Use both lenses and take many pics with each. Be sure to use both wide open, as well as with stopped down shots. Once you have enough experience with them, you will not need to ask anyone for their opinion. Personally I have great memories of my Nikon FTn with a 50/1.4 lens roaming the streets shooting a myriad of subjects.
I think what the original poster, gmb3 is a victim of: the general breakdown in society we are experiencing on our planet. We are seeing a cementing of: a me first society, in which anything is alright to say or do as long as it benefits the person doing it, and if it denigrates those we do not agree with, that becomes a bonus! The truth need not apply. No need to even look at the political arena. Just read the threads here on the hog, see the negative remarks posted on so many subjects. Thoughtful, constructive comments would be so much more fruitful.
Sad how people take pot shots from the relative obscurity of the internet. Or pick at some faux pas that is a hot ticket for more trash talk.
A lot of wedding photographers burn out on the job. I enjoyed the work for over 30 years. Often used assistants, up to two at a time, to keep the group shots moving, and amateur photographers in line. We always allowed amateur photographers their turn, if they were aggressive we would let them shoot before me, hey,why stress? Sometimes even took their camera and shot the picture for them so they could be in the picture! A few crazy incidents happened that made me decide that I no longer needed to shoot weddings for a living. I think the final one was when a couple changed the church to another location and never thought to make sure I knew about it. Talk about raising a sweat! But it is fun shooting weddings when you feel your creativity flowing: imagine getting paid to enjoy a lifelong hobby!
Nice details. along with soft pastels. I am sure you will enjoy the technique with great results. Keep on macro shooting, nice subject, loaded with nuances.
My first good camera was a Miranda Automex II, then eventually I bought my favorite: A Miranda G purchased new. From there I added the "T" prism head to get through the lens metering and several specialized viewing screens for personal projects. What a great system camera! Nice to see a fellow Miranda shooter from the old days. And yes hand held spot meters draw many a careful stare as they look so much like a weird firearm.
Never, ever look directly at the sun with unfiltered eye, telescope, or camera. A couple simple devices I have used when viewing the sun with my solar telescope can be made by anyone having basic tools.
DIY tool #1 You need a scrap of flat wood larger than the face of the lens and any hood that you may be using the day of solar viewing. Pound a nail into the wood squarly from one side near the center of the wood piece. The nail should protrude maybe and inch or two from the wood while flush on the side you pounded it in from. Check to make sure the nail shaft is square to the wood piece with a square. Bend it a little if need be to get it square. Now take this finder you just made and use it to check if your scope/ camera rig is pointed at the sun. Lay the flat side onto the protected front of the rig you are using. Tweak the tripod head until you no longer see a shadow from the nail. You are now pointed directly at the sun, and you adjusted it while your back is to the sun so your eyes are safe! Of course the final step is to make sure all is ready by looking at the viewing screen at the sun-filtered image. But my pointer is a safe easy step one that keeps me from ever getting zapped by those hot rays. The next step is the way more important:
Tool #2 Make a solar shield with a piece of black cardboard say nominally 12 inches square? Cut a hole in the center for your telephoto lens to just pass through the cardboard and use some removable tape to hold this cardboard "solar block" in place on your camera rig. Even with a properly solar filtered lens filter on your camera, you will have way less eye fatigue if stray solar light never reaches your eyes while looking through the finder, or at the view screen! A finder screen will be way easier to see with this solar block in place! I cannot stress how much this will make a few hours of solar viewing way more fun!!! Your eyes will say "thank you" afterwards. Be safe always!
And yes there are endless tweaks and variations of this plan. Make whatever works for you, and clear skies on the eclipse day!
You can make your own filters with the filter material sold by Baader. They sell a safe mounted viewing filter, as well as the raw sheet material to mount yourself, pretty easy to do! I have direct experience with their products and have relied on them for many years. Many USA astronomical and camera Dealers carry Baader products. And yes an astro telescope will do a far better job of imaging the event. You do not need a large size scope. Anything over 2 inch should do a good job, and anything over a 4 inch scope will most likely use a smaller diameter filter with most of the objective blocked off. There is too much heat energy otherwise with big apertures. A telephoto lens in the range of 1000mm and longer will do a nice job. Maybe a good time to dust off the 2X converter? And make sure to use the sun filter before and after totality. Blindness can result in a split second! Most decent quality small telescopes include a machined adapter to screw on an appropriate T-adapter for your camera. And no matter what always be safe when viewing the sun. By the way it is of no consequence if the mylar plastic filter material is not perfectly flat. It will still work fine if crumpled a little, just no holes allowed!! I will start a new thread of how to make a very simple solar finder for any lens/camera. Really easy and safe!
Just a quick question: If you own a D750, a significant investment, why would you not purchase the appropriate SB-600, 700, 800, 900, or 910 flash unit? Why use an outdated, and very limited feature flash like the 283's and the family of flashes around that era? The trigger voltage is only one shortcoming, the control of light output was iffy at times with film and digital is much less forgiving of exposure errors than color negative film! The Nikon flash system and their abilities is one of Nikon brand's best features. The control using one to several flashes seamlessly is a major plus.
Using a 283 on a D750 is kind of like putting old bias ply tires on a new Corvette, just because you have the old tires lying around, very shaky logic perhaps? Now using the 283 as fill flash with a remote trigger can have value, but you still need the optional manual flash control plug if I recall correctly. Someone can help me out there: were they called the Varistor? I used to use the 283/285's in the 70's for weddings with high power battery packs to give them some giddy-yup. Then I went to the Nikon dedicated flash units and never looked back.
You should not risk using old technology flash units directly on digital cameras. Not worth the risk. Some trigger voltages are very brief and you would need a lab oscilloscope to even accurately record the peak voltage. An analog meter, or even simple digital meters cannot record momentary spikes accurately. Either get a safe sync that Wein sells, or something comparable. Or use radio/infrared slave and controllers. Remember any damage done to your dig camera is not covered under warranty if you cause it with old flash technology! The easiest solution is to just purchase the proper compatible flash unit for your camera.They are not all than expensive, and are available used for half of new prices if you shop around.
There is no lens that is "best" for every genre and your photographic vision. If you want a one lens that tries to fit all, then the 28-300 is a good one. Personally I do not have that lens. I prefer a blend of several zooms and some primes , I pick the lens that best fits my subject and how I want to show it. For example: there are great portraits to be had with a very fast prime lens. Yeah you can shoot the same shot with your fits-all lens, but how much will the background clutter up the image you want to show? The image is no longer a portrait, but becomes just a record of what is in front of your camera. If I had to pick a zoom lens to start with I might choose the 24-120 F4 nikkor. A little wider, with a fixed aperture that is not terribly slow. And if you need longer, then either crop, or use evolution's zoom, and walk into the scene? Also three prime lenses in that same range can do wonders for you. All can be fast, and when you use a fixed focal length lens for a day you teach yourself so much about what the lens can do, and what your vision can evolve into with some careful planning before snapping away. Just some thoughts.
When I shot weddings I carried around a folding reflector that had white, grey, and black panels on one side, like three stripes, each about one foot wide. And with a handy silvered reflector on the other side. It was great to get the range of tones spot on in a histogram. And the three shade panel shot to fill the frame of the camera was great to calibrate custom white balance in a dslr. The reflector folded to a 12 inch circle and fit into a nice cloth zippered bag. Photovisionvideo sold them and I bought mine at a wedding class taught through the PPofA. When expanded to use it: formed a 36 inch square with the corners rounded off to almost a circle. A really practical tool. I also had a small version of it maybe 9 inches in size that I took everywhere in my camera bag when shooting pics for fun.
In the film days, when we wanted to get near perfect color we sometimes used full sized MacBeth color charts and automated film processing, enlargers, and paper processing that one could program and calibrate to a fine degree. Had to purchase film and paper in very large quantity in order to not have batch to batch variance. So much easier and far cheaper now in the digital age, I do not miss the good old days!
I went from the D7000 to the D750. The purchase of Fx lenses was not a big deal for me as 2/3 of my lens collection was already Fx. I just needed a wide zoom and found a 16-35 Nikkor here on FM. I will not sell my D7000, except maybe to upgrade it some day. The crop is nice when shooting very long telephoto and wanting to reach further! One gets more pixels in the Dx camera than using the crop feature in the D750. I love the speed and decisiveness of the D750 focus mechanism. It is several wow levels better than the D7000 in low light. And the added Fx size does not bother me as the D750 fits my hand better than the smaller D7000. If you can afford it spring for the D750, go for it! The D750 might be the last digital camera I ever need to buy! I am happy with it.
I always was frustrated by cameras that could not focus well in low light. As a retired wedding photographer it was my pet peeve. Lost too many shots due to focus that hunted in dim light. And zone focusing was not always a good idea in candid situations. I bought a D750 for that reason as well as the Fx format, and it just fit my hand well. I wish I had this camera back when I shot weddings, it focuses so smooth! A buddy of mine who is still an active wedding pro shoots a couple D610's, and is looking to get at least one D750 to replace one after he tried my D750. If low light is something you enjoy shooting in, and you can afford it, then go for it. Yeah something new will always be around the corner, but the old trade continues to lose value too? Best wishes!
Image number 4 is amazing, a feast for the eyes and mind!