Sunday, February 28, 2010

I need a longer lens

Ha, I knew I'd get more than one entry here in February, albeit it 25 days apart but whatever. Headed down to Red Wing last Monday around 1:00 to see if the eagles were out. They were, but my kit 80-300mm just doesn't cut it. There was an incredible photo op as a lone eagle did two laps around the boats in the bay at Colvill park. Thing is is that it happened right after I pulled in and my camera settings were still set from low lights shots and didn't have to time adjust them and get setup before the big boy was gone. FUCK! Spent the rest of the day trying to take pics of eagles and hawks that are way too far away for my crappy kit lens. Still pretty fun though, pics dont break a trip that's main goal was just to get away for the afternoon. Good pics would've just been a bonus. After I got home and realized my pics turned out like shit I went on BH to look at new lenses and teleconverters. Unfortunately Olympus isn't like Nikon or Canon and doesn't offer a huge variety of lenses, but I think I found a decent lens for a decent price, a hell of a lot better than the one I have now. Won't be getting it until next offseason but I definitely want to get in to bird photography. The lens is an Olympus 70-300mm (equiv. 140-600mm due to the 4/3 system).
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/504906-REG/Olympus_261057_70_300mm_f_4_5_6_Zuiko_ED.html#reviews
Combine that with a 2x teleconverter and we're talking some serious zoom. Probably have to pick up a monopod for it, but that will likely be my big purchase next offseason, unless another telephoto lens comes out for a decent price.
Anyways, here's the proof that I desperately need a better lens:







Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Moon pics. SDS is getting real bad

Jeez I've gotten some SDS real bad and didnt even realize it. It wasn't until Scott W. called me out at ST to make me realize how big of a douche I was being and how far I was taking it. Pointless bitching that ended up going nowhere. Not that I still dont feel the issue was worth discussing, but admittedly it was a bit much. Anyways, thanks to Scott for getting me to realize it. I need to find something else to fill my time during the winter. I guess the working out, hockey, school, work, and photography still somehow don't fill it up. I've become the exact thing I was mocking at the beginning of the winter. Epic fail.

Sooo... couple days ago I tried out some moon photography. Never done it before so it took me a little bit to figure it out. Some high cloud didn't help the situation, but eventually I was able to get some decent exposures. Wish I had a longer lens or I had gone out while the moon was a little closer but even still it was cool to try it out. One weird thing did happen to me. Thanks to F5 and ST (yes, ST) I think it's safe to assume what I saw was a pair of contrails move between me and the moon, effectively blocking out part of the moon while it moved from roughly SW to NE. Never seen anything like it before and probably wont see it again for a while. Either way it was cool/weird to see. Anyways, here's a few pics. Nothing great, but not bad.




The following pics are onces of the contrail just after it moved across the face of the moon (relative to my position). Unfortunately as it moved right in front I was waiting for a 25 second exposure to process on my camera. But was still able to manage these: