A minor flashback to 9 days ago, March 19th. The Earth Hour celebration has coincided with (and was partly supplanted by) a memorial vigil for the victims of the FlyDubai Boeing 737 crash that had occurred earlier on the same day. If these shots look odd to you - they sure do look odd to me - it's because they were shot with the 24/1.4L lens (mostly at f/1.8; the first one is at f/2). Only the last shot was made with the 16-35/4 L IS lens at 16mm f/4. http://cs633618.vk.me/v633618358/1cb63/GcLRRXZS0NU.jpg
http://cs633618.vk.me/v633618358/1cb99/6fUuM-SAxOM.jpg
Shooting at f/1.8 meant three things for me: precariously shallow DOF on many shots (pretty bad for group shots); a lot of pictures that were outright OOF because the 24/1.4 is not as accurate as the 16-35/4L IS; but at the same time I was able to stick to a moderate sensitivity setting (1600). This is a tradeoff I am willing to accept.
http://cs633618.vk.me/v633618358/1cb5a/LsW5ywy7WhM.jpg
I might add that the candles had been prepared for some kind of flashmob devoted to the Earth Hour but there has been an abrupt and tragic change of plans....................
Obviously I liked last year's Starcon convention better than this - if only for the fact that the venue was larger and better lit then... This event seemed like a natural job for the 24/1.4, and indeed it was the lens I was using most of the time, on either the 1D Mark IV or the 1100D. In the latter's case, though, the AF clearly couldn't cope in many situations, so in the end I just used this camera as a glorified shoulder strap to carry a second lens around.
Not much Spring in this photo but Spring was definitely in the air down in the Grand Canyon. Here's an image from camp near mile 30, just our footprints in the sand. We had eight days where we did not see another group on the river, including a stretch of four and a half when we began to wonder where everyone went. Unlike commercial trips where much of the work is done for you, this private permit trip did not allow much time for photography. Add in the shorter length of day and we were busy from first light to end of day.
I do hope no one is getting tired of spring wildflowers...
All those hours spent kneeling in the dirt, tripod splayed low, squinting at the 10x LCD screen, waiting for the breeze to finally stop...
I love every minute of it!
Jerry
Some more odds and sods from the last several days. http://cs633618.vk.me/v633618358/1cb51/BDrA657bki4.jpg
Nighttime handheld "cityscape" - shot at f/2.2. (March 19th) http://cs633323.vk.me/v633323358/1ecac/gV2DYHk9YIM.jpg
Spring is here, that much is certain. Ice on the rivers is moving along. (March 25th) http://cs633323.vk.me/v633323358/1ecb5/quPWRNo2iQE.jpg
I love railroads. I was wandering on the far outskirts of the city on Monday (actually there was a place I was looking for... but it was non-trivial to reach), shooting stuff as I went. It was a very nice experience - to walk in the (relative) wilderness on a cool spring evening, all alone with my thoughts. Guess one needs that sometimes. (March 28th) http://cs633618.vk.me/v633618358/1c89d/LFAdGyF3wj4.jpg
Sunset in the fields. Actually, while I was wandering (and especially when jumping across a ditch and crossing a stretch of half-dried brush), I got my clothes and chestvest chock full of burrs. An almost forgotten thing. (March 28th) http://cs633323.vk.me/v633323358/1ecbe/dbuVryvk0qc.jpg
An odd sunset pic I took along the way. It's the first time I see the flare spot take on the shape of something that stands just in front of the sun. I know this picture isn't going to win me any prizes but it surely goes into my personal "WTF" virtual folder. (March 28th) http://cs630626.vk.me/v630626358/25337/RGk5hnRrLY8.jpg
Razor wire around the construction site (a huge new district on artificially reclaimed land and a bypass highway, all rolled in one). I went there this morning, knowing that I'll have to attend an event dedicated to the future of this territory later. The scale of construction confounds me. Surely there could've been another way of creating the (much needed) infrastructure? (March 30th)
(1st shot with the 24L, last shot with the 16-35/4, the rest with the Tamron 70-300/4-5.6 VC)
My cameras have been set to ISO's of 6400-25,600 for action photography all winter and now I can drop down to ISO 100 for a change...and I don't have time to fret about the upcoming release of the 1Dx Mark II.
(March 28th)
