Arggh!

Patience?  Sorry, don't have a lot of that:-(  Seriously fed up of feeling ill and the pharmaceuticals recommended by the doctor don't seem to be helping much at all.  Started using the citrus fruits from the garden, honey and alcohol.  I had intended going downtown to the Tupa-Waka, but sadly this hasn't happened due to being ill.  Whirimako Black and the Pacific Curls were playing this weekend and I'd really fancied going to take some shots.  Arggh!

Liquid Amber.  New spring leaves lit by setting sun.

Sitting in the living room, feeling sorry for myself, I noticed these rather pretty new liquid amber leaves lit by the setting sun with the trunk of the tree providing a pleasing background.  Nikkor 85mm f1.4G with aperture set to f3.5 and manual focus.  I wanted as shallow a depth of field as possible to get that lovely blur this lens provides, but needed enough depth of field to ensure all the leaves were in focus.  Manual focus let me juggle with the DoF preview and focus ring to get just the leaves sharp.  Well, that was the idea anyway.  As you know, I've been feeling rough, so things may not have worked as well as I'd hoped, but you get the idea of what I was trying to achieve.

Quite sharp the 85mm lens.  You may even be able to pick out a spider's thread?  Good news is that the price for this lens has been dramatically reduced here in NZ.

Callistemon "Little John"

Second Shot in this post is a pretty heavy crop of a Callistemon in my front yard.  Nice and sharp ... great detail from this which I suppose is traditionally thought of as a portrait lens.  Anyway, as you already know, my plans for using the lens for more portrait type shots down at the waterfront have been dashed with this chest infection.

I love this lens.  I have a 50mm lens, but this 85mm is really sweet and I prefer that little extra reach.

Perhaps let me know what you think of the shots?