I’ll Be “Watch”ing You

I thought I was making a funny – a reference to The Police tune “Every Breath You Take” where Sting says “I’ll be watching you…” and it’s a picture of a watch that we have here.

Actually, I am stretching photography muscles trying to see what “full-frame” digital cameras can really do. On top of that, I am really trying to see what a full-on macro lens, in this case the “Micro Nikkor 105mm” lens can do.

For those interested, we are looking at a Hamilton 974 pocket watch, circa 1915. It still runs and works just fine. At the time I took this picture it was running. The blur of the balance spring just sets this off.

Amazingly, it was shot in a relatively dark room and at a shutter speed of only 1/13 of a second. Even though the lens and body weigh about 2 pounds each (lens 1.7 pounds, body 1.8). Holding a 4-pound camera could not yield a picture like this without Nikon’s Vibration Reduction feature built in to their lenses.

I chose to manually focus this. On macro photography I have learned that auto focus pretty much goes all over the place.

I have large telescopic lens I have named “Thor.” Perhaps I should name this lens “Loki?”

Shoot photos, not each other!