End of the Year

I'll post some photos from the new project I made yesterday as we all get ready to usher in what will be one of the most disgusting and tragic years in the history of the United States.

RF 100-400mm at 100mm, f/8, 1/750 sec., ISO 400

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, f/5.6, 1/1500 sec., ISO 200

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 58mm, f/8, 1/350 sec., ISO 200

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 28mm, f/8, 1/180 sec., ISO 200

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 56mm, f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 200

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 38mm, f/8, 1/750 sec., ISO 200

A New Project Gallery

I've started a new project of black and white images of varying scenes in Waterford and Cohoes, New York. Within walking distance from my home, Waterford and Cohoes are filled with interesting subjects including the old Erie and Champlain Canals, the current canal system, Cohoes Falls, old mills, a harbor, an old cemetery and Peebles Island State Park.

The area was known as "the sprouts" during colonial times due to the islands and branches of the Mohawk River as it meets the Hudson River. The Northern Army of the US was camped in the area during August of 1777 prior to the battles of Saratoga.

This morning, in a gap between rain showers, I decided to take advantage of the fog due to warmer air and frozen ground. The gallery for this project is located at https://www.trulandphotography.com/Projects/BW-Sprouts. Here are some from this morning.

I'm going to leave out camera information from captions as everything is with one of the EOS R8 bodies these days.

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 41mm, f/8, 1/90 sec., ISO 400

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 28mm, f/8, 1/180 sec., ISO 400

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, f/8, 1/90 sec., ISO 400

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 40mm, f/11, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 35mm, f/11, 1/45 sec., ISO 400

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 37mm, f/11, 1/45 sec., ISO 400

Frosty Friday

There was some freezing fog and light snow overnight and by midmorning trees at locations up out of the river valley still had a nice coating on them. I carried both cameras with the 24-70mm and 100-400mm zoom lenses on the OP/TECH Dual Harness around Oakwood Cemetery.

Here are some of the scenes.

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 52mm, f/11, 1/4000 sec., ISO 400

RF 100-400mm at 183mm, f/11, 1/750 sec., ISO 400

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 62mm, f/22, 1/180 sec., ISO 400

RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 35mm, f/11, 1/1000 sec., ISO 400

RF 100-400mm at 400mm, f/8, 1/350 sec., ISO 400
Cropped

A Warm Morning

It's been cold but temperatures rose overnight and were sitting in the mid 40s this morning. I walked around Peebles Island, again with the 100-400mm lens. A downside of the temperature fluctuations was a system of frozen trails with a layer of mud on top. 

Someone told me this morning that the state removed the deer population from the island over the summer. I don't know if this is true but except for a lone buck a few weeks ago I haven't seen any.

Here are some of the shots.

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 200mm, f/6.7, 1/350 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 100mm, f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 800

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 214mm, f/11, 1/1000 sec., ISO 800

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 400mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec., ISO 400
Cropped

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 100mm, f/11, 1/250 sec., ISO 800

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 100mm, f/8, 1/750 sec., ISO 400

December Weather

It's been raining for a couple of days but it was cold over night so the ground was mostly frozen and streams were running high. I probably should have used my wider lens but I decided to spend some more time with the 100-400mm lens at Geyser Creek in Saratoga Spa State Park this morning. Predictably, 100mm saw the most use.

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 100mm, f/5.6, 1/750 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 100mm, f/8, 1/1500 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 100mm, f/8, 1/1500 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 100mm, f/8, 1/500 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 100mm, f/11, 1/350 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 214mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec., ISO 400

Last Gear Change of 2024

I've been missing options longer than 85mm for landscape purposes, especially sunrises. Looking back at older sunrises, a lot of the more interesting shots were made at around 200mm. Both the inexpensive RF 24-240mm lens and the more expensive RF 70-200mm L lens filled that role. In the EF lens days I often used one of the 70-300mm options.

I've been very happy with the new RF 28-70mm f/2.8 lens and wanted to figure out a way to affordably add length beyond the 85mm lens without drastic changes. I decided that I would give the RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM lens another try. I also sold the 24mm f/1.8 lens that had been sitting around unused.

I also had room in the new bag which arrived earlier in the week. Every place in the bag must have something in it and everything must have a place in the bag. My lineup now is the two EOS R8 bodies, the two zoom lenses and the 35mm and 85mm prime lenses along with some flashes. 

[UPDATE 12/13/24: Canon Rumors had a post yesterday regarding a lens which I would prefer to the 100-400mm. 

"We've recently been told by one source than an 'RF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS STM is in the pipeline', with a design influenced by the RF 28-70mm f/2.8 IS STM... A second source claims that it'll be shorter on the long end, 'something like a 70-150mm f/2.8 IS STM'... we're pretty confident that there is some truth in the conflicting information."

If it comes to fruition, I will definitely have to give it a try.]

Here are some shots of the new lens and the new bag along with some shots from a walk around Peebles Island yesterday after the lens arrived. With the change of lenses and inclusion of some accessories the bag now weighs 17.5 lbs.

RF 100-400mm at 400mm w/lens hood

RF 100-400mm at 100mm

Tamrac Ultra Pro 13 Filled

Tamrac Ultra Pro 13 Without R8s and Zooms

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 165mm, f/8, 1/2000 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 183mm, f/11, 1/350 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 183mm, f/8, 1/500 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 100-400mm at 400mm, f/11, 1/125 sec., ISO 400

Winding Up November

I seem to be settling on the 28-70mm lens and an R8 without the extension grip as a main setup. No surprise, really. Bag selection continues to be an issue as everything is either too big or too small depending on the use.

A bag I stuck with for quite a while over a decade ago when I had two DSLR bodies and heavier EF L lenses was the long discontinued Tamrac Ultra Pro 13 shoulder bag. I'm going to try a used copy I found on eBay and see if that works out.  Here is a 15 year old video from Tamrac describing the bag's features.

[UPDATE 12/1/24: The bag has arrived and while it is missing a few of the original dividers it is in like new condition. Not bad for a bag that was discontinued a decade ago. Loaded up it weighs 16.6 lbs. Not something I'll carry along on a hike but it will be great for storage and transport.]

In other changes, I started a Bluesky account and will use that as my social media outlet. Here are some recent photos to finish out the month.

Peebles Island
EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 35mm, f/5.6, 1/180 sec., ISO 400

Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve
EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 38mm, f/11, 1/90 sec., ISO 100

Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve
EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 58mm, f/11, 1/180 sec., ISO 100

Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve
EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 35mm, f/11, 1/60 sec., ISO 100

Waterford, NY
EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 28mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec., ISO 100

Long Pond R&R

The Long Pond Trail at Grafton Lakes State Park is a great workout compared to my other regular hikes. There isn't as much elevation change as some of the others but there are a lot of roots and rocks which require using different muscle groups. 

I created a project gallery with 46 photos from this morning's hike you can view here. Here are some samples.

EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 28mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 33mm, f/8, 1/1500 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 28mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 28mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 28mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec., ISO 400

EOS R8, RF 28-70mm f/2.8 at 28mm, f/11, 1/500 sec., ISO 400

Two New Projects

Projects let me have a focus (no pun intended) when I'm just out with a camera. Some are gear focused, some are location focused, some are technique focused.

When I switched website hosts last spring, I started over with much of the content, including the archived projects. A link to the folder which contains the project galleries is located on the sidebar.

Two current projects are photos at f/2.8 with the 28-70mm zoom lens and vertical (portrait) orientation photos with the 35mm lens. Here are some recent photos from each.

EOS R8, RF 28-70mm at 39mm, f/2.8, 1/1500 sec., ISO 100

EOS R8, RF 28-70mm at 70mm, f/2.8, 1/3000 sec., ISO 100

EOS R8, RF 28-70mm at 43mm, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec., ISO 100

EOS R8, RF 35mm f/1.8 STM, f/5.6, 1/1500 sec., ISO 200

EOS R8, RF 35mm f/1.8 STM, f/5.6, 1/350 sec., ISO 200