Just returned from a 2.5 day trip to the West Coast of Michigan to see/photograph lighthouses and lights. This was the inaugural trip for the D90.
The trip started Thursday - drove from home to St. Joseph's. Although the weather was marginal at best, at St. Joe's it was bad. It was very cold and windy. Aside form that - got what I would consider some great shots. After St. Joe's, we traveled through South Haven, Holland and ended the first day in Grand Haven. The weather was windy and cold at each location - but had fun trying to catch 'wave' shots.
Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day. The Weather Channel delivered! We traveled from Grand Haven to Frankfort with seven stops. That was a long day. This is the first time I've really had to shoot in abundant sunshine. I played a lot with exposure values. In some of the shots I've put out quick, the shots are a bit on the dark side, but with some work I should be able to bring out the great colors. I worked a lot with the camera histogram, really trying to not lose too much color. I took a couple of AUTO shots everywhere for comparison and to not lose some of the shots.
This morning, we started with the Frankfort Pier Light, passed through Point Betsie and finished with the Robert Manning Memorial Light.
As for the D90, the software is about the same as the D80. I made a 'few' rookie errors. I didn't have the focus set up the same as I did with the D80. The focus target area was way too wide and as a result some of the shots did not focus very sharply. I figured that out by day 3. I started playing with the EV compensation - only after I noticed a bad effort due to lots of bright light reflected from the sand. I had been playing with Aperture Priority, which I shot almost exclusively on this trip, when helps some but I really need to get more of the burn out of my shots. My usual standby of using a polarizer was not enough to combat the sun.
So - lots of good shots. The first pass of a vacation album are here on the MARCH 2010 link.
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