D300 low light

Before we left for Costa Rica, I added to my digital gear a Nikon D300. It is all it is said to be. A great improvement over the D200 though the D200 is still an excellent digital camera. I have made many great images with the D200 and was planning to keep it for a second body. I'll tell you why I didn't in another post.

We were fortunate to find a festiva in the town of Samara before our "In The Rhythm™" tour began. Samara is one of our favorite small towns to hang out in. Anyway, during festiva there is usually a horse parade, high steppers, with winning ribbons and trophies. After the parade they have a bull riding contest. Lots of fun and great photo opportunities.

The bull riding is not like anything you've seen before. The local macho men get into the ring and when the ride is over, antagonize the bull. Naturally, when the bull chases them, the macho men head for the safety of the fence. What a blast! The bull usually gets the best of them and eventually is lassoed by a caballero and led back to the pen.

In this situation, the advantage of the D300 is its ability to capture images in low light at higher ISO, using higher shutter speeds, and with very little noise. Noise is the digital equivalent of grain in film. Remember how grainy 400 to 1600 ISO film used to be? Those that are not into photography might want to skip this technical stuff. Anyway, the D300 does such a great job with low light and high ISO, as witnessed in the image above.  You can tell by the shadow that not one hoof is one the ground! (3200 ISO, 1/160 sec., f2.8, -1 EV, aperture priority, Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 VR lens set at 95mm, no flash, hand-held)

I will post more at my web site soon:  http://www.stamates.com