Back to the Far East

This is arguably my most "viewed" image. It appeared in the BBC website in 2004 and has since been used in a few diferent places. It is taken during the Bangladesh Monsoon. I took it whilst driving to the wellsite. I waved and they waved back. It is such a happy scene. The children are cooling off in the monsson waters. It was one of my very first digital images and I was amazed by the potency of this tiny Sony 5 mp camera. I have owned a Sony compact ever since and will be taking my latest one to Nepal.

Count Down to Nepal

Less than a week to run. Everything here except the film from Silverprint. But even this is on its way. Reviewed my existing Nepal photographs from back in 1981. It's a long time since I was there. It is going to be a real eye opener as to how it is now. But the most important thing the mountains will be largely unchanged. The stretch will be to photograph using my LF camera in the challenging mountain environment.

All the new camera bits and bobs have arrived. Getting down to the serious issues of packing and how to get it safely out there. Reading lots on the medical front of what I need to take with me.

To celebrate todays image is the second in the Ting Tings Glastonbury set.

In The Arm and In the Head

Must be getting close and must be about to get serious. Had a Typhoid jab in one arm and a Revaxis in the other. A Hyperdrive arrived today along with the final lense. It is beginning to feel like a lot of new "stuff" to learn how to use and a lot of batteries to maintain at high altitude. Took up the antidote today and ordered my 5*4 film. This is probably the biggest single decision on this trip. To continue to shoot film. It means carrying my LF camera and all its attendent lenses. So I will have 6 lenses in total including the digital lenses. But I had to take them. I thought about the result of my 2003 trip to the Alps and the decision was made. :-)

Nepal Preparations Gain Momentum

I am now going flat out to organise my Nepal trip. No time for deliberations any more just action. New camera lenses and filters and film and medical preparations. Hotel booked all very exciting and a deep review of my motives for going. After 29 years it is a timely return. My excitement mounts.

Nepal and the D700

The early field trial of the D700 continues. I have been cycling the back roads and highways around Aviemore and Loch Morlich. And the D700 continues to both surprise and excite. My over-riding impression is one of how easy it is to access the functionality of the camera. You get what you pay for but I love the way you can change the settings on this camera. No doubt about it. It makes experimentation and hence creativity an easier issue. I am shooting mainly with the 24mm lense and have been trying to get a feeling for the camera by shooting both in bright sunlight and in the dark and everything in between. One thing is how high the light factor is in low light. I think that I am shooting in the dark and hey presto I get a light picture.

Another interesting thing is the live view. This is the first SLR I have owned that has live view. I have always enjoyed the immediacy of live view on small compacts. And my initial impression is similar with the D700 live view. It challenges the way you look at a scene.

Next stop Belladrum music festival this weekend.

Alex Milne

Nikon D700 Review an Ongoing Project

I have taken delivery of a Nikon D700. It usually takes me about a year to decide on which new camera to buy. I was not an early adopter of digital and still prefer large format film for my classical landscape work. Consequently this is my second digital SLR, my first being the Nikon D80. It is an important decision and also an expensive one. The decision was finally made in favour of the D700 because it suits my style of photography. My observaation is that this is the leading camera for low light photography. Michael Johnson at The Online Photographer, whose opinion I value and respect ,reckons this is the leading camera in the world at the moment. No doubt this will change, however with a trip to Nepal looming it was time to buy. I plan to review the camera as I go and particularly its performance in Nepal. So far I am both excited and impressed with what I have seen.