I've decided to part with my Nikon D700 and some of its accessories. Since purchasing the Nikon D800 more than three years ago, the D700 has served as my back-up camera and simply isn't seeing enough use.

The camera is in perfect operating condition. It is also in excellent cosmetic condition--although does have a minor scratch on the pop up flash cover. The camera has 70,500 shutter clicks. In addition to the camera body, I'm including the following two items (which sell for nearly $400 if new):

1. MB-D10 Vertical Grip - $200 new (item shows some cosmetic wear, but works flawlessly)
2. Kirk L-Bracket - $180 new (item shows some cosmetic wear, but is solid like most Kirk products)

The camera ships in its original gold box and comes with its unused D700 strap and manuals. This is one of Nikon's legendary cameras and is super fast with included vertical grip. The last time I used the camera was on May 1st for a tennis photo shoot. Click here to view those action shots.

I'm asking $1,100 for the camera, vertical grip and L-bracket. This includes PayPal fees and shipping within the continental United States.

Please contact me at [email protected] or at 708-846-1466 (cell) with any questions.

Glenn Nagel

The "blue hour" is one of my favorite times to take photographs.

Wikipedia defines the blue hour as:

"The blue hour is the period of twilight each morning and evening when the sun is a significant distance below the horizon and the residual, indirect sunlight takes on a predominantly blue hue. This effect is caused by the relative diffusability of short blue wavelengths of light versus the longer red wavelengths. During the blue "hour" (typically the period is about 40 minutes in length), red light passes straight into space while blue light is scattered in the atmosphere and therefore reaches the earth's surface. Because of the quality of the light, this period is treasured by artists. Photographers call it sweet light."

Here's an example of how the blue hour impacts a photograph. This was my last photo shoot from my recent trip through the Capital Cities of the Southeast.

Sunset was 4:08 PM in Charleston, West Virginia. With all of the cloud cover, there wasn't much of a sunset to photograph. At 4:16 PM, the sky was still gray. I was beginning to doubt whether any colors would appear at all that night:

Downtown AtlantaDowntown Atlanta (east side) at dusk from the Jackson Street Bridge over the Freedom Parkway NE in Atlanta, Georgia on December 2, 2014. And here's another one from Charleston, South Carolina:

Ravenel BridgeSunset at the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge across the Cooper River (connecting downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant) in Charleston, South Carolina on December 7, 2014

Finally, here's a recent one from Providence, Rhode Island:

Waterplace ParkWaterplace Park, the Woonasquatucket River and downtown Providence from the Martin Luther, Jr. Bridge at Francis Street in Providence, Rhode Island on July 24, 2015.

After returning from a photography trip, I like to analyze how often I use each lens. During my last trip through the Capital Cities of the Northeast, I used wider focal lengths more often due to the high percentage of architectural subjects.

On a typical day, the following lenses were placed in my backpack: (1) Nikon 14-24; (2) Nikon 24-70; (3) Nikon 70-200 VRII; (4) Nikon 105 VR; and (5) Sigma 15mm Fisheye. The first three lenses are often referred to as the "Holy Trinity". That trio of lenses covers the focal lengths from wide to narrow (14mm through 200mm). All three lenses are fast (f/2.8) and sharp.

During the road trip, I considered 492 images to be keepers. Those are the images that I processed. Of the 492 pictures, all but 25 were captured with one of the Holy Trinity lenses. The Holy Trinity of lenses accounted for 96% of all of my photographs!

Of course this distribution will change dramatically if I schedule a photography trip with an emphasis on wildlife. Then, the distribution would skew heavily in favor of the telephoto lenses--and I would also bring my 500 VR into the equation.

During my recent road trip through the Capital Cities of the Northeast, I stopped in Boston for a few days. While in Boston, I rode the "T" subway to Cambridge to see a couple of college campuses: Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A friend of mine graduated from Harvard and provided me with several recommendations of things to photograph on the campus.

But taking pictures on the Harvard campus was not an easy task. For one thing, I've never experienced such severe access restrictions before. Months before my campus visit, I requested permission to take pictures inside the Widener Library. The response was that photography is not permitted inside the library--even without a tripod. Furthermore, photography of any kind is prohibited in any building on the Harvard campus. I was also told that tripods are not permitted anywhere on the campus--not even outside while shooting the exterior of buildings.

When I arrived on campus, I found the restrictions to be even more severe than that. As I approached the security screening station inside the Widener Library, I was told that not only couldn't I take pictures inside the building, but that I wasn't allowed to enter the building even without a camera. This held true for all of the buildings that I approached--including Memorial Church and Sever Hall. Even as part of one of the guided tours, we were not permitted to enter any of the buildings--which greatly diminished the tour experience.

That being said (or written), I could easily understand why Harvard University needs to put these restrictions in place. Before long, the University won't allow visitors to step foot on campus. Part of the reason is that the campus was just packed with tourists. It was so crowded that it literally reminded me of how the crowds were the last time I visited Disneyland. One of the pictures I attempted to capture was an image of the statue of John Harvard in the Harvard Yard. This was a frustrating experience as there was a very large crowd waiting to take pictures of the statue. The approach I took to get one quick picture was to have my brother stand next to the statue for a second to clear the crowd--then he backed away for the scene to clear.

If crowds were permitted to view the interior of the Widener Library or the Memorial Church, the buildings would be swarming with people. It would also require constant maintenance as the carpeting would get beat down in a very short period of time.

I thought that maybe I just happened to visit on an unusually crowded July day, so I returned the next day. It was just as crowded during my second try.

MIT, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as crowded. And, all of the buildings were open and accessible for photography. To view my images from these campuses, please CLICK HERE.

When photographing the State Capitols, I always try to capture images of the House of Representatives and Senate chambers. While in the chambers, I usually take the conventional symmetrical shot of the room from the center aisle.

During my visit to the Massachusetts State House, I was pleased to see that the chambers were open and lit. It's more difficult to capture those images when the chambers are locked and accessible only through the guided tour. Better yet, I was the only one in the chamber. In fact, I was probably the only visitor in the entire building at that time.

So, I set my tripod up and took the following image for starters:

Senate chamberSenate chamber in the Massachusetts State House at 24 Beacon Street in Boston, Massachusetts on July 27, 2015 I like the image, but it's taken from the side as you can see by the position of the podium on the right side of the frame. In most of the capitols, I end up temporarily moving certain obstacles such as ropes, stands and signs from the scene. I always put them back in place after the picture is taken.

In this Senate chamber, there was a security guard standing to my right. At first, he warned me about the tripod. He pointed out that someone might trip over one of the tripod legs. I replied that I shoot with a tripod all the time and that I would immediately move the tripod if anyone entered the chamber.

After I captured a few images from the side, I tried moving to the back center of the room to get the more conventional perspective. The problem was that I couldn't quite get positioned there. There was a rope hanging between two temporary stands about three feet from where I needed to be.

In nearly every capitol that I visit, I simply unhook the rope, move into position to get the shot, and then hook the rope back into position. Since the security guard was in the room with me, I thought it would be good to ask. So, I asked him if it would be possible for me to move over three feet for a few seconds to grab that one picture. He said that messing with the rope would not be possible. And that was the end of the story! It's always a little frustrating when things like this happen after driving 1,100 miles to get to a site.

One of my recent State Capitol photographs would benefit from having more Republicans in office. And, this has nothing to do with politics!

While visiting the Delaware State Capitol, or Legislative Hall in Dover, it was nearly impossible to achieve symmetry while creating the chamber shots. Take a look at how off balance the House of Representatives chamber looks from the center aisle:

House chamberHouse of Representatives chamber in Legislative Hall in Dover, Delware on July 20, 2015 The center aisle is shifted far to the right within the frame. The reason for this is that of the 41 representatives, 25 are Democrats and just 16 are Republicans. Since there isn't much additional space within the room, the large percentage of Democrats causes the center aisle to shift to the right of the frame. If there had been 4 or 5 more Republicans, I could have achieved symmetry within my photograph.

I experience a similar issue in the Senate chamber. 12 of Delaware's 21 state Senators are Democrats. So, my picture of the Senate chamber also lacks symmetry:

Senate chamberSenate chamber in Legislative Hall in Dover, Delware on July 20, 2015 One way around the symmetry challenge is to ignore it and shoot from a different perspective:

House chamberHouse of Representatives chamber in Legislative Hall in Dover, Delware on July 20, 2015 From this perspective, it's more difficult to determine how many Democrat and Republican representatives there are in Delaware. And, it can make for a more interesting picture as well.

Yesterday, I posted a blog entry about the problems I was having with an unresponsive vertical battery grip (the Nikon MB-D12). It was clear that the grip was properly connected because the camera indicated that full power was coming from the grip. Yet, the rest of the controls (i.e., shutter button, auto-focus button and switch) weren't working.

So, I drove to APS (Authorized Photo Service) in Morton Grove, Illinois. After explaining the issue, the first APS employee I met said that I would need to leave both the camera (Nikon D800) and the grip so that a technician could determine which item was causing the problem. I suggested that we take the grip and attach it to a working D800 to help isolate whether the problem related to the grip. I didn't like the idea of leaving my camera again after just getting it back from Nikon's service center in Melville a couple of days ago.

Next, a technician was called to the counter so that I could explain the problem to a more experienced person. I handed the camera with grip to the technician. He briefly touched the grip, handed the camera back to me and said that the problem was fixed!

Sensing my confusion, he told me that there is a small lock switch right next to the shutter button on the grip. He simply moved it out of the locked position. Apparently, when it's locked the shutter and other controls cannot be activated. My Google searches relating to how to fix a grip that isn't responding didn't yield such a solution.

I've been using the grip for more than three years and never knew that the grip had a lock switch! I must have accidentally knocked it into the locked position at some point during my last day of shooting on my road trip through the Capital Cities of the Northeast. I doubt that this lock feature is something that I'll ever willingly use.

My camera and grip are now working perfectly. Learning that the solution was so simple was somewhat embarrassing. On the other hand, the good news is that the grip didn't require a repair!

In a recent blog entry, I wrote about some issues with my gear. Yesterday, I received my Nikon D800 back from Nikon's service center in Melville. True to its word, Nikon provided free maintenance (and shipping back and forth) for my D800 despite the fact that my camera is more than three years old now. The invoice (with a total cost of zero) indicated that Nikon checked the auto-focus operation, checked exposure accuracy, updated firmware, cleaned the sensor, and performed a general check and cleaning.

In addition to my camera, I experienced issues with three other pieces of gear during my recent road trip through the Capital Cities of the Northeast! Another component that caused some problems was my Really Right Stuff (RRS) BH-55 ballhead. More specifically, the quick release clamp was sticking. At first, it was rather alarming. I was taking pictures of the Van Wickle gates at Brown University when I decided to flip my camera into the vertical position for a few more shots. The camera would not release from the clamp--so it was stuck to the tripod! Although I could flip the lever open easily enough, the clamp itself was not responding. Fortunately, RRS has excellent customer service. I called RRS right then. The representative explained that I should shift the camera back and forth with some force to pry it loose from the clamp. I was able to eventually remove the camera from the tripod. The representative also referenced this helpful video from the RRS website regarding this issue. After I returned home, I followed the video's instructions and the ballhead seems to be working properly now.

So, two down...two to go. The next issue I had was with my camera's MB-D12 vertical battery grip. I find the vertical grip to be an important tool for my photography. It looks like this:

By attaching this grip to the bottom of the camera, a second shutter button and autofocus controls are located in an easily accessible position when shooting vertically. Other benefits to the grip include more battery power, a faster frame rates, and more balance when shooting with heavier lenses. On the last day of my trip, the grip still provided power to the camera--so I know it was properly connected. But, none of the other controls respond at all. So, it's off to Authorized Photo Service (APS) in Morton Grove tomorrow morning. I'm hoping that the problem will be resolved by cleaning the contacts...but I haven't had any luck getting the grip to work by cleaning it.

As a side note, the vertical grip works great with a L-bracket. The L-bracket looks like this:

With an L-bracket attached to the vertical grip (and the camera), you can easily attach the camera to a tripod in either a horizontal or vertical position, and the lens will maintain the same relative position.

The fourth item which caused issues for me during the trip is my Gitzo tripod. The legs now require more force to tighten. If I don't take extra care to tighten the legs enough, the legs slowly slip down while I'm shooting. I called Gitzo and was told that this issue is common after a tripod has been used extensively for years. The bearings begin to wear down. The more surprising thing is that the estimate for this maintenance is about $350. So, I'm just taking more care during tightening at this point. But, before long I'll need to deal with the issue.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the zipper on my Think Tank Airport Acceleration v2 backpack also failed recently! Think Tank told me that the zipper tends to fail after five years or so when used extensively. Fortunately, a local shoe repair store repaired the zipper for a relatively low cost.