A week in Devon

I've just been off for a week away with the family in Devon.  I went armed with 2 DSLRs and 5 lenses, but was also reminded that this is a family holiday, so I did my best not to let the photography take over!

Night Time at Knowlton

Knowlton Church is a 14th Century ruin of a church which was built in the centre of a pagan earth circle dating from the Bronze Age.  After my accidental success with capturing the band of the Milky Way while in Devon last week, I wanted to get out and try again with some proper technique.  So, 3 of us armed with camera's, tripods and torches travelled up around 8pm on a Friday evening.

Macro playtime with the 7D

I haven't done much macro work recently, and was wondering what the 18MP of the 7D will make of  my 100mm f2.8 macro lens.  I was planning on heading out to the garden to capture something interesting, but as it decided to rain I've picked a few indoor things to shoot...

My Journey - Equipment - Part 3

Better quality "Standard" zoom - Sigma 17-70

Skip forward a whole month (!) to October 2007, and this was the point I took the step to upgrade the kit zoom lens (the 18-55 non-IS which is known for not being the sharpest of lenses).  After much thinking about it, I decided on the Sigma 17-70 which started at f2.8 at 17mm (although only to about 20mm).

7D - A brief landscape test...

The 7D is obviously known for sports and nature photography with it's 8fps and decent AF system, but I also own a 5D2 and I wanted to check out the quality of the 7D with it's packed 18MP APS-C sensor for landscape work.

My Journey - Equipment - Part 2

Those first months


So, I had my first DSLR, and it was absolutely fantastic - little did I know just how addicted to this whole game I was going to get!  I got it with the kit 18-55 lens (non IS - this was before the IS version came out), and I got the non-APO Sigma 70-300 lens too so I had something to get some distance with - I was trying to have the same functionality that I would have had with the S7000 I was coming from.

Canon 7D - First few hours

It was a bit spur of the moment to actually get out and buy the 7D (I've been thinking about it for a while!), but with a little help from the tax man, a cashback website and selling my 40D I can just about justify it!  Here are my thoughts after using it for a few hours...

My Journey - Equipment - Part 1

I wanted to put some details down about where I came from photographically, and why I made the choices that I made in purchasing various bits of kit - bodies, lenses etc.

Time Lapse Photography (Part 2)

I've had my first few attempts with the timed remote, so here are the results and a discussion about things learnt so far...

Starlings over Poole

I was out shopping over the weekend, and there was a "swarm" of Starlings ducking and diving around over Poole.  I had my 5D2 with me, so I took some shots and video...