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| The chronicles of Sanjeev Dwivedi |
You should have a backup camera.
This becomes more and more important as you start going on photography assignments or if you are going on a vacatio nor photographing an important event. I had been warned I must say, but I decided to heed the warning lightly. One time I was photographing at a birthday party and for some weird reason, my Nikon D70 misbehaved and almost ruined the photoshoot. I was saved by a hair's breadth as I could resolve the problem just 10 minutes before the event.
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Then again, this time the camera broke on the trip to Yellowstone and it broke significantly enough so I could not fix it myself. Something mechanical was broken. Neither auto focusing, nor metering were working properly. The saving grace was that it did not fail completely, I could take pictures by setting things manually.
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So, the moral of the story was that I needed a backup camera. While I sent the Nikon D70 for repair at the El Seguando, CA facility of Nikon, I researched which backup body to have. I was almost sold on D40 when I came across D90 which was just in the process of getting released. The body+kit lens was for sale at many places but the body only was at sale at very few places. I got mine from 17th Street Photo. Since my 18-70 DX lens was broken too (physically), I got a 18-200mm VR lens with it which I had been eyeing for a long long time.
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This is the first time I have VR in a lens and it is magical. I can take pictures in dark, at 200mm at 1/40s and still have sharp pictures. The D90 is a fantastic body with Automatic Dynamic Range, awesome ergonomics, multiiple AF sensors and so on. Nikon went all out designing D90.
I took some pictures with the D90 and 50mm lens of the Fall Colors in Redmond -- Redmond-Seattle area is burning with color right now.
This winter has been slow in coming and I am not complaining for sure. When the winter arrives slowly, the trees take longer to shed their leaves and the leaves express beautiful colors. This year, whichever way you go, it is just absolutely stunning. The colors are so many and so vivid that I keep saying "Wow" everywhere.
Also, yesterday I made Kadhai Paneer. After S. asked me about how to make paneer a few times, I once showed him how to. Since then, I make paneer dishes once in a while. I have gotten quite proficient by now in making these. So, whenever I make a paneer dish, I invite someone over. This time I invited over my Kayaking friend who introduced me to the sport.
| sanjeev@pratapgarh.com |