u/OldSuddenly

Taken with Z5 and Tamron 50-400. It's kind of magic to watch these tons of steel slowly flying up :)

There are two kinds of dragonflies. The more sturdy-built ones with wings perpendicular to the body while still - these are more liked by photographers (bigger, more color being seen etc.). But the other kind (usually thinner with wings along the body while resting) has one feature that have always caused smile on my face - their eyes. You may think you see little head with eyes on it but then you look more carefully and you notice gigantic balls that look like headphones, the old-school ones. Sort of glued to the head. Their real eyes :) Photo taken with Z5 and Tamron 50-400.

No doubt the newest Expeed is placing AF on the high level and I'm not gonna say it's just a slight improvement. On the other hand the older version (as in my Z5 mk 1) is still capable of focusing fast enough to take a photo of a flying insect. I know probably Z5 mk 2 with its great 3d tracking would do it much easier, but doing it old school (single point, AF-C and AF-S respectively, taking advantage of interval flight mode of a dragonfly) has its nice side, as it is more of the... challenge? Of course fast tracking gives you freedom of composing and ensures higher in-focus rate. But bodies with older Expeed are still absolutely fantastic for us amateurs. These two pics were taken with Z5 and Tamron 50-400.

Taken with Z5 and Tamron 50-400 - of course at the longest end :)

1. Bokeh is subjective but in every review "busy bokeh" means no good. But IMO it should be treated as a feature, not a con - as it may be creatively used. I tried to do it centering the butterfly and "freezing" it in contrast to (quite busy) background.

2. Wouldn't it be convinient to have a straw (sucker) built-in, always at your disposal and wind/unwind it any time you want to sip some beverage? :)

Taken with Z5 and Tamron 50-400.

At first raise your leg like this 100 times. Then you will be able to bend your spine any way you like. It's just the matter of repetition!

Z5 with Tamron 50-400 SOOC, just from this morning :)

Was is a good day?

Taken with Z5 and N24-200. And btw maybe kind of obvious thought - sometimes having a versatile walkaround zoom is more valuable than carrying a few top-notch primes in the bag. As sometimes it's just a few seconds span to shoot.

Those chillout talks - everybody needs them!

Z5 with N24-200

TBH I don't quite like taking cloud photos as clouds themselves with some help of sunrays do all the job for a photographer. All you can add is some polarizer or more contrast while taking pic plus go as wide as possible. However - the scene they produce is sometimes really beyond imagination of any illustrator. Ang being lucky is actually an important part of this hobby :) So I wish everyone to be quick! Taken just yesterday with Z5 and Viltrox 14mm AIR.

Got inspired by one of posts with a pigeon photo. Well, living in a big city and not having time for planned phototrips, if you want to try some birds shooting you are left mostly with pigeons and sparrows :) But this is my idea of photography as a hobby - to find something in the common views/themes/objects that make them worth being captured. It may be composition, light, emotions etc. Here on the photo - Columba palumbus, one of the three most common city pigeons in Europe, the biggest one. Taken with Z5 and N24-200.

Taking photos of dragonflies is such fun. Since they are just beautiful creatures - come in so many sizes, colors, wings variation etc. And photographing needs some planning and effort, which is appreciated. Usually you should do it in the morning, when they still dry their wings, sitting still for a few seconds breaks. Once wings are dried, dragonflies can fly non stop, driving photographers crazy :) And finding them in the rush and grass is also a nice photo challenge.

As for Tamron 50-400 (pics were taken with Z5 and this lens) - a extremely versatile piece of equipment if you really don't need to go wide. But there's more - it's quasi macro (1:2 magnification on the short end) which is more than enough for an amateur like me. Considering relatively light weight, short size and not-so-devastating price it is IMO a great option for the budget.

Taken with Z5 and Tamron 50-400.

Somebody asked earier in the day for advice as for fisheye lens for DX DSRL. It triggered me to post this note, especialy for those who never used that kind of lens. It really does give you another perspective and it's not only about distortion, but also field of view, depth of field etc. One is able to notice new possibilities of nice photos looking at the same old, seemingly looked-at-million-times-before themes. Or at ordinary things. The enclosed photo is nothing special, just strolling next to high building and looking up. But I like it :) Taken with N D70s and Nikkor 10.5 2.8 DX Fisheye.

Just taken yesterday. I noticed that bumblebee and thought I would try to catch it flying. Set high ISO (3200) enabling quick shutter (1/4000) and started following the guy. Little photo adventure :) And the result is to my amateurish liking. PS. Don't blame Tamron 50-400 for not supersharp results, it was just me (and the bee if course moving quickly in unpredictibly chaotic way). The lens is really great for many purposes, including entry-level macro and the pic is definitely not a right example of its sharpness. (Nikon Z5 with aforementioned Tamron)

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Taken with Z5 & N24-70 f/4. It was pure luck all pigeons turned blurred/moving, and the duck stopped to pose - therefore in focus.