US Virgin Islands

Well, 10 days have already past and I am on my way back to Vermont.  The beautiful Islands of St John, Tortolla and St Thomas have provided me with great photo opportunities and a chance to improve my technical abilities.  I have shot medium format as well as 35mm digital and film.  The most important discovery I made relates to my lenses choices and capabilities.  I was surprised to find out that both my zoom lenses (Nikon ED 80-200 2.8 and Tokina ATX Pro 35-70 2.6) performed rather poorly when measured agains my prime lenses.  Using my Mamiya medium format prime lenses with a Nikon adapter on both my digital and film 35mm cameras has really been a dilightful treat:  the sharpness, color, contrast and overall performance was outstanding both with 80mm and 150mm.  These lenses also performed very well for macro photography coupled with Mamiya extension tubes.  One of my goals was to visit the St Thomas Butterfly Farm and take some nice close ups;  the results have surpassed my expectations and the pictures came out great with the Mamiya lenses.  I will upload some of my butterfly pictures in my next post.

I have also improved my abilities at selecting the right speed and aperture for my photo work.  My depth of fields have subsequently improved as well.  Having spent more time on framing the right composition, has also provided me with much more interesting and focused pictures.  My medium format Mamiya has been used mostly for landscape and panoramic shots that hopefully will be "stitched " together for a 360 degree view. The posted sunset picture was taken at Francis Bay with my Mamiya 645 Pro.