Goodbye to Zenfolio

Today's activity has been to open up a SmugMug account, get some photos uploaded and transfer my domain name from Zenfolio to SmugMug. It is not yet a completed task but it's actually farther along than I feared.

Complicating matters is that Zenfolio is so screwed up these days that I can not download my files and have to search through archives on various portable hard drives so that I can upload them to Smug Mug. You know it'll be a chore when there's a pop up apology message before you even try to do anything.

SmugMug is half the cost of Zenfolio and all I'm losing is a self contained blog (which hasn't been working correctly) and the ability to sell prints, etc. (which I almost never do). My plan is to keep it very simple and upload only a fraction of what I would have uploaded to the Zenfolio site. Other, less artistic images, will show up here or on Instagram. 

One issue I will try to iron out is that the URL must be www.trulandphotography.com to work correctly. I've been correcting the links on the blog and Instagram. Until June 1st, the Zenfolio site can be viewed at https://trulandphoto.zenfolio.com/.

Winter In Springtime

I headed to Grafton Lakes State Park yesterday morning with a plan to shoot ice covered trees in bright sunshine. For most of the fifteen mile trip to the park the trees were bright and sparkly with ice. About a quarter mile before the park entrance, however, the ice disappeared. Apparently, at the park's elevation, there was very little freezing rain with more snow covering the ground.

But the scenery was still nice so I stayed at the park and walked some of the trails in the Second Pond, Long Pond and Shaver Pond areas. For carrying purposes, I've settled on my Think Tank Speed Freak shoulder bag with the two L series zoom lenses, the R6 body and spare batteries and other accessories. It weighs about six pounds and doesn't seem to be a problem to carry on longer hikes.

Here are some of the scenes from yesterday.

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 19mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 26mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 16mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 16mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 16mm, f/8

Not Spring Weather

Yesterday saw a storm system that was more wintry than the weather service predicted. This morning, temperatures were in the teens with wind chills in the dingle digits. I timed a short photo outing so that the sun was up enough for good light and temperatures were above their overnight lows but not so much that ice and snow was falling off trees, wires, etc.

Here are some of the scenes from Peebles Island and Waterford.

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 35mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 29mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 24mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 32mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 14mm, f/11

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 19mm, f/11

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L at 14mm, f/11

Going Back To A Year Ago

It appears I'm gradually getting back to a set of gear similar to what I had a year ago before I started a journey with Minolta lenses, then Canon EF L prime lenses and then Canon RF STM prime lenses. From February through June, I had two EOS R bodies and RF 14-35mm, 24-105mm and 70-200mm f/4L USM lenses. 

My most recent acquisition is an RF 14-35mm f/4L USM lens via a great Canon refurbished sale. So, the R6 has replaced the two R bodies and I'm without the 70-200mm f/4L lens. 

Even though it's Spring, daytime wind chill temperatures today were in the teens. I still wanted to check out the ultra wide lens and walked over to Waterford. Here are some samples, all wider than the 24mm available to me with my longer lens.

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L USM at 14mm, f/5.6

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L USM at 17mm, f/5.6

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L USM at 19mm, f/5.6

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L USM at 23mm, f/5.6

EOS R6, RF 14-35mm f/4L USM at 14mm, f/5.6

More Spring Weather

Yesterday was another sunny morning with temperatures in the 60s. I managed a four and a quarter mile walk around Oakwood Cemetery which, as you can see, requires a serpentine route.

Here are some of the scenes along the way. I noted Daffodil buds but no blossoms yet. Maybe by the end of the weekend.

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 30mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 24mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 81mm, f/5.6

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 105mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 24mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 40mm, f/8
cropped from horizontal

Spring Is Here

I had a nice 5.68 mile walk around Schodack Island State Park this morning. When I started out shortly after 10:00 AM I needed gloves and a couple of layers. When I got back to the parking lot two hours later the temperature was around 60 degrees and I had shed the gloves and one of the layers.

I'm pretty settled with the RF 24-105mm f/4L lens as my primary lens with the 16mm and 50mm STM lenses as occasional options. I also have an inexpensive vintage experiment on the way from eBay. One of my Minolta MC lenses from 1970 has a lot of scratches on the exterior elements. I found a related model of the same focal length from about a decade later which is smaller, lighter and supposedly sharper. We shall see. [Update: The MD 200mm f/4 lens has arrived. The lens is nice and worth $50 but it's not something I will use regularly.]

The gallery for this park can be viewed at https://trulandphotography.com/schodackisland. Here are some shots from this morning.

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 24mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 105mm, f/5.6

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 30mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 24mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 24mm, f/11

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 24mm, f/4

Refilling a Gap

I picked up another refurbished RF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens after having traded in my prior copy when I migrated from the 24-240mm f/4-6.7 zoom to the 24-105mm f/4L zoom. Buying refurbished lenses from Canon, and then only when they are on sale, is a way of not losing out when you do things like this. If the sale is good enough, you can later trade the lens at MPB for about what you paid for it. Trade in value depends entirely on the condition of the lens regardless of whether you bought it new, refurbished or used. It's sort of like an inexpensive extended rental. I bought my prior copy for $80 and traded it for $80. This one was $100.

Canon makes only two 50mm prime lenses in their RF mount. This $200 f/1.8 STM lens and the $2,300 f/1.2 USM lens. I had a copy of the EF version of the f/1.2 last summer, which requires an adapter and foregoes some of the benefits of the RF mount, and would love the RF version but it's big, heavy and very expensive so that's unlikely. There are rumors of an RF 50mm f/1.4 lens but until then, the f/1.8 STM lens will have to do. Here is a comparison of the two RF lenses from The Digital Picture.

The f/1.8 lens is not really sharp at wider apertures, especially at the edges, and the quality of the bokeh is harsher than the faster, more expensive lens. But for a small fraction of the price it's not bad. I tested this copy out yesterday, some shots are wide open at f/1.8 just to test.

EOS R6, RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, f/1.8

EOS R6, RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, f/4

EOS R6, RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, f/2

EOS R6, RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, f/2

EOS R6, RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, f/1.8

EOS R6, RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, f/2.8

EOS R6, RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, f/8

Late Winter Weather Swings

The weather has been crazy since my last blog post five days ago. There was a day in the mid to upper 60s with wind and sun followed by a day with below freezing temperatures and even colder wind chill all day. 

I got walks in on both of those days and yesterday revisited one of my standard hikes along the Champlain Canalway Trail in Halfmoon. It's an approximately four mile round trip from a parking spot behind a chemical plant up to an old canal lock and back.

It's not a bad stretch of the trail for wildlife. Yesterday it was all birds with a Kingfisher hanging around and a snowy owl making noise in the distance. The tassled grass is an invasive species, Phragmites australis.

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 43mm, f/8

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 43mm, f/4

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 105mm, f/4

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 24mm, f/6.7

EOS R6, RF 24-105mm f/4L at 43mm, f/8