“We’ve gone global” was the txt message I received as I arrived home on Wednesday 6 April. Sent by Edin from her research camp on the Poor Knights it signalled what we had been expecting for a couple of days with the rumour mills in full motion over the imminent announcement. It was the culmination of a project that had begun in December when we had been contracted to do some work under an NDA so were unable to share anything about. At that stage the lens had not yet been announced as being under development so it was exciting to work with it but anxiety provoking to have to conceal all evidence of it while out working in public. This was especially the case at Muriwai which is a magnet for informed bird photographers equipped with long lenses.
I will write a bit more about our adventure in doing this work but this post is an unashamed skite to share what we had to keep quiet about. To see our images used in the global launch of an exciting piece of equipment at the cutting edge of our favoured genre of photography is a privilege and one of Tony and Edin’s most excellent adventures together, despite the hard work and lack of sleep involved.
My role in the project was to capture images of Edin using the lens while making both of them look as good as possible! 2 great models made this easy once we had found a location with light and background. More outside my comfort zone was capturing video of the locations and models in action. The Nikon USA site includes some of this video from Muriwai.
It didn’t take long for DPReview to report the announcement. Silly but again exciting to see the hero image shot just up the road from home at Lake Okareka, a favourite location for both of us.
Shortly thereafter my news feed on Flipboard was populated by links amongst other, less pleasant news items which will forever anchor it in time.
By Friday it was being used in local camera store adverts for presales. The Photo Warehouse preorder link also includes the video from Muriwai.
This typical Fro Knows Photo video covers the lens announcement along with an image at Muriwai from 04:33
Still photos with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 100-400mm f4.5-5.6. Video shot with Nikon Z7 and Nikkor 24-200mm f4-6.3, Manfrotto fluid head on a Manfrotto 055MF3 carbon fibre tripod.
