Call me a curmudgeon but I view my lenses like I view my shoes (boots); once I find a comfy pair I stay in them for years.  One of my absolute favorite lens’s is an old Nikkor 135mm 1.8, it’s a manual from the early 1960′s but its sharp as a knife so I see no reason to get rid of it just yet.

Today I tried on a new pair of shoes and I like ‘em. My new Nikkor 50mm F/1.4 D AF arrived.  Let me tell you that this fast fixed standard is worth every penny.  Unless I am in the studio you will usually find some sort of telephoto lens on my camera as I hate being locked into one focal length. However with a kid on the move and many of my subjects in dimly lit locations, this 1.4 is killer for capturing properly exposed images low light situations. I was also impressed with how fast this lens finds its focus.   With a minimum focus distance of  16″ you wont get any macro action with this but thats not what its all about.

Nikkor 50mm F/1.4 D AF Test Shot

Unfortunately I don’t have scads of time tonight to do test shoots with this baby.  So I took a few pics around the house.  This one really shows off what you can do in a low light hand held situation.  It was shot at ISO 400 f/1.4 at 1/25 sec.  The sharpness of this lens and the minimal depth of field is exploited in this shot.

Pabst Blue Ribbon

It’s been some time since this website has had a face lift,  I’m actually embarrassed to tell you how many years the old design was up for.  That’s the way it goes though.  I get so busy wrapped up in life and work that some things get shuffled around.

What’s new on FFphoto.com?

Obviously the design has changed drastically but the content has also been revamped and you will find some new bells and whistles.  Currently only one portfolio of my work is live, the Bike Builder / Celebs page.  My studio assistant is working on updating 4 more portfolios which will contain some great motorcycle photography, biker lifestyle images and a slight diversion on the biker theme; tattoo photography.  If you are a fan of my fetish photography don’t worry, updates are scheduled for fetish.ffphoto.com shortly.

In addition to the portfolio content I now have a blog.  The main reason for this blog is to share with you updates from the road and photographs as I take them.  I’ll also share some pro-tips on photographing motorcycles, people and shooting on the road. Look for new pictures, photo shoot outtakes and gallery / show announcements.

Another fun feature of the new site it the inclusion of some social networking features I use.  You can now connect with me  on myspace, facebook and my personal favorite twitter.

What’s next for FFphoto.com?

First in the long list of things to come is getting the remainder of my portfolios online.  They will be up this month.

Many of you know I’m somewhat of a technophile and web nerd so it should come as no surprise that I’ve rigged up some fun toys to track my travels in real time from this website and geo tag photos as I take them.  I tested this out in the fall and over the winter I customized my HD Road King to accept this feature, more on that at a later time.

Other features will roll out over time and I’m happy to take suggestions and requests.

Thanks for checking out FFphoto.com and let me know what you think of the new look.