In the photo above, non-photographers will see a slightly soft picture of a little boy holding a stuffed Curious George, having something shown to him by his grandma.
Photographers will see the metadata under it and say “Holy Freakin' Cow ! 200mm handheld at 1/13 sec !” At least, that's what I thought. That was the first picture I took when I saw them coloring drawings of birds together (at the time, my mom was explaining something about woodpeckers), and after hearing the agonizingly slow slap of the shutter, I pushed the ISO from 500 to 1250. I never would have imagined that first shot would have come out as nicely as it did.
VR is just amazing.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, cropped — handheld, 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 — map & image data
Fun with Grandma
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/45 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Attention to Detail
Not thinking I was going to get anything good with the slow shutter speeds, I grabbed my SB-800 speedlight and set it near Anthony, aiming straight up to the ceiling. I controlled it from my D200 via Nikon's i-TTL, and also added the on-camera flash for fill....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 116 mm — 1/60 sec, f/5, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Woodpecker's Nape
I spent all of 20 seconds thinking about (and setting up) the flash, and the results reflect that. They light has a harsh, flat feeling, and the images just don't have the depth as the slightly-soft ambient light shots shown above.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/60 sec, f/5, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Suboptimal lighting aside, the pictures do capture a sweet moment in a young boy's life.