Clay Cook | Blog

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LENS LUST

Lens Lust; I learned this term from a friend of mine and photographer Joey Goldsmith with N|Visible Photography. I not only understand the term now, I’m literally enthralled in the term now. I’ve been renting lenses for the past few weeks to really see what my big lens purchase would be in the future and I think I’ve found the one. The Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 Wide Angle Zoom lens is probably the best glass I’ve ever shot through. In my opinion it rocked the 24-70mm f/2.8 which I’ve been oozing over for quite sometime. You have to get really close to your subject so it may not be the best work horse for weddings, but for portraits and landscapes, the lens is perfect. If I need a good bokeh, that’s where my Nikon 55-200mm f/2.8 will come in. Anyway, enough about lens lust; this past weekend’s shoot was again for the NA Rider’s Calendar. I’ll be glad to get this thing wrapped up. I’ve put a lot of work into it and I’ll be happy to see the results in physical print. It was definitely the hottest shoot I’ve been apart of, capping a heat index of 100 degrees and over. I’ve learned with shoot bikes, you have to get low and by low I mean laying on the hot asphalt. I literally had to lay a towel down so I wouldn’t burn myself(which I did at the first location). Nevertheless, it was a bright day and perfect light. As always my strobes we’re working hard and getting that extra dramatic light I needed. We did shoot in front of a lot of glass windows that caused a lot of problems in post, but in the end I think I captured some of the better shots I’ve ever taken. The models we’re great for working out in that heat, I’m confident and happy with the results.