The idea here was...well, there were a few ideas. First, I wanted to do photography that was bright, cheerful, colorful—and different. With times being a bit harsh and stressful for many, I was looking for something light-hearted and, frankly, far from reality. Dreamy and summer-like came to mind.
By definition a prism is a geometrical glass figure with...wait, stop; forget that. Just take a look at the cover of your Dark Side of the Moon album. That's a prism, and that's basically what it does.
On a clear, blue-sky day in Florida not long ago I was out testing neutral density (ND) filters when it occurred to me that the fact that I do that routinely was an indication of how important filters are to the kind of pictures I like to take.
Color control of our photographs is at our fingertips. It's there, in the camera, all those choices about how we're going to make the most of color, to modify, intensify, or otherwise change it. We have picture controls, scene modes, special effects, exposure compensation, and white balance just waiting to help us make the most colorful photographs ever, right?
It's not what most photographers would consider essential glass, but in mid-2017, when I heard it was available, I knew the 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5 fisheye Nikkor was a lens I'd like a lot. What I didn't realize was how much "a lot" was going to be. It turned out that I liked to have it with me whenever I was photographing.
On my recent visit to Africa as a photo tour pro, I decided to capture the beauty and the wildlife of the Serengeti totally mirrorless. Considering my recent move to the format, the trip was confirmation of how committed I am to it, as I took only my mirrorless Nikon Z cameras—three of them, in fact: my Z6, Z7, and the Z7 I had converted to infrared. Yes, I'm all in.
Waves occupy a high position on my favorite photographic subjects list. First, I feel a natural emotional connection to them. Second, they offer a lot of ways I can portray that connection. Give me a subject that provides lots of possibilities and creative challenges, and I'm there.