Natural Selections

This page is for the people who are curious about the technical details behind the photographs.

I have been using Nikon cameras and lenses since I worked with Donna Rouviere (now my wife of 29 years) in 1978. My first Nikon was the Nikon FM. I began using digital Nikons in 2000 and have not missed film cameras (or the dust specs and scratches) since.

I am a stickler for sharpness. It is the first thing I check when editing my photos. As such I have always used Nikon lenses. A Nikon camera with a brand X lens is only as good as the brand X lens.

I always strive to do the framing in the camera. I realize this is not always convenient for fitting photographs into layouts, but that is how I trained myself and I expect that I will continue to shoot this way. All the photos that are shown here are published full frame with no cropping.

I don’t like carrying a ton of equipment around. When I was in college there was a “professional” photographer in the area that bragged about looking like a Christmas tree with all his cameras and lenses hanging off his neck and shoulders. I prefer to be inconspicuous and travel light. I generally limit myself to two or three lenses. Admittedly it is much easier to do these days with the high quality of zoom lenses that are available.

Currently I use the Nikon D80 and the following lenses:

18-70mm f3.5-4.5 (I dislike the variable aperture, but the lens is light and sufficiently sharp)
80-200 f2.8
300mm f4

I keep an eye on updates to Nikon’s cameras and lenses, but I don’t buy anything unless I know that it is going to make a marked difference over what I currently have.