Good Bye 2016

As much as I'd like to celebrate the passing of 2016, I can't help but expect that a year from now we'll look back at 2016 as the good old days when we at least thought the US was a democracy with civil liberties and a conscience.  In any case, this is my last blog post for the year. A year which saw me post 60 blog entries, 8 more than last year.

My camera body options are little changed from the beginning of the year with the exception of swapping in an 80D body for the aging 7D for some situations. I did, however, make a lot of lens changes.

At the beginning of the year I had no full frame lenses with image stabilization. After enjoying the IS in crop sensor lenses I was using with my little SL1 body, I swapped out my 24-70mm f/2.8L lens for a 24-105mm f/4L IS. I exchanged my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens for a 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens. And I added 35mm f/2 IS and 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS lenses.

The other change was an even exchange with me trading my 70-200mm f/2.8L lens for a 200mm f/2.8L lens. I'd been having focus issues with the zoom in certain situations and the lens was made in 1999. The prime lens I received was made in 2007, is smaller, lighter and black instead of white. I'm hoping it'll suffice for nighttime and indoor situations where the slower 70-300mm zoom won't work.

Here are my last shots of the year, all made this morning with my EOS 80D and EF-S 24mm f.2.8 pancake lens. All are 5 file HDR composites. See you next year.

2017 Wall Calendar

My 2017 wall calendar consists of images made during a September on the coast of Maine. You can view the images along with detailed shooting information at http://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/2017calendar.

And here is a slide show of the images.

Ogunquit in December - Day 3

I'll wrap up the Ogunquit trip with this post. I ended up with a 53 image gallery which you can view at https://twitter.com/trulandphoto/status/808442618891948032.

These shots are all from Sunday morning and are made with my 5D Mark III and my 24-105mm f/4L IS lens.

Ogunquit in December - Day 2

The blog seems to be lagging behind the twitter feed lately and that makes sense. It's easier to post photos with a short caption than trying to come up with something that sets the photos in context or gives some technical detail.

These shots are from yesterday morning at sunrise on the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine. It was bitter cold and I went out with only my 5D Mark III and EF 35mm f/2 IS lens. It was a nice combination but limited options for capturing a variety of scenes on what turned out to be some nice lighting with frozen seawater as a foreground element.

These are all hand held HDR composites which are easily accomplished with this image stabilized lens.

This morning I was out with my EF 24-105mm f/4L lens on the same territory and came away with very different images. Those will be posted here tomorrow.

Ogunquit in December - Day 1

Last evening was cold and windy on the Southern Coast of Maine. A stop at Cape Neddick on the way to Ogunquit was timed perfectly at about sunset. Here are some shots of the lit up Nubble Light.

Nighttime with the EF 35mm f/2 IS Lens

Waterford, NY had it's Christmas parade and tree lighting last evening. To walk over from my home I cross a bridge over the Hudson River. Here are some shots of the festivities and some shots from the bridge. This was well after sunset but there was enough reflected light in the sky that the camera meter tried to make it dusk.

These are all made with my EOS 5D Mark III and EF 35mm f/2 IS USM lens.

f/2, 1/350 sec., ISO 6400

f/2, 0.3 sec., ISO 6400

f/2, 1/8 sec., ISO 3200

f/2, 1/6 sec., ISO 6400

f/2, 1/6 sec., ISO 6400

Another School Musical

I spent about eighteen hours shooting and processing over 1,000 RAW images of the Lansingburgh school production of the musical Hairspray the past couple of days. Hairspray is a great musical with a great message - especially in the stupid times we find ourselves in -  and the students at this school have embraced the theme.

The show runs tonight through Sunday afternoon and is well worth the effort. I uploaded 439 photos including headshots of the cast to some galleries on zenfolio which can be viewed at http://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/hairspray. All, except for a few, were made with my 5D Mark III and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L lens.

Here are some from the second dress rehearsal I shot, last evening. All these are at f/2.8 and ISO 3200.

Morning After Rain

Albany, NY registered over 1.5 inches of rain yesterday, a new record for November 15th. I expected to see some results this morning in river levels but there was none. I expected the "bogs" to have water in them on Peebles Island, they had only a little.

I guess that the lack of serious rainfall had left a lot of room for the rain to soak in rather than run off. There were some puddles on the trains and the ground had that nice saturated look that comes with wet and overcast skies.

Here are some shots from this morning, all with my 5D Mark III and EF 24-105mm f/4L lens. These are all bracketed HDR composites. Some were processed using three, four or all five of the bracketed files. I don't remember which ones were which.

The Leaves, They Keep on Droppin'

This morning was one of those nice crisp, clear late Fall mornings, prefect for capturing what color is left before it's all gone. I went out on the canal trail North of Waterford with my 80D and 70-300mm lens looking for plant closeups or birds. The birds were not cooperating but the leaves were still falling from trees along the trail onto the water of the canal.

Here is a photo of the general scene along with some of the leaf closeups. The trail extends for about a mile North of this spot and is one of my favorite haunts.

The last two are the same leaves with just a slight shift in angle which created a whole different background.

Little Did I Know...

...when I headed out for my walk on election morning that the day would turn in to one of the most tragic, disgusting days I've experienced. But while people can be - and are - vile, cruel beings, nature remains herself. At least until the President-Elect grabs her by the...... Nature, however, has a way of grabbing back. Bigtime.

Here are some nice images from early in the day when the future still seemed reasonably pleasant.

Hoboken, New Jersey

Yesterday saw a day trip to Hoboken, NJ for an Empire 8 women's soccer playoff match between Hartwick and Stevens IT. I shot the match with my EOS 80D and EF 70-200mm f.2.8L lens.

The much faster SD card fixed the delay caused by the camera writing to the card which I experienced back in October with this same combination. I shot most of the match at f/2.8 and ISO 100 on aperture priority which was giving me shutter speeds of from 1/1000th to 1/300th of a second. As I think there are still some focusing issues with this lens (although they're much less pronounced than with the EOS 7D) I wish I had chosen f/4 for the added depth of field.

Here are some action shots from the match along with a Hartwick group hug as they ended their excellent season with this 2-1 playoff loss.

And, Stevens is located on the Western shore of the Hudson River above Frank Sinatra Drive in Hoboken, right across from Manhattan. Here's a five file HDR made with my 5D Mark III and 24-105mm f/4L lens.