Ready for the Trip

Tomorrow begins a week long trip to Maine and Nova Scotia. Most of my gear decisions over the past six months or so have been made with this trip in mind.

I'm sure that the 5D Mark III and L lenses will see a lot of use for scenics, including sunrises and maybe sunsets, but I think my always have along setup will be the 70D and EF-S 35mm f.2.8 macro IS STM lens. This combination has a focal length equivalent of 56mm, image stabilization and a relatively fast f/2.8 maximum aperture. 56mm, by the way, happens to be the focal length equivalent of the "telephoto" lens on Apple's dual camera iPhones.

Over the past few days I've been using the 70D with both this macro lens and the longer zoom lens. Here are some of the results. The rabbit, if you click on it twice is a full size 100% crop.

EOS 70D, EF 70-300mm at 300mm, f/6.7, 1/250 sec., ISO 400

EOS 70D, EF-S 35mm f/2.8 IS STM, f/5.6, 1/45 sec., ISO 200, 5 file HDR

EOS 70D, EF-S 35mm f/2.8 IS STM, f/8, 1/250 sec., ISO 400

The Bee Balm Studio

There's a patch of Bee Balm that I've been making photos of for several years now. It's not the blossoms so much as the insects which they attract.

The EOS 70D and EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM lens are a good combination for getting close up shots of the flowers and insects. The working distance is far enough that the insects aren't scared off and f/8 is needed for depth of field so the relative slowness of this consumer grade lens isn't an issue. The image stabilization and auto focus of this lens are the latest technology and better than some of the older professional grade lenses.

Here some images from last week preceded by an iPhone shot of the Bee Balm patch. The sun is in the upper left of the photo and shade from a Silver Maple not in the photo to the right creates the dark backgrounds. Shooting position is about at the edge of the shadow up the hill a bit.

All of these shots are f/8 and ISO 400. Shutter speeds are from 1/350 a second to 1/750 a second.

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Hummingbird Moth

Hummingbird Moth

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

Hudson River Sunsets with EF 17-40mm Lens

After walking down to the river with my EOS 5D Mark III and EF 24-105mm lens hoping for a decent sunset I walked the two blocks back home only to notice that post sunset the sky had lit up with some nice color. So I switched lenses and quickly drove back down before it faded.

These are all five image HDR composites processed to retain a natural look. Of these images only two, one at 22mm and one at 23mm, are wider than I could have made with the other lens but the middle range of the 17-40mm lens has noticeably less barrel distortion than the wide end of the 24-105mm lens.

Two Days with 70D and 70-300mm

These are all shots from this week at Peebles Island State Park.

The Green Beach w/Troy Boat Club in the background - 70mm

Dry channel between Second Isl and Goat Isl - 96mm

300mm

American Robin - 300mm and cropped

Tree Swallow - 300mm and cropped

Hydroelectric Dam between Peebles and Bock Islands - 300mm

Dam between Peebles and Bock Islands - 81mm

2018 Steamboat Meet

The annual Steamboat Meet in Waterford, New York took place this weekend. I was able to make some photos of the event on Friday, late afternoon, and Saturday morning. Because the steamboats are not large vessels and frequently the best compositions are of the boats out on the water or of the harbor as viewed from the opposite side, I used the 70-300mm lens on both occasions.

The entire gallery can be viewed at http://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/steamboat2018.

70mm, f/5.6

300mm, f/5.6

244mm, f/5.6

200mm, f/5.6

200mm, f/5.6

147mm, f/6.7

100mm, f/6.7

135mm, f/6.7

70mm, f/6.7

EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM Lens on Full Frame

I've been using this lens with my EOS 70D for wildlife and closeups but had not used it with my full frame EOS 5D Mark III. This morning I walked around a bit looking for telephoto scenics for HDR bracketing.

First, here are two images showing the field of view at the short and long end of the lens.

70mm

300mm

Here are some samples from various points along the walk.

Peebles Island from the foot of 123rd Street - 115mm

Matton Shipyard bulkheads from 1st Avenue - 135mm

Riverwalk Apartments from the 112th Street Bridge - 70mm

Admiral's Walk condos and NYS Marine Highway barges - 187mm

Peebles Island picnic tables and stairs - 70mm