Women's College Soccer

Last Saturday saw a trip to Oneonta, New York for a women's division III college soccer match between Hartwick and Stevens IT. I used my Canon EOS 70D and the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM lens. This lens is perfect for daytime sports but too slow for night time. A maximum aperture of f/2.8 is necessary for shooting under the lights to avoid super high ISO settings which would result in excessive noise on the crop sensor 70D.

Here are game action samples along with a half time scenic of Elmore Field made with my 5D Mark III and 17-40mm f/4LUSM lens. The entire 101 image gallery can be viewed at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/hwsoc2018.

Cohoes Falls - Remnants of Frances

While I wasn't wishing for enough rain from the remnants of Frances to cause flooding in my area, I was hoping for enough to result in some dramatic water coming over Cohoes Falls. The local area received just under 2 1/2 inches of rain with lesser amounts in the Mohawk river valley to the west. Higher amounts of rainfall occurred to the south and east, which wouldn't effect the falls.

But, compared to the usual dry weather trickle coming over the falls, there was a lot of water. These shots were made in the early afternoon after a night and morning of rain. I checked the following morning and the flow was back down to normal.

Here are some examples made with the 5D Mark III and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. The first image was made the day before the rain for comparison purposes.

A gallery of Cohoes Falls photographs over the years can be viewed at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/cohoesfalls.

Hudson River Sunset - It's Been A While

I had to go all the way back to July 17th to find the last time I shot this sunset scene. I can see the sky in this scene from my kitchen window and be down at the river in a couple of minutes. Lately, it's either been overcast or cloudless.

Last evening it looked like the clouds might cooperate so I was prepared to head down if the sunset panned out. I prepared my 5D Mark III and 17-40mm lens as I was hoping for the big sky and water reflection look this location is made for.

The sun was still visible as I arrived and the cloud color was not yet really photo worthy. As the sun disappeared the color crept in. It wasn't the most dazzling sunset I've seen here but it was the best I've seen lately.

A dedicated gallery to sunsets at this location can be viewed at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/hudsonriversunsets.

Tugboat Roundup 2018 - Day 2

The two events related to the Tugboat Roundup I shot yesterday were Kayaking 4 Meso's kayak flotilla traveling through lock E6 as they made their way down to Waterford Harbor and the fireworks. For the Kayaks in the morning, I used my 5D Mark III and 24-105mm lens and for the fireworks switched over to the Tamron 45mm lens.

The 24-105mm lens is quite versatile as the photos from lock E6 show. Captions will indicate the focal length. There is a gallery of the Kayaking4Meso event at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/k4m2018.

105mm

24mm

35mm

I chose the 45mm lens for the night time shots because of it's faster f/1.8 maximum aperture and yet it still has image stabilization, or vibration compensation as Tamron calls it. And 45mm is a good focal length for these types of shots.

I used ISO 800 and 1600 and f/2 and shutter speeds varied between 1/4 sec. and 1/20 sec. The vibration compensation allowed handheld operation at those shutter speeds.

Fifteen night time photos have been added to the gallery at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/tugboatroundup2018. Here are a few samples.

Tugboat Roundup 2018

This is the sixth consecutive year I've been able to photograph the arrival of the boats at Waterford Harbor to kick off the annual Tugboat Roundup held the weekend after labor day. I try to vary my main shooting location from year to year so that there is some variety to the scenes.

Some years I stay on the bridge to Peebles Island overlooking the Harbor, other years I go down to the shore on Peebles Island which has a view down the Hudson River as the boats arrive. A group on my Zenfolio hosting site contains galleries from each year's event. You may view these galleries at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/tugboatroundup.

It's interesting to look at the gear I used for this event over the years. In 2013 I primarily used a Canon 5D Mark II and a 70-200mm lens. In 2014 I used a Canon 7D and a 50-150mm Sigma lens. In 2015 I used my then new to me Canon 5D Mark III. I used the 5D Mark III and a 7D in 2016 and the 5D Mark III with the Canon 70-300mm DO lens last year.

This year I shot almost equally with the 5D Mark III and 24-105mm lens and my 70D with the 70-300mm IS II USM lens. From arriving in Waterford to finishing uploading the end results to Zenfolio took almost exactly four hours.

This year's gallery contains 71 images so far and can be viewed here. Below are some examples with gear and focal length information in the captions.

Canon EOS 70D and 70-300mm at 165mm (264 eq.)

Canon EOS 70D and 70-300mm at 123mm (197 eq.)

Canon EOS 70D and 70-300mm at 182mm (291 eq.)

Canon EOS 70D and 70-300mm at 272mm (435 eq.)

Canon EOS 70D and 70-300mm at 244mm (390 eq.)

Canon 5D Mark III and 24-105mm at 32mm

Canon 5D Mark III and 24-105mm at 80mm

New Prime Lens, Gear For Sale

After using the EF-S 35mm lens on my 70D body I decided that what I really need is a fast image stabilized normal prime lens for my full frame camera. As I've mentioned, Canon doesn't yet make such a lens.

After a lot of research last weekend I decided that the Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD lens would fit the bill nicely.  It's a normal focal length (45mm), is fast (f/1.8), has image stabilization (VC) and has ultrasonic autofocus with full time manual even when the lens isn't powered. It's big, heavy and metal (even the filter threads).

It gets good reviews for sharpness and other optical characteristics and it's currently discounted by 33%. My only concern was fixing chromatic aberration since the Canon software I use won't do that with third party lenses. But then the older version of the Canon software, which is the only one which will run on my MacBook Air, won't correct lens aberrations for my newer Canon lenses either.

In any case, the Tamron lens comes with a license to download a version of SilkyPix software which will correct aberrations in this lens. I downloaded it and it works.

I am selling my Canon 50D body and some lenses this lens renders unnecessary along with the EF-S telephoto zoom that was replaced by my 70-300mm zoom. Those sales are listed, along with photos and prices, on the Gear For Sale page.

After picking up the lens at the Waterford post office I headed over to Lock E2 to try it out. These are all single exposures without HDR processing as my purpose was to evaluate the lens. So far, so good.