So, we get to Devon on the Saturday - unpack, quick trip to the supermarket to buy supplies, then off with the Noro Virus. Yep - I got hit at 9pm on the first day (Saturday), my daughter at 2am on Sunday and my son 2 hours later. My wife had managed to get it all over and done with before we left, so we can blame her! Anyway, that wrote off the Sunday (no details needed!).
Monday we all felt pretty rough but decided to go for a gentle trip around Dartmoor. We went to a place called Parke which is the home of the Dartmoor National Park Authority and had a few walks around the grounds.
Parke Steps
On from here, we drove on to Dartmoor, past Hay Tor, Black Tor, Sheeps Tor and lots of other Tor's, on to eventually going through Post Bridge to PrinceTown - the home of Dartmoor Prison. Although I don't have any pictures, it was an ominous place, and it's situated in such a way that you can see over the fence into the prison so you can get a sense of what it might be like to be inside there.
Our trip went on the Burrator Resevoir. We planned to visit here so we could go for a short walk, and I was delighted to find a dam! (OK, it's a bit nerdy, but I like dams - the colossal engineering that goes into even a small one is mind blowing):
Burrator Resevoir Dam
It wasn't the best weather in the world, but there was a patch of blue sky over the resevoir:
Burrator Resevoir view
Across the dam, there was a wooded area. It must be something about the dampness of the air and the granite, but everything was covered in a green moss/lichen. It was very spongy and soft, and clung to every surface. The picture below shows the wooded area next to the dam - I've removed all colours other than the green to highlight it's prevalance:
Moss over the ground, Burrator Resevoir
Following the road round the resevoir lead to a small parking area with a river running into the resevoir. This offered a good opportunity for a long exposure shot - I put the 10 stop ND filter on the 5D2 and took several shots - this one seemed to capture the essence of the place:
Burrator Resevoir River
Back at the site that we were staying at, the sun went down with a bit of red glow in the cloudy sky - I like the contrast here between the natural silhoutte of the hills, the red glow of the sun and the man-made pylon:
Finlake after Sundown
The next day was forecast to rain fairly heavily all day, so we went on down to Plymouth to the National Marine Aquarium. It was fairly interesing, although there wasn't as much there as you'd believe from the size of the building and the maps. The large fish tank was very impressive however - the biggest in Europe apparently. The shot below is a close shot of a Jellyfish, inverted as I think it looks better swimming up!
Jellyfish - National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth
On the way back in the rain, we drove through Dartmoor. Back in August, we had a great time mucking around in the water at Dartmeet, and while the weather was somewhat different now we decided to go back there. Interestingly, this was the first point that we saw snow - it was very height dependant, and driving up a hill in Dartmoor, we rounded a corner and were greeted with snow covered hill tops and ground. It was a lovely sight! We drove down the hill to Dartmeet, where I took this shot:
River on Granite, Dartmeet, Devon
Travelling back to the lodge from Dartmeet we went back up again (Dartmeet is in a valley, so there were steep - I mean 20% and 25% - hills either side), and this time I stopped to capture the snow:
Snow near Hay Tor
On our final day, we went to Paignton Zoo. The weather was supposed to be the best of the week - it turned out that was about right - only raining for 10 or 15 minutes of the day and generally cloudy for the rest of it! Still, it's a nice zoo, and we were there about 5 minutes before it opened so once inside it felt like your own place for at least half and hour or so.
I had made a decision before we left to leave my Sigma 120-400OS lens at home, as I wasn't convinced that the extra 200mm reach over the 70-200 f4L IS lens was of good enough quality to mean that the images were better. I think this was the right decision - the 70-200 f4L IS is a lighter lens, is very sharp and fast at focussing (not that the 120-400 is a slouch in this regard), but it's also excellent at f4, whereas I'm not really happy using the 120-400OS under f8. I still haven't categorically decided whether an upscaled shot at 200mm from the 70-200 is of the same quality as a shot at 400mm from the 120-400, but that's for another post.
So, some pics from the zoo:
Cheeky Monkey!
Gull Taking Off
Yawning
Cuddling Rhinos
Sharp Duck
This last shot I had a good opportunity to position myself and take the shot of a fairly static bird in the big aviary, and I'm impressed with just how sharp the 7D can be - focus is spot on the eye and the clarity even at 100% is impressive.
Comments
From a photographic point of view, I thought I'd comment a little on the cameras etc. Primarily on ownership of both a 5D2 and 7D. I picked up the 7D a week before going on holiday, and had a concern initially that I would favour one body over the other as they are both capable, excellent bodies. However, having owned both now for nearly a month, I'm very happy about when and where to use thedifferent bodies. For landscape and low light work I pick the 5D2 without question. For static portraits, again it's the 5D2. For the zoo, nature shots, bird in flight it's the 7D hands down. For the kids messing about, I also use the 7D as the autofocus is that much better. The image quality of the 5D2 is considerably better, but that's what I'd expect. Having said that, the 7D is capable of producing absolutley excellent images - you have to be careful about getting the exposure right as the image degrades rapidly if you are correcting underexposure, but with careful use each camera has it's own niche and I'm very happy to own, use and appreciate both.
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