components such as capturing a record of the typical behaviour of visitors to Avebury. I was in conversation with another visitor on a different occasion who was unimpressed by the antiquity. She memorably summarised it thus: "I walked a bit, and saw a pile of stones. I walked a bit more and saw another pile of stones". Maybe Avebury's antiquity is best left to archaeologists. It's a fine place for a bit of exercise though. I have attempted to rescue the better aspects of the picture by using the Lightroom software but there are limits with the jpeg quality. Nikon D90 and AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G lens at 190mm (about the limit of its best performance). I've bought and sold two of these cheap and flimsy lenses which have their strengths and are light in weight.

There are innumerable opportunities for photographers in Avebury, but it is enormously difficult to do anything original. It has all been done before, and better. I regard it simply as a benchmark for my own development in using a camera. I took this picture in the summer of 2011 using a camera and lens which I have since replaced. It is perfectly possible to make wonderful photographs with the most basic of equipment, but every incremental improvement, particularly in lens quality, gives a photographer a sporting chance. At that time I had not discovered that photographing in RAW provided the greatest chance of making a satisfying image. This photograph is a straight-out-of-camera JPEG. Adjustment is possible, but limited. Naively, I once believed a photograph could simply be repeated on another visit to the same place if an improvement was sought. There are so many variables that prevent this. Maybe with patience and skill it can be done, but I lack both. So I am left with a picture which I like but which I know is not original. In fact, I took this photograph because I had been inspired by something similar (and better) by somebody else. And here I have applied some of the Lightroom tools which were not available to me in 2011. If you are a visitor to Avebury and the perspective in the photograph appeals, the settings I used with an APS-C camera were 210mm; f/4.8; 1/400th. (But much depends on where you position yourself and the light, of course).

AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G at 78mm on a Nikon D90 (field of view equivalent to 117mm on a full frame camera). You can buy these lenses cheaply on the secondhand market.

Nikon D90 and Nikkor 70-300mm AF-G f/4-5.6 zoom lens.

I used an AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G lens bought secondhand for about £60 (do not confuse this lens with the later, more expensive, VR version). Optically, it is a decent lens within its limitations, and its chief weakness is degradation beyond 200mm. Here I had it at 300mm because I was a long way distant. The picture also suffers from being strongly cropped and over-processed. But it is a picture nonetheless. One other thing about the AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G - it is flimsy and light in weight. At least you don't get backache carrying it around. But treat it carefully if you buy one.

Nikon D90 and Nikkor 70-300mm AF-G f/4-5.6 zoom lens.

Tourists at Avebury stone circle, Wiltshire. Nikon D90 + Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 AF G lens.

They took all the bones And put 'em in a bones museum.