If You Can't Sell It, Use It

I haven't had luck selling my Canon 70D crop sensor camera body which I decided to part with when I picked up a second full frame 5D Mark III.  So I decided to start using it again and even picked up a couple of crop sensor lenses, the 24mm f/2.8 pancake and the 60mm f/2.8 macro, to use with it.

Here are two shots with the 24mm pancake lens which has the equivalent field of view of a 38mm lens.

In addition to the 24mm and 60mm lenses, the 70-300mm zoom lens will also see action with the 70D as the 1.6x crop factor gives the lens an equivalent zoom range of 112-480mm. These shots are from a walk around Peebles Island this morning with the 70D and 70-300mm zoom. It was overcast and color was hard to come by. It was also one of those rare excursions on Peebles Island without any deer sightings.

Single Digit Temps, Below Zero Windchill - 5D45

Usually on Thanksgiving morning I like to walk around Peebles Island or up along the old Champlain Canal trail. This year, however, sub zero windchill temperatures made that an unattractive proposition.

I did manage to pop outside the car at the Cohoes Falls overlook just long enough for my fingers to freeze and to grab a few bracketed sequences. I'm going to try to get back to using the 45mm Tamron lens over the holiday period but will also carry my ultra wide zoom which covers the 17mm to 40mm range.

Not being able to zoom any further than 45mm created the compositional problem of needing to minimize the cloudless sky while also minimizing the chain link fence in the foreground. There are limits to what you can do with a standard prime lens in a scenic situation.

The second image was cropped a bit in the process of leveling out a somewhat tilted perspective.

Fiddler on the Roof

It's time for the annual Fall musical production at my local public school district. I've been shooting one of the final "dress" rehearsals for about six years now, using a variety of camera bodies and lenses.

This year, like last year, I used one of my Canon 5D Mark III bodies and the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. These last two years are the only ones where I didn't have a 70-200mm f/2.8 (or equivalent) lens to use. With the shorter zoom and slower aperture I've had to position myself closer to the stage and raise the ISO a bit.

The ISO isn't a problem with the 5D Mark III and the only real problem with the shorter zoom is not being high enough to shoot over the orchestra, etc. in the foreground. You can see all of the galleries over the years in the collection at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/burghdrama.

I think I actually prefer being closer to the stage. In any case, this year's photos can be seen at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/fiddler. I usually post a representative sample of the shots I like best but this year I'm going to post a series of shots that I really like.

Most every photo had to be adjusted for white balance, highlight and shadow, contrast, brightness or something else before being converted to a jpg and uploaded to zenfolio. This series, however, was as good as it was going to get without any adjustments. A dream sequence behind Tevye as he sits in his horseless cart.

For some reason, white balance and everything else fell into place inside the computer in the camera. I love it when that happens.

Some Autumn Foliage Images

I took a couple of opportunities in today's bright sunshine to make some images of late autumn foliage.

First, some shots of Japanese Maple leaves with a 5D Mark III and 70-300mm lens. These are single files without any HDR processing:

Second, I went out with my other 5D Mark III and 17-40mm lens shooting up into trees for some nice scenics. These are both at the wide end of the lens and both are five file HDR composites.

Division 1 Women's Soccer

I had the opportunity yesterday afternoon to shoot from the sidelines of the America East Conference Women's Soccer Final at the State University at Albany's multi use stadium. Casey Stadium is an impressive venue with a nice big scoreboard/jumbotron. I'm not a fan, however, of the distraction caused by lines for every sport imaginable cluttering up a soccer pitch.

I used my two 5D Mark III bodies, one with the EF 24-105mm f/4 lens and the other with the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens. The images below are from both setups.

There are 136 images in the gallery located at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/aeastfinal.

Congratulations to the home side who won the match 5-1 and will move on to the NCAA playoffs.

November Scenics

Early November is a time of transition from autumn into winter weather wise. Air temperatures that are either significantly warmer or colder than the water temperatures in rivers, ponds and lakes bring fog. Dramatic skies can result from cold and warm fronts moving through.

The past two days resulted in some different scenes just a few hundred yards apart. On Friday, warm air resulted in fog over the Hudson River and on Saturday, an almost setting sun lit up some late season foliage in front of some dark clouds.

All are five image HDR composites made with my Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-105mm f/4L lens and HDRSoft's Photomatix Pro 6 software. Both days at approximately 5:00 PM.