For over twenty five years, I have been a pro photographer, and for half of that time I was one of a dozen chief editors, photo editors and division managers in charge of photographers and other, at one of Japan's largest photography firms. My main job was to get images to print and to our clients, and test gear for various camera makers, and write and check reviews, and for all those years I used a pseudonym. One of my favorite jobs was being in the field testing gear, and getting the shots my staff photographers could not, and being the boss, I got to be in the field a lot. Back then, I worked a 70 hour plus week, and I loved it, but then I had a terrible accident, and the doctors thought I would never walk without support or be in a wheelchair. Well, the doctors were wrong, and after a few years of rehabilitation, I could walk. To be honest I still feel pain from time to time, but I push through it, and sometimes I use hiking poles when in the field. After a few years of rehabilitation, it was time to go back to work, and I had a meeting with our CEO, a personal friend, who was happy I was returning, but I said, “Sorry, I am going to open my own photography workshops company,” and I did! Today I am best know for my Hokkaido photo tour, my cross country cherry blossom photo tour, and my annual autumn leaves photo tour, and in the last two years and ten months, I have done commercial work for my old agency among others, but, mainly I have been doing a good amount of camping with my family, medium enduro motocross riding, swimming in the Sea of Japan, and scouting locations for future Japan photography workshop tours. I almost felt as if I had retired, but I’m far too young for that. I’ll think about it after 10-15 more years. Japan has finally opened its international borders, and after a long hiatus, I can welcome international photographers once again and travel abroad.
For years, I have always recommended medium telephoto lenses such as the 100-400mm f4.4-5.6 or f5-6.3. And anyone who is an experienced or pro wildlife photographer will tell you, the sweet spot for photographing small birds is f8, and larger wildlife is f11. For years, I have been a snob and used only the top end gear, such as 300mm f2.8, 400mm f2.8, 500mm f4, 600mm f4, 800mm f5.6, 180-400mm f4, 120-300 f2.8, and these lenses are made by all the top makers and cost thousands of dollars, but I get pro prices.
Due to COVID 19, I have not led an international group photography workshop for 2 years 10 months, but next month, I will be leading my annual Autumn leaves Japan photo tour. And a couple of weeks ago, I recommended to a client to purchase the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM, for Nikon. And anyone who knows me knows my personal choice of camera for field work is Nikon, and FujiFilm for medium format. But I will use any camera maker as they are all very similar. I like Nikon because of the twin command dials. But truth be told, I am not happy with the direction Nikon has been going the past few years. In short, my D850, Z7ll and my Z9 are all made in Thailand, “WoW!” But Sigma on the other hand is all made in Japan “WoW!” And I have been mostly purchasing Sigma lenses for the past 8 years, except for a couple of Nikon lenses. Sigma lenses are superior in many ways, firstly they are manufactured locally and the quality is outstanding, and their customer support is splendid. In Japan they even have English speaking customer support, hats off to Sigma. And their turnaround time to repair equipment is about one week, during holiday season, it's about two weeks. This I can live with.
But sadly Sigma has not made any serious effort to make a camera that I could use for wildlife photography, but one day they will. Also, Sigma makes some of the world’s best pro cinema lenses on the market today.
Last week I was humming and hawing, why would I recommend the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM and not have one myself? And I thought why should I continue to lug a 10lbs lens plus equipment up to photograph the snow monkeys about a dozen times a year? Especially, when the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM is the perfect lens for snow monkeys in action and portraits of them at the hot springs where I lead snow monkey photo tours at the Nagano Jigokudani Snow Monkey park. So, instead of going to my regular shop for a discount, I simply ordered the Sigma lens online; it’s not an expensive lens. I paid around ¥70,000 plus ¥6,000 for a tripod collar, and I already have the Sigma 1.4x and the 2x teleconverters. All images on this newsletter I shot today with the Nikon Z7ll and the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM. They are the perfect match, and I did not use a tripod; I handheld or used my hiking poles for support. I am now humming and hawing. Why did it take me so long to buy a lens that came out in 2017? In closing, I will not be buying any Nikon Z lenses for a few years as I still have a brand new D850 in box, and one in my bag, along with the Z7ll and Z9.