I have been enjoying this thread from the start, but this is the first time I have added to it. These are from our trip to Fl last week, and have been posted in N&W ~ Ron
A shot from yesterday. Not originally on the shooting agenda, I got up extra early, "just in case" something could develop at sunrise, in addition to the planned shoot time of 10:00 AM. Worked out in my favor.
A brief sea journey to Helsinki on April 2nd. And I thought my Schengen visa would rot uselessly (it has only 3 months left of 12, and hadn't been used once before this weekend). The weather was nice (as opposed to fog that had plagued St. Pete's both on the day of our departure and upon our arrival - but more of that later).
Here's the first part of the photos from Helsinki, anyway. http://cs633116.vk.me/v633116358/25188/9044qSjhA-E.jpg
Western harbour (Länsisatama) is always busy and there always seems to be some sort of construction going on around it. http://cs633116.vk.me/v633116358/251ae/QvFQLGw_gPg.jpg
A first attempt at a Russian-language signage got an error but it's definitely nice to see them trying to make the life a little easier for an important slice of visitors. http://cs633116.vk.me/v633116358/251b7/aArxVuGxAwQ.jpg
Hietalahti basin with floating buoys, at least somewhat encased in the last remnants of winter ice. http://cs633116.vk.me/v633116358/2516d/wEU-FJcDH6I.jpg
Spring is in the air! Sinebrychoff park with a decorative tower. http://cs633116.vk.me/v633116358/2511c/AiEOIL0vt38.jpg
Northern harbour. A seahorse decoration on a vessel. http://cs633116.vk.me/v633116358/25113/3LW3iW_R38E.jpg
Spring maintenance job on a wooden ship. Icebreakers loom in the distance. http://cs633116.vk.me/v633116358/25149/cervIDXozOo.jpg
Helsinki's grand cathedral. I shot this using the 16-35mm f/4 lens wide open at 18mm because I wanted to retain some of the vignetting and emphasize the building. The scary thing is... when I was looking at the picture at 100% magnification - out of curiosity - I could see no image quality deterioration in the corners! And this was shot wide open! All right, it's not a full frame camera I'm using - just APS-H - but the old 16-35/2.8 II would suck harder than a Red Lantern District hooker if I had shot something like this wide open. The f/4 IS, however, is cut from the same cloth as the Nikon 14-24/2.8: I remember working with the files from it, and full frame the pictures were sharp all over at 14mm f/2.8, even in the corners. It was amazing. So the people that deride the 16-35 as a minor upgrade over the earlier 16-35/2.8 and 17-40/4 lenses can't be more wrong. Maybe at f/8-11 there's no difference. But at f/4 it's no contest.
Sorry for the long rant...
Some backyard avians, not a special or spectacular as some of those here, but after the 10cm (4in) of snow last night, they were nice to see. The robins were singing their hearts out, probably bitchin' about the snow like I was. It is April 4th, right?
A few images from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (Malaysia). Will post more in the coming days, processing the whole lot will take quite a bit of time.
Ps: the second image was my first long exposure with ND filter ever, looks like I should have left LE noise reduction on, as there are a ton of small white speckles.
A couple of dramatic views across the valley from the front porch...
The sunset is an in-camera HDR, something I enjoy using in certain situations, especially since I no longer use holders for graduated ND filters. Settings were 2-stop difference, "Art Standard"...
Jerry
