Scenics and Deer on Peebles Island

This morning was the only time this upcoming week with a forecast for sunny skies. So, of course, I headed over to Peebles Island. I carried both the 7D Mark II with the 70-300mm lens and a 5D Mark III with the 17-40mm lens.

I'll keep the text short to leave room for photos. I try to keep it so the three blog posts on the main page don't extend a whole lot below the sidebar on the right. The scenics are 5 file HDR composites, the deer are non cropped single files from the 7DII at 300mm (480mm eq.).

Earth Day on Peebles Island

I always try to do a short walk at Peebles Island State Park on Earth Day. This morning I spent about an hour with the 7D Mark II and 70-300mm lens.

Clouds, Fog and Rain in Maine

The weather here in Ogunquit, Maine has been about as predicted if not a little better. The steady rain held off until late morning and then only lasted a couple of hours - so far.

Here are some shots from along the marginal way this morning with the 7D Mark II and EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens.

A 59 image gallery is available at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/easter2019.

7D Mark II and 17-40mm f/4L

I'll be spending next weekend in Ogunquit on the coast of Maine and the forecast is for clouds and intermittent rain. The next best thing to a trip to a great photographic location is planning for a trip to a great photographic location.

So I've been thinking about what camera body and lens combination I'd use if I was going to be out when it's actually raining. I ended up deciding that in inclement weather I'd choose my crop sensor 7D Mark II body which is excellently weather sealed. Here's what Roger Cicala says about the 7DII:

This is, by dissection at least, the most thoroughly weather-sealed camera I’ve ever run across. (I would point out that I don’t take apart every camera so please don’t change my wording to say it’s the most weather sealed camera. I don’t know that.) But this isn’t just market-speak weather sealing. It’s a thorough and complete attempt to seal every possible crack and crevice the camera has.

You can read Roger's whole blog post here.

As for a lens to use, there are two choices between my two Canon weather sealed lenses, the 17-40mm f/4L USM and the 24-105mm f/4L IS USM. The two major differences between the two lenses are the focal length and image stabilization, or lack thereof.

The 17-40mm lens has the field of view of 27-64mm on the 7DII and the 24-105mm lens the field of view of 38-168mm. The stabilizing feature on the longer zoom is nice but with the 10 frames per second of the 7DII, handheld bracketing is possible without stabilization.

The deciding factor for me was the possibility of being out in rain. While both zooms are "weather sealed" the 24-105mm zoom extends with zooming. I find it hard to believe that no water can get in between where the lens barrel moves in and out. By contrast, the barrel of the 17-40mm lens moves entirely inside of the filter threads so if I use a UV filter, which I would to keep moisture off the front element anyway, the lens is entirely sealed up.

So, this morning I decided to take the 7D Mark II and 17-40mm lens out on a walk over to Waterford to see if the image quality would be good enough to use in Maine. Here are a bunch of the results, all hand held 5 file HDR composites.

A Tale of Two Sunsets

I have an entire gallery on Zenfolio dedicated to sunset photos made from the same spot on the shore of the Hudson River near my home. There's a link on the menu bar to the right under TrulandPhoto Resources.

This is one of the times of year where I tend to get down to the water's edge more often than not, mostly due to the timing of sunset. As I sit in my kitchen in the early evening I can clearly see whether the sunset has possibilities.

The past two evenings have been such occasions, seeing me grab one of my 5D Mark III bodies and the 17-40mm f/4L USM lens and heading down the street to the river. Photo captions will indicate date, time and focal length.

4/9/2019 - 7:19PM EDST - 22mm

4/9/2019 - 7:20PM EDST - 21mm

4/9/2019 - 7:21PM EDST - 17mm

4/10/2019 - 7:19PM EDST - 40mm

4/10/2019 - 7:25PM EDST - 40mm

4/10/2019 - 7:30PM EDST - 29mm

No Substitute for a Tripod

The older I get the more I want to just hand hold everything. With image stabilization, you generally can hand hold scenics, even with exposure bracketing for HDR processing. With closeups, though, there really is no substitute for a stable tripod.

Image stabilization will not compensate for camera movement affecting the plane of focus, which is pretty thin close up. I've been trying to sell my crop sensor 60mm macro lens without any success so I decided to try it out this morning with the 7D Mark II (the only camera I have it will fit) on the first blooms of the season, Blue-eyed Grass.

At f/8 and 1/750th of a second, the image should be fairly sharp. It is, but the thin line of focus is missed as I hand hold the camera. This is cropped and if you click on the image twice you will see it at 100%.

About 20 minutes later I decided to do it right and grabbed my travel tripod and remote release. It's a much better result. Here is an only slightly cropped full image along with a couple of 100% crops showing the detail.

5D Mark III and 50mm STM

Now that I have sold my Tamron 45mm lens, I have a choice of two "normal" prime lenses for use with a full frame body, the 40mm pancake and 50mm STM lenses. Prior to selling the Tamron lens, I had picked up the inexpensive Canon 50mm STM to use on the 7D Mark II in partnership with the 24mm pancake lens. Those two lenses have field of view equivalents of 38mm and 80mm on the 7DII.

Yesterday, I went out midday with a 5DIII and the 50mm lens. Without the image stabilization of the Tamron lens, I have to remember to keep shutter speeds up a bit when hand holding bracketed sequences for HDR processing. Here are some results.

Cohoes Falls

Cohoes Falls Apartments

Cohoes Falls Apartments

Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve

Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve

Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve

Another Morning on Peebles Island

I walked around Peebles Island this morning carrying the 5D Mark III with 24-105mm lens and the 7D Mark II with 70-300mm lens on my OP/TECH Dual Harness. Wildlife was very sparse this morning. Not a single deer in over an hour, and while there was an eagle hunkered down on the nest, nothing else was going on.

So, I ended up with a few frozen pond scenics and a shot of some sycamore pods. There are quit a few Sycamore trees on Peebles Island including a gigantic one right at the entrance to the trails.

Only the wide view of the pond was made with the full frame body.