The Last Shoot

The photos in this post are from the last morning shoot of the year 2010. It was the coldest morning of the year on December 31. The mercury was topping out at 32 F when I rode to Anza Narrows. The short ride was a test of a new jacket. The jacket seems like a good one, and it will work well as a jacket liner under my leather riding jacket.

Since the wreck that totaled my last motorcycle, I’ve been a bit skittish about riding with the windshield attached, since the edge of the windshield opened a 6-stitch scar just under my lip. I was wishing I had put the windshield on about the time I got up into third gear. The frozen air rushing against my face reminded me of the blizzards of the northeast. My face went numb from cold in short order. I was happy that the park is less than two miles away from my garage.

These photos were made with a APS-C Nikon and a prime lens, a decades-old 28mm, f/2.8 manual lens. This 28mm is turning out to be my favorite lens. I like using manual focus, and the extra aperture stop or two, though I use two telephoto zoom lenses when it make sense for sports like football and motocross.

The 28mm lens works out to a 42mm frame on an APS-C sensor. As it is turning out, I’m framing correctly for a photo with my eye before looking through the viewfinder, so it seems that I’m using the lens enough to get used to it.

Despite the cold, it was a good shoot. I liked the quality of the light and the long shadows from the trees. I kept my cloth glove liners on while I used the camera. In the photo below you can see my footprints in the frosted grass.