Friday, May 29, 2009

Fiddleheads

Two fiddlehead ferns growing, with many smaller fernlings around them.
Mommy fern, daddy fern, and all the little kiddie ferns

This photo comes to you from Wyandotte falls, which I visited with my parents a few weeks back. Everything was just starting to grow -- the real start of spring in the Keweenaw -- and these ferns were just poking their heads up.

5 comments:

D. Travis North said...

That's a great shot. How do you like the 18-200mm lens?

I have the 18-135mm, which is okay - but a bit pedestrian. I'm looking to replace it with one or two lenses. I hadn't considered the 18-200 until I saw this shot: really clear and the bokeh isn't bad. The VR would be nice plus as well.

DC said...

D. Travis North -- I LOVE my 18-200 VR! Its quality is more than good enough for almost everything. Anyone who tells you that it's too soft is paying too much attention to their pixels and not enough to their photos. :)

However, you should realize that for me, convenience and portability trump almost everything else. I cart my camera miles into the backcountry, on foot or snowshoe... I can't bring a bag full of lenses, and my equipment takes a bit of a beating. This one lens does it all, with great quality. It replaced my 18-55 and 55-200 VR, which made life enormously easier.

The bokeh is surprisingly nice. The edges are a bit hard, I suppose, but I'm pretty happy with it.

As always, consider your situation... but for me, this is the perfect lens.

D. Travis North said...

Well, I'm sorta in the same boat as you. I don't necessarily trek that far into the backcountry like you, but I do like long day trips through a city or what-not. So I like having some good street zooms on the camera. VR is something I want if only because I tend to wander into buildings a lot (lower light). I do like wider apertures though. That's hard to find in a good zoom though.

Laura Smyth, Publisher and Creative Director said...

I really like the delicacy of this photo. It is almost otherworldly.

DC said...

@D. Travis North -- as far as a flexible, portable, convenient lens goes, I can't think of a better one. The Nikon 18-200 is about as good as they get! I understand wanting a fast lens, but there isn't a constant f/2.8 telephoto zoom I can think of which I'd be willing to hang around my neck all day long. I do find that the 18-200 is a bit slow, but I'm probably going to solve that with a 35mm f/1.8.

@Laura -- thanks so much! It's fun to watch them unfold over the days. :)