Devauld.ca

With a wedding in Osoyoos this past weekend, and nothing worthy of professional fast telephoto status in my position, I was a little under the gun getting my hands on something. There is rental, of course; which is costly. Compounded when you are going to pick up one of these great beasts anyway. Inventory around North America is tight for all the new Nikon gear, and I've been on a waiting list for a AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR for some time.

Having roots that involve a breeding program allow me to immediately pick out the pedigree from the name. The best in automatic focus with override, low dispersion glass and Nikon's new fancy vibration reduction system all play in making an amazing telephoto zoom. The difficulty, was getting a specimen.

After many frantic phone calls and instant messages, Mika came to my rescue. The only thing bigger than Mika's heart is his percentage in getting hurt at our photographic excursions. Always a man for barter, we struck a deal, and soon enough I held what I'd only read about.

I transported the lens to Osoyoos, where I put it to work producing what, in my opinion, are some fantastic portraits. Handheld, outdoors while it's overcast at I was able to have control over aperture like I've never experienced before. I couldn't help but smile when out on the golf course, packing about my gear and frantically trying to organize a wedding party, Saneal Camera called and told me my wait was over, and that my lens was in store.

Upon returning to Calgary, I went down and picked up a teleconverter and the largest addition to my lens arsenal. As soon as it was out of the box, I immediately started working on reducing the shortage and started a lens breeding program. The pedigree for these fine specimens is too close for comfort, and I may be tying up bloodlines by breeding siblings or some close relatives. You can get away with it for a bit with rabbits, I hope it's the same for NIKKORs. Either way I had to try, so I left them alone with various fruit and liquors for the evening. I don't really know how to sex the lens, or if they are asexual, but if lady luck looks my way, hopefully one them will have a litter in the near future. With my luck, Mika's got the girl.