The Ambiguity in the Distance

Nikon D2Xs with a Nikkor 28mm f/2 AI lens, made circa 1981, and said by Bjørn Rørslett to be excellent for DX, FX, and on film. Rørslett commented that the lens offers outstandingly sharp images and these are produced at all aperture settings from f/2 to f/8. Rørslett found it unusually resistant to flare and ghosting and eminently suitable for shooting directly into the sun. ISO 100; f/3.3; 1/80th.

A sense of déjà vu; a stillness; another place, another time perhaps. Something to do with À La Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time). I suppose it is inevitable that as you experience more things, your memory of those experiences expands, but not always in an exact way. More a condensed version of what your senses recorded. Nikon D50 and Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6 G lens. f/8.

The plastic A/M slider has broken off my venerable Chinon 55mm f/1.4 lens dating from circa 1976 (a £10 upgrade when bought with a Chinon CX). To mark this milestone in its decline I have edited an earlier photograph made with this lens presumably wide open. I ought to take contemporaneous notes but it seems a nerdy thing to be doing for a cool guy like me. Non-contemporaneous notes (the cool type of notes); The photograph was taken through a gap in a hedge (green bits). Beyond the hedge was (and still is) a busy four-lane road (blurred bits). Beyond that again is an old wool mill, imposing and built of stone (white bits). There is an inexplicable red bit. My best guess is that it was a red lorry. The leaves in their final days leave me feeling melancholy. If I were not a photographer, I should scarcely have registered their existence.

Nikon D2Xs and AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VRII lens. Focal length 95mm (full frame equivalent 142mm).

Nikon D2Xs and AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VRII lens. Focal length 112mm (full frame equivalent 168mm).

Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR lens.

Nikon D2Xs at 400 ISO with an AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G lens. Lens at 80mm (equivalent to 120mm in a full frame camera). Camera in aperture priority and set at f/8. Shutter speed 1/250th.

On my way to the Chemists. Canon EOS 30D and Canon EF 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5 lens.

Photographed with a Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens on a Nikon D700. This lens was in production from 1992 to 2003. Aperture priority; 800 ISO; f/8; 1/400th; lens at 70mm.