Birds and Squirrels with the 7D and 120-400OS

Yesterday and today I went a wandering with the 7D and the 120-400OS.  I won't use this lens below f8 as it's too soft, so for an effective focal length of over 600mm (on the cropped sensor of the 7D) you need good light to use it.  Recently, we've been having some decent weather, so I've been trying it out properly...

(7D, Sigma 120-400OS at 400mm, f8, 1/640s, ISO 400, distance:6.52m)

My First Goose Egg!

I was given half a dozen chicken eggs and a goose egg today.  The goose egg is a pretty impressive thing - it must be 3 times the size of a normal chicken egg!  I thought it would make a good subject for a bit of food photography:

(5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f2, 1/250s, ISO 100)

Volcanic Sunset? - Timelapse

So, the big eruption under the glacier in the Eyjafjallajoekull region of Iceland (yes, I did copy-and-paste that jumble of letters!) is still pumping plumes of ash miles high, which due to the prevailing winds is drifted over old 'Blighty and grounding all the planes.  Those boffin sorts predicted "an apocalyptic sunset", so I'm guessing that everyone with a camera went out trying to capture something representative...

52 Weeks - Week 2: "Rainbow"

My second week of the "Photo a Week" year was themed "Rainbow".  I'd had a very busy week, and wheras I normally take pictures every day, I had about 4 days this week without picking up a camera.  I had a couple of ideas for the theme in my head, but it took until Sunday evening (the last day) to actually get the shots.  Here's one of them:

(7D, 24-70L at 32mm, f2.8, 1/125s, ISO100)

52 Weeks - Week 1: "Rain"

Recently, I've been watching several people doing their 365's - this is where you take at least 1 picture every day, usually with a theme.  I really like the idea of doing something like that, but we're already a good 90 days into the year as I write this and I didn't really want to wait for next year.  Anyway, on thinking about it, I decided I'd rather take a bit of time thinking about a theme and see what I could do over a few days, so I've decided to do 52 themes - one a week, ending on a Sunday.  My wife is setting the themes, and this first week's topic is "rain".

Inspiration? The Shower...

Not what you think.  I was wondering what could be done with a shower, a bath, a wireless slave flash and a camera.  As it happens, you can make a very wet flash, but luckily that didn't happen until I'd nearly finished (and don't worry, no flashes were harmed in the making of this... well, post)...

(5D2, 24-70L at 24mm, f2.8, 1/100s, ISO100)