Sun and Snow

After 19 straight days with temperatures staying below freezing, it's been slightly above freezing the past few days. Not warm enough, however, to cause much melting so trails are perfect for walking.

I walked a combination of the western portion of the Wilkinson Trail, the monument trail and the tour road at Saratoga National Historical Park. Being careful to avoid the groomed cross country ski tracks, and wearing spikes, it was possible to follow the treads of the groomer thus avoiding the need for snow shoes.

Here are some scenes from a nice sunny day.

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/9.5, 1/750 sec., ISO 100

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/9.5, 1/1000 sec., ISO 100

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/8, 1/1000 sec., ISO 100

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/8, 1/1500 sec., ISO 100

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/16, 1/250 sec., ISO 100

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/9.5, 1/1500 sec., ISO 100

2026 Setup

I've rarely had gear transactions go so smoothly. MPB received my 24-105mm lens on Monday and I had my 85mm lens and battery grip by Friday. The 24mm lens, ordered on February 1st, the last day of the instant rebate, was ready for pickup at Best Buy on Friday although car exhaust issues delayed the actual pickup until Saturday. 

Photographing events will be a more deliberate process without the zoom lens but I'm fine with that. I plan on being more selective in what kind of events I spend time photographing and how I photograph them. My main focus will be a project starting in March involving the New York State rivers, lakes and streams that were the focus of people's lives in times long past and which still perform many of the same functions today. When the project gets going there will be a link in the sidebar to the right.

Until then, I expect to get out with this three prime kit in the Slingshot 202AW once the weather warms up a bit. There will be some muscle memory adjustments to be made, particularly involving the battery grip which I added so the camera doesn't move around in the bigger 202AW sling bag. There is also no need to have a hand on a lens without a zoom ring.

Here is the gear laid out and in the bag. Filters, batteries, etc. are in the top section and external pocket of the bag. The bag weighs a bit over 8 pounds.

[UPDATE 2/16/26: There is one flow with the setup above, that being the necessity to set the bag down to change lenses. So, I'm going back to the Think Tank Streetwalker for storage and smaller Think Tank shoulder bags for carrying around depending on the number of lenses brought with. And, no longer needing the battery grip, which doesn't fit with any of the Think Tank bags I have, I'm returning it to MPB.]

Winter Waiting

This is a period of waiting. Waiting for some warmer weather. Waiting for my recent lens transactions to come to fruition. As I updated in a recent post, I will be using three prime lenses only in 2026. The RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM, the RF 45mm f/1.2 STM and the RF 85mm f/2 Macro IS STM.

I've been zoomless on a couple of occasions in the past but not with this collection of primes. The 45mm was only released in December although I have owned multiple copies of the other two lenses.

Here is a graphic from https://www.the-digital-picture.com/ showing the three lenses without lens hoods, which I will be using on all three. 

The inner barrels of all three lenses extend with closer focusing. The 45mm lens, which doesn't focus nearly as closely as the other two, keeps the inner barrel inside the body of the lens. You can see in the graphic above that at infinity focus the inner barrel of the 45mm lens is recessed inside the lens while the inner barrels of the other two lenses are flush with the lens body.

The extension on the other two lenses remains within the lens hoods when attached. Here is a graphic showing the lenses at closest focus.

While I wait for the 24mm and 85mm lenses to arrive, I've been out with the 45mm lens adding images to this winter's prime lens project at https://www.trulandphotography.com/Prime-Galleries/Winter-of-45. Here are some from Ground Hog Day.

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/8, 1/1500 sec., ISO 100

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/8, 1/2000 sec., ISO 100

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/8, 1/1000 sec., ISO 100

RF 45mm f/1.2, f/8, 1/1500 sec., ISO 100