Photography - Love it.... love my Canon

Taken at a falconry display when visiting Cotsworld Wildlife Park

How to compete with a Bird watching addict!! Well if you can't beat them join them so to speak....not exactly but going on long walks looking for birds does have its compensations in beautiful scenery and wildlife photos.

I always did like taking photos in the days of film, so long ago!!!! when the kids came along they became my main focus in the photographs I took.

The only issue I have ever found with the SLR cameras is the weight of them, it does put you off taking  it around all the time. I do find I have to plan when I am going to use my SLR as it is not just the weight of the camera but the lenses you have to carry which is the pain, especiallly those for wildlife.

In Morocco, Oasis Flint.

At the moment I have had my canon 5D Mark 2 for around three years so it is getting a bit long in the tooth when compared to the all singing and dancing new designs out there, and it has been through the wars. On holiday in Turkey last year I fell with all my weight with the camera and luckily it hit the one safe metal area on the camera but denting it quite severely.



On setting out with my photography I used Sigma lenses as they were within our price range, my favourite was the old Bigma Sigma!! 50-500mm - you needed the muscles of a wrestler to use it handheld but I managed it!! my other favourite was my 15-30 mm fish eye type, this gave me great photos. However all these meant you had to compromise with the light as they all needed bright summer sun to work at their best. I then lead onto my 100-400 L Canon lens, brilliant for wildlife. My only qualm was when the lens was still under warranty we had used the lens in a very steamy wet forest and this got into the lens even though they said it was waterproof!!! I thought it would be mended under warranty however they stated that STEAM did not count as water and so we had to pay for the new optics!!!! Not pleased. After this my wide angle lens I chose was the 17-40 L, I had been wanting the 16-35mm as it had low light use but this has been a good staple lens. My very very very best fun lens is the 50 mm Canon 1.8 mm lens, at £90 it is a cheap piece of plastic but oh what fun you can have with the depth of field and working in the evening and morning light. This is my stay on lens and I love it.

At a falconry site in Suffolk

To capture the photo is the first task and then to play with it on the computer. Initially I used Capture One which I did love and gave great tones to faces etc, I really only tinkered with boosting colours, straightening and removing dust sensor marks. On getting the Mac I went onto Aperture and I HATE it, it is so slow, if I see that whirly gig timer again, ughhhh but I'm stuck with it as I am not going to pay hundreds for Photoshop. I also hate the way I have to do a work round just to avoid Apple from taking over my photos, I have to keep working with reference copies etc, ughhhh.

Some more of my photos can be seen on Flickr, as can be seen on the blog below.

Around 5.00am in the Cairngorms, Scotland

Around 5.00 am in the Cairngorms , Scotland

In a Masai village in Amboseli, Kenya