Tuesday 8 April 2008

Flowers in the back yard

OK, as I have been reminded it’s been a while since I last updated... no good excuses really (unless slipping down stairs and almost breaking a toe and a metatarsal bone counts?)

Good news - I have a new toy! After much persuasion ("why don't you...OK!" - time elapsed = 0.2 seconds), I've lashed out and upgraded the old faithful 300D to a shiny new 40D. So far, all I can say is wow! I can see we'll have a lot of fun together.

Thankfully the 300D isn't hitting the scrap heap just yet - Michelle has decided to give photography a try to, so it has gone to a good home. I'm really glad, because as much as everyone with new shiny dSLRs looks down on it, it really was a groundbreaking camera. 4 good years service :)

Anyway, because of the above mentioned incident involving stairs and sensitive and fragile bones in my foot I haven't ventured too far with the camera recently - hence these shots are of flowers in the back yard.

This first one I took this shot during a light rain shower. The light was pretty poor, but I wanted to get the shot while the water was still on the buds. I was at full zoom, and bumped up the ISO to 800 to get enough light - possibly too much looking at it on screen, but print size it looks ok. This shot is cropped - an uneven colour in the background of the shot was distracting, so given my limited photoshop skills I decided to crop... one day I'll get around to learning how to photoshop properly!



The next few are nothing technical, nothing special, just a few shots of the Cammelia in my yard - a good reminder of the beauty of Spring.






6 comments:

Simon Bills said...

Time for you to get some fast glass now Mr Nash, palm that 17-85 off to the wife and step up the the 17-55 f/2.8 IS, I guarantee you won't regret it, sharpness and image quality will more than make up for the loss of zoom range.

Sam said...

congrats on the new toy, I'm sure I'll get mine before our holiday

I've been really happy with the Tamron 17-50 f2.8, can't see the point in IS at that range. And of course get a nifty fifty.

Unknown said...

mmm sweet 40D goodness.

Can't wait till I get a real job and start throwing some serious money at my camera gear. Backwise, I've just got a Kata R103- camera back back, which is really more for camera gear, but they also sell some "day pack" back packs. Unfortunately coz water and camera gear don't mix too well I think only lowepro have a backpack that will take a bladder. I think it's called a vertex or something.

Chris said...

hmmm... nice to know this ges read!
No chance of me changing lenses at the moment - I've just blown my cash on the 40D ugrade. I don't think I could give up the versatility of the 17-85mm anyway - when I moved to the 17-85 it changed the way I used the camera - no more changing to the 70-300mm all the time. Simon, I think we're going to have to sort out a time to head out together - I want to check out yout lenses!
I agree Sam, no need to get IS on your lens - f2.8 is pretty fast as it is.
Simon, what bag are you using? I'm seriously stuck on what to go for - I've used a half and half before, witht he camera etc in the padded base but I found I was missing shots because itwas too hard to get to the camera quickly... I have a feeling I'll end up with a hiking day pack + my existing shoulder bag for the camera with lens attached. Not a good option for hiking, and I'm sure it will give me grief on the way up the Mt, but I don't know what else to go for. What are you thinking about Sam?

Sam said...

I don't think quick access to a camera is important for Mt K. The mountain does not move.


Depending on the abundance of wildlife I might keep the camera somewhere more accessible but my guess is it will probably be inside the top of my pack, with the rest of the gear buried a little deeper.

If we walk around a bend and into a pride of lions, I might have my compact camera in my pocket so I can document our demise.

Simon Bills said...

I got my backpack when I was in the states, this is what I went for http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/441427-REG/Tenba_632312_Shootout_Backpack_Medium_Silver_Black_.html

It's a bloody good bag, really comfortable and durable and water sealed zips and what not, there's not a lot of room for anything other than camera gear which is a downside, although you can fit a small amount in the outside pocket. The upside is I can fit my body, 70-200 2.8IS (big lens), 24-70 f/2.8 (another solid lens), 18-200, flash, and 10-20 plus cleaning gear/filters and other misc gear, plus a laptop. It weighs about 12-13kg fully loaded so you don't really want to go out with all that on your back but it was certainly handy to get all my gear to and from Australia when I went back.

Couple things you want to consider before deciding is whether you want it to also house a laptop and also whether you want it to carry a tripod. The tripod holder on mine is outstanding, far better than the one I had an my Lowe Pro that got nicked.

Buying bags is a nightmare though, when I got mine I spent way more time deciding on a $200 backpack than I did deciding on thousands of dollars of lenses!!