Is Summer Over? | Our Garden and the Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Micro VR

Tomatoes Large and Small

Well, one would think that as we head into September and the time for football is upon us that summer should be over. However, here in the California Bay Area, this is actually a great time of year. The days are still warm, and sometimes surprisingly even warmer than the earlier days of summer. When I was a kid, we all used to call this warm autumn weather the “Indian summer.” Supposedly, the word origins state that the American Indians were the ones to predict this kind of weather, and let the European settlers know about it and the creation of the word phrase. In any case, what I remember are days free of fog with the sun still beaming with clarity and the weather inviting us to be outside.

One of the nice things about mild weather like this is the ability to grow some of our own vegetables in some planter boxes in our yard. My wife was the one to suggest that we try to grow some for ourselves. Last year we had some great zucchini and some cooking herbs. This year, we went for some tomatoes. These were all grown from seeds. It is pretty amazing to see those little green sprouts pop out of the soil and then suddenly grow to these large plants. When we saw the small fruits popping up in the branches, we were pretty excited. We have one plant that is a yellow and red pear shape tomato plant and another red tomato plant. My wife is the grower though. She was diligent about getting outside to give those little plants water and fertlizer after she got home from work. Good job, Annie! I have to say, they all look tasty.

So, as I was outside, I thought it would be nice to capture these red and yellow orbs of tastiness with our Nikkor 105 f/2.8 Micro VR lens (it’s on the third page through the link.) I have had great luck using this lens for portraits as it is razor sharp even at its widest aperture. The VR is helpful, but the autofocus at close range can be a bit finicky as it hunts for a high contrast area. Sometimes it is best done by hand through the viewfinder. Be sure you view your image on the display though, as the depth of field is extremely shallow – especially on a full frame camera which I was using (Nikon D700.) All of these images were shot in our backyard, and on our kitchen table with a little sunlight as back-lighting. I hope you enjoy these little fruits (tomatoes are fruits you know) and enjoy the last days of true summer.

Vine Ripened Tomatoes

Some Red and Some Green