Ice and High Water - 5D45

I went out this morning with my 5DIII and Tamron 45mm lens for a walk over to, and around, Waterford. Earlier this week, rain and melting snow brought river levels up with lots of floating ice. Overnight on Thursday, several boats and barges broke loose from moorings and made their way down the Hudson River to Albany.

Bridges were closed and it was a mess for the Friday morning commute. A google search for Hudson River Boats Loose will show you some photos, videos and news stories.

Two of the tug boats involved were the Benjamin Elliot and 8th Sea. I don't think either boat went very far once loose but they did get pushed onshore at some point, as evidenced by the branches and vines in their superstructure. Here are the two tugboats safely moored at the wall in Waterford.

While the sky clouded over with occasional snow after I returned from my walk, there was enough early morning sun to make scenes interesting.

Slimmed Down Bag for Spring

Now that Christmas is over; and the first significant, foot plus, snow storm has passed; and a couple of below zero days, complete with frozen pipes, are history it's time to start thinking about some nicer weather. I have a really bad history with making gear/bag decisions and sticking to them. I'm sure this will be no exception.

Thinking about what kind of work I want to do in the near future, and reflecting on what I consider my best work over the past year or so, I've decided to pare down the gear in my ThinkTank Photo Airport Commuter backpack. I've left out a couple of lenses, my Canon 24-105mm and 70-300mm zooms, and added my Promaster XC522 compact tripod with ballhead.

The lenses I'll be using with my two EOS 5D Mark III bodies are the Canon 17-40mm f/4L USM and Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD lens. Down the road, I'd like to replace the older, non-stabilized 17-40mm lens with Canon's newer, image stabilized 16-35mm f/4L lens.

In addition to the gear I've mentioned, the Airport Commuter now contains my larger rocket blower, Canon remote release, four 77mm diameter filters for the Canon lens and two 67mm diameter filters for the Tamron lens, a Canon 430EX II flash with Sto-Fen Omnibounce and batteries, two Canon and two Wasabi batteries for the cameras, as shown in the photo below.

Not shown and in the compartments inside the lid and on the back of the backpack are lens and filter cleaning products, extra memory cards, a jar lid opener for stuck filters and OP/TECH USA shoulder straps and dual harness. OP/TECH USA Pro Loop connecters are attached to the camera bodies. The bag and contents weigh in at fifteen pounds.

I envision both carrying the cameras on the straps without the bag and carrying the bag on my back on hikes and walks. The front of the backpack straps have short OP/TECH USA connecters attached so I can have a camera secure and out in front of me with the backpack on.

UPDATE: 2/1/19

It was bothering me not to have the 24-105mm lens in my bag so I decided to remove the travel tripod, and move some of the compartments around. Of course, now I've an empty compartment, which I also don't like.

A Late Start to 2019

A combination of weather, my cataract surgery and late sunrises and early sunsets seem to have conspired against me doing much with my cameras. I sent the Tamron 85mm lens back to LensRentals two days early after packing it up four days early.

Currently I'm carrying around just one of my 5D Mark III bodies with the 24-105mm L lens attached. A recent used bag purchase give me a nice compact kit which includes my bigger flash, filters, extra batteries and memory cards, remote release, rocket blower etc. I've been keeping an eye out for a used ThinkTank Speed Freak shoulder bag which is the slightly smaller version of a bag I used to own but sold after I stopped using grips on my bodies.

This morning I ventured from the car briefly at the Hudson River and Cohoes Falls in the Mohawk River. The temperature was 11 degrees with a 2 degree wind chill.

These are all hand held five file HDR composites at f/8 and ISO 100.

67mm

67mm

105mm

40mm