Photography

Lately I've been buying primes, nifty fifty and my new favorite walkaround the 35mm F2 which is a much less awkward length on a crop and the build quality is a lot better than the 50 (realish focus ring and metal mount, and doesn't feel like it's ripping itself apart when you autofocus). Also got a battery grip which is utterly useless and makes my camera heavy but it is so much more comfy for vertical pics and right now I'm thinking about a 430EX II.


Haven't been on the computer much lately, working a ton and shooting when I'm not; here's some recent stuff:

_MG_0062 by Boulderdashcci, on Flickr


_MG_0019 by Boulderdashcci, on Flickr


_MG_0018 by Boulderdashcci, on Flickr


_MG_0172 by Boulderdashcci, on Flickr

Congrats on the 100-400, thats a hell of a lens from what I've seen. 5.6 at 400mm will have ridiculous isolation. Kinda looks funny mounted to that Rebel, though, lol.

Very nice, I like the last one. Good bokah in the background.

Ill start on primes after this. Maybe just a few, mostly portrait or a short zoom, like between 30-70. Ill prolly stick with an L Im sure after I see the quality from this lens. But hey, I plan on having it for as many years as I can. See myself as a Canon lifer as well.

Oh and my 40D wont look nearly as wonky as that Rebel does

Im investing in a tripod and ball head first. Then battery grip. But for now, looking into these aftermarket carbon fiber tripods. Can they really be that bad? I mean, its carbon fiber. Even if its 1 or 2 layers thinner than a Bogen or Gitzo, its still HELLA strong! Itll only ever hold 4-5lbs and they are rated to like 30.

Its just the Ball head Im tryin to find...might stick to name brand (like Manfrotto) for that. Considering thats the REAL important part of the tripod.


What models are those 2 primes you mentioned?

I have one of the Best Buy carbon tripods....Rocketfish I think.....it's decent but it's super heavy. The legs are carbon and they don't weigh anything but the head is cast iron and probably weighs 5lbs. The plus to that is it has amazingly smooth panning, even better than the pricey Manfrottos, but I don't do much that would take advantage of that. I did try it with video once and it was neat. I got it for like $70 on eBay which is pretty good considering it's around $175 new, but I wouldn't take it hiking.

Here's a pic of the head...legs are nothing special:

_MG_0013 by Boulderdashcci, on Flickr

The primes I got are the cheap 50mm F1.8, which I bought on an impulse, fell in love with how small and light it was but the length was awkward to use. I then went to Providence to do some street shooting, ended up at Hunt's Camera (awesome shop), and got the 35mm F2. I was after the 28 1.8 USM but they didn't have it in stock, so I decided to try the 35. It has the kind of 'classic' edge softness and vignetting, which would be really bad on full frame but looks natural on the crop. It also weights just a little more than the 50 (which basically feels like a body cap) which is what I wanted....awesome for walking around with. The color and contrast out of these lenses are also really amazing, far better than my Tamron. The L primes are nice and the image quality is second to none but they are also big and heavy which defeated the purpose of me buying these. The 35 L (I think 1.4?) is about as big or maybe a little bigger than my Tamron zoom.

Yea. Ive found a set of carbon legs (almost 6ft in height) that are around 145. Then trying to find a good, solid ball head for 50ish and get this tripod out of the way. It hurts to spend that much but now that Ill have something like 2k attached to it, I cant afford to have anything less holding it up.

Can you take the head off the rocketfish? I doubt it, but if you could, that migght not be a bad idea.

Yeah, the head is removable, on a (I think) standard 3/8" screw with a set screw to hold it in place. The center post has a mount on either end so you can mount the head upside down/really low for macro stuff.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rocketfish-65-Carbo ... vi-content

Does your 40D have mirror lockup? That would certainly come in handy with that big tele.

It does. Not sure what Id use the mirror lock up for though other than hooking it to a telescope which I don't have access to. I plan on buying a remote for doing time lapse for either timed or bulb shots.

I may go with something a bit more expensive. I'm not sold on that if someone broke that part of the pod. Thats a pretty important part. However, I keep trying to find info on the ones I found on eBay for like 140 that only weight 3.2lbs. Add a manfrotto head and Im sitting around 200. Which, is cheap by most photographers standards. Some website tries to sell you on spending 500+. SORRY. Id rather buy a lens.

You should always use mirror lockup when on a tripod when you're between like 1/60th and 1"...You will see a pretty big increase in sharpness especially at the focal lengths you're going to be dealing with on that new lens. Try playing with it, I noticed a difference (even on the LCD) at just 50mm (80ish on crop). The MLU'd pics were much sharper than the ones I took with it off....2 second timer on each.

And heh, didn't even notice the one I linked was broken, was just the first result that came up that showed the whole thing.

taadaaaaa

Now time to go outside with the last 1.5hrs of sunlight and hunt some stuff to take pictures of.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Wow, What is the zoom of that lens?

400mm. Its the Canon 100-400mm IS L. Its a push pull zoom, not a circular screw type zoom. I really like it.

niceeeeeee

Im thinking Cedar Point Saturday...So far, shots within about 100ft are super sharp. Cant wait to see what it'll do under pressure of high speed objects!

nerd herd lol

That is one badass lens bro. Reaallly nice camera too. I'm jealous lol

_MG_0113 by Boulderdashcci, on Flickr

Totally love up the composition with the rails but I like the sky I was able to pull out of it. Clarity and vibrance up and saturation down, and some crafty graduated filter work makes a cool effect (also used a circular polarizer at 90 degrees and a lens hood).

Love the cloud formations.

This makes me want to go down to my rail yards near me. We have 3 or 4 major lines through Toledo. Im sure it helped with Toledos growth but now its a MAJOR pain because all of them are run frequently. Getting out of one of the burbs I lived in and to anywhere outside of it was a crap-shoot.

I don't mess around with heavily active lines/yards, mostly just abandoned or rarely used/very low speed stuff. Would rather not get hit by a 150mph Acela for a stupid picture.

Look for abandoned factories or warehouses on Google or Bing maps....Chances are they will have an abandoned siding with all the good stuff (rusted over switches, rotted ties, etc). Then just hope you get lucky and have some usable lighting/dynamic range.....fun stuff.

Are you a raw or jpg shooter?

LOL YES!

I shoot in Raw full time. Unless I need the speed, then I switch back to JPEG because its faster to process for the camera.

The rail yards around here are all freight, nothing moves particularly fast and my brother in law actually is training to work on CSX. Sometime I may see if I could do a ride along which would be AWESOME.

_MG_0068 by Boulderdashcci, on Flickr

So lonely by CoasterReal, on Flickr


_MG_2805 by CoasterReal, on Flickr


_MG_2763 by CoasterReal, on Flickr


_MG_2758 by CoasterReal, on Flickr


The quality of this lens is mind blowing for me. The clarity is insane. Even at 400mm f/5.6 while its not OMG sharp, its SHARP. Considering I had a 70-300 and at 300 it looked like I had a foggy filter on it, this is just - wow!

And when I can get it over 1/250th of a second at f7.1 or higher at 400mm its just OMFG. If you want some 100% crops, Ill throw a few down. Its pretty amazing. This lens will never leave my bag. In fact, its so freakin versatile, it rarely comes off unless I need a macro or I need a wide shot - which for what I do, not that often.


Sadly, I feel Canon L Lenses will be a disease...now that I've seen the difference, its hard to go back.

That last one is definitely OMG sharp lol. Nice stuff.

So...get ready for some weirdness. I know we've seen Windseeker at night via video camera, but have you seen WindSeeker via Still Image Time Lapse? What you're about to see is rather strange in the shapes it makes. I've time-lapsed almost anything that moves at Cedar Point and nothing has produced these sorts of patterns. Normally the types of patterns I get are smooth transitions from one color to another. Not this block pattern. I imagine its due to the sequencing of the lights and possibly them maybe being LED strips with no gradient changes. Its very strange but produces some of the coolest pictures.

I fully expect people to rush out with their tripods and a bunch of these shots to show up if they haven't already. Now that I know what to expect, I have ideas what I want to do next time I am there. There's gotta be some better angles and shots out there. This was just my first time testing out my new Canon 100-400mm IS L lens at night and first time riding WindSeeker.


Which, to make this a proper TR for this ride, is quite a good flat ride. My wife who is as brave as myself thought it looked boring but upon realizing the arms that attach to the cars swing freely based on the rotation speed, she was like huh, thats cool. About 150ft up she looks at me and says "Yea, I'm a little nervous now" hahahahaha.

Its really fun. Nothing insane or uber exciting. Ill still take Skyhawk and Maxair style rides over this but if its a 15min wait, I'm riding it every single time. Great addition to the park and has one of the BEST lighting package on a ride I've seen.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/64745845@N02/




Please click on the links and go to my actual page to look at higher res images, its pretty stunning. Cant wait to get back.

If someone wants the highest resolution image, let me know, give me your email, I'll send you a copy. Full images are 3888x2592 and in RAW format so Ill need to export a copy.

Picture of tonight's full moon.

The other pictures above, I moved them all to a separate Flickr account dedicated to Amusement Park pictures.