Early days

Taking photos has been part of my life since school. The first camera I used was a 5 megapixel Minolta DiMAGE F300 that came with a tiny screen and a 32 MB SD card. The image quality was worse than most cheap smartphones today. But it was enough to document where I went and what I did.

In 2006, I got my own digital camera, a Panasonic DMC-FX8, also with a whopping 5 megapixels. It was the ultimate small point and shoot camera. It travelled with me nearly everywhere. In 2013, I upgraded to a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ41 with 20x optical zoom and up to 480 mm effective focal length (full frame equivalent). I really liked to be able to get close to things, even though they were far away. But I was not completely happy with the image quality. And holding the small camera steady was proving difficult at long focal lengths.

DSLR magic

For 2016 we planned a trip to the other side of the world: New Zealand. This time I wanted to take home higher quality images. During the preparation in 2015 was the first time I wanted to go beyond point and shoot cameras. The first time I wanted to learn how to properly use a camera. So I bought my first DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera, a Nikon D3300 with the AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II kit lens. I had read, that, to learn how to photograph, you should do so in manual. So I started without any assistance and automatic features and played around with the different settings. By reading about what button does what and looking at the results of experiments I got familiar with the camera.

This investment of time and money was totally worth it. The photos from the trip were great, and I had learned a lot about photography. I also took home a new fascination with birds because of some close encounters we had with them. One of the most memorable ones was with a fantail, hovering directly in front of me and looking at me, as if trying to communicate. New Zealand is special regarding birds because there were no predatory mammals until humans brought them. As a result many birds do not have the strong instinctive fear to fly away from humans. While I also took the TZ41 as a second camera, I was wishing for a longer lens for the D3300 to better capture these (for me) exotic birds.

At home, one of the first things I did was research and then buy my first (affordable) long telephoto lens. A AF-S DX Nikkor 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR. I was into planes at the time and initially got it for plane photography, but quickly noticed that it is much more fun to photograph birds. It is like trying to catch and collect Pokémon, and just as rewarding, only that you suffer instead of the Pokémon (sunburns, mosquitoes, sore arms, wet and frozen feet). As before with the TZ41, telephotography was very fun. But it was a relatively cheap zoom, and I was not satisfied with the image quality. I had also started to study pictures of other photographers and I wanted to get even closer to the wildlife. So I went into a research frenzy to find a better lens.

More equipment, please

In mid 2017 I upgraded to the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM | C I still use to this day. It is relatively light, has good image stabilization and combined with the smaller APS-C sensors it has an effective focal length of 900 mm.

As any aspiring photographer I added more and more equipment: A flash, two tripods, gimbal mount, filters, bags, backpacks, cheap and basic studio equipment, lens cover, rain cover, camera straps, and so on. It aided me in figuring out what worked for me and what did not. I also got a few other zoom and prime lenses, and continued to experiment. By 2018 I was not happy with my D3300 anymore. The autofocus could not keep up with birds, and the shutter speed was too slow for action scenes. The next research time for a new camera began. I already had an assortment of DX (APS-C) F-mount lenses and I did not want to have to buy new lenses, so I opted for the Nikon D500. It is fast, has good autofocus and lies well in my hands. Just like the D3300 the D500 is an APS-C camera with a smaller sensor. In combination with the Sigma 150-600mm it is perfect for even the smallest songbirds.

Nowadays, if I am on a photo tour, I have both the Nikon D500 with the attached Sigma 150-600 mm and a Z50 (as a D3300 replacement) with attached Nikkor Z 17-28mm f/2.8 with me. The 150-600 mm is good for animals of all kinds, including "macro" shots of insects, and the 14-28 mm is good for landscapes. I also have a wider Tokina AT-X Pro 11-20mm f/2.8 DX I sometimes use on the D500 for landscapes and nightscapes. I will talk about my equipment in detail in another post.

Achievements

Two of my photos were selected to be displayed during the annual photography exhibition at the Museum Koening Bonn.

In 2024, three of my photos were selected as splash screens and as a background image for digiKam and showFoto 8.4.0.

Gut Licht!