About
Matthew Harker Metcalf was born July 24, 2007, at 3:56am.
Photos taken with a Nikon Coolpix 8400 camera, equipped with a Nikon Speedlight SB-800 flash.
This blog runs on Wordpress, using the Nishita theme (very slightly modified) and the PhotoQ plugin.
Inspired by the Trixie Picture of the Day.
The Nikon Coolpix 8400, which has been discontinued, isn’t a terribly good camera for taking pictures of Matthew. It had the widest wide-angle of any digital camera without interchangeable lenses, the equivalent of a 24mm in the 35mm camera world. This makes it great for landscapes, or for cramped interior shots. It’s longest lens setting is equivalent to 85mm, which is actually just about the perfect focal length for people pictures, but it’s a slow f/4.9. What’s frustrating is that indoors, even with the focus assist light, the camera can’t seem to focus on Matthew’s eyes, which is normally where I want the focus to be. I have lots and lots of pictures where the camera focused on something in the background. But it’s the camera I have.
The flash has really made the photographs possible. Almost all the indoor photos use the flash bounced off the ceiling: no red-eye, nice even illumination, plenty of light.