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shiosVIP

Destroy Them With Lazers
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Harry Potter!

2 min read
So, working at Universal Studios Orlando has given me lots of opportunities as far as my photography goes. There's lots of good places and people to take pictures of, sometimes I just wish I could block off the tourists so I could get some great shots without them cluttering up the photo.

One place in particular I'm always really drawn to is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The architecture and lighting is phenomenal, and the area really comes to life after the sun goes down. The cool colors that Universal chose to illuminate the castle with really brings out the contrast between Hogwarts and the night sky. But the presence of the guests still really puts off any really good shots that I was thinking about.

So :iconmakeshiftwings30: and I went to Universal yesterday and I brought my tripod with me planning to get some long exposures of the castle and the Hogwarts Express outside of Hogsmeade Station. We waited until the park had closed at 7pm so the guests would leave (they usually tend to peace out around 6:45).

After several attempts, I finally got some great exposures of both the castle and the station. I also got some cool shots of Zonkos and Honeydukes while we waited for guests to clear the Hogsmeade platform.

Something I had noticed though is some extreme banding and artifacting in the sky most notably in the shots of the castle. I usually notice this sort of thing on jpegs after compression has occurred, but these were on lossless raws. So I'm kind of hoping that the in-camera compression to display the raws on the camera is what's causing this, and not a bad sensor. I would post them here for people to judge, but I'm at :iconmakeshiftwings30:s house so it'll have to wait until I get home and run them through lightroom.

Oh and we also rode the updated Spiderman ride and it's AMAZING.
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So I'm not really sure which lens I should start saving for now.

I'm torn between the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 or the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8. Yes, big boy lenses. I really really see myself continuing this hobby for a very long time and I really think I would save myself money in the long run by splurging on a couple of really good lenses instead of slowly inching my way up there, costing myself hundreds if not thousands more on mediocre gear, especially if I see myself going FX sometime in the next 5 years. I would really love to complete the Nikon Holy Trinity (14-24mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm all constant 2.8 aperture) before then just so I'm really ready for it.

I currently possess a Tammy 17-50mm f/2.8 which is pretty much on my camera at all times, which makes me want to go for the 70-200 first. Just so I have a faster telephoto. I'm currently using the much slower 55-200 (rarely) and 70-300 which I really only take with me when I'm going to some place with animals in a distance and I will probably never get rid of the 70-300 just because the extra bit of focal length is great. But I've been hearing that the 70-200 2.8 is so goddamn awesome that you can actually crop significantly on it to where the difference in quality from cropping on the 200 to not needing to crop on the 300 is extremely negligible after post processing, especially if I really ever shoot at that focal length.

Another reason I want to spring toward the 70-200 is that 24mm on a DX format isn't very wide, and my Tammy will already go even wider at 17mm. So I may just keep my Tammy until I go FX.

Idk. I'm renting one of them (leaning toward the 70-200) for Dragon*Con in August so I'll really get to try it out there. I MAY rent the 24-70 for PAX East next month and try it out there. That way it would give me a full weekend to try out both lenses and decide from there. It won't be for at least another year before I make this decision anyway.

I need a legit job. Fuck this 8.67/hr. bullshit. WHY DID I PICK SUCH AN EXPENSIVE HOBBY.
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Harry Potter! by shiosVIP, journal

Big boy lenses... by shiosVIP, journal