Jun

11

(2006)

First Photography Expedition

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I went for a quick drive this evening, through the Bearspaw region/community just a couple minutes from my house at the far northwest corner of Calgary. I think this was the first actual dedicated photography expedition I've taken - certainly in the last couple of years, anyway. I wound up taking 46 shots in about 45 minutes, from a few locations spread over the Bearspaw community. After throwing out the shots that sucked, were uninteresting, or really badly exposed, I was left with 9 shots that didn't make me cringe .

I was hoping to get some shots of the mountains and foothills, but some impending weather got in the way of that. So, I explored a bit, hoping to find something interesting to shoot, with the green scenery as a backdrop.

I found a great old wagon left on the side of a hill overlooking the Bow River valley, so parked nearby and took some shots. I'm actually quite happy with the shot below - with the cows in sharp focus, and the wagon slightly blurred. 

I have to say - I'm so totally happy with the new Canon XT. I've got lots of room to grow with it. I wound up exchanging the XT I got last weekend for a new one, due to the noisy sensor. The new one seems much cleaner - a few spots on the test exposure, but nothing worth worrying about. I also opted for the black body this time, and am really happy that I did. It just feels like more of a "high end" or "professional" rig. Of course, neither term applies to me, so it's mostly just to help me pretend to be a real photographer :-)

Evan was helping a neighbour assemble a wheelbarrow this afternoon, and I was messing around with the autofocus servo mode and the rapidfire mode (fires off 14 shots in about 3 seconds) to try to catch some action. I think that combo is pretty impressive - the AF Servo keeps moving subjects in sharp focus, and the rapidfire makes it easier to capture the right shot (and then delete the extra 13 shots…) 

Comments

4 Responses to “First Photography Expedition”

  1. Raj Boora on June 11th, 2006 9:27 pm

    I'm still waiting to get rolling with my new toy (check out my confession) but when I was out and about today, I started noticing all sorts of low light type shots that I can try for now and with Future Shop clearing out the 75-300mm I'm thinking that I might get that once I research it a bit (early findings show that it's a bit of a lemon - better save for the 17-85 and the 50mm prime). 

    Nice composition and great colors - did you shoot RAW?
  2. dnorman on June 11th, 2006 9:32 pm

    Raj - thanks. I’m still shooting jpeg (large/fine). Until I have the hard drive space to manage all those 8 MB files…

  3. Chris Garrett on June 12th, 2006 8:04 am

    Nice composition D'Arcy :)

    Raj, avoid the 75-300, if you are looking for that range go with the 70-300mm IS USM

  4. dnorman on June 12th, 2006 11:12 am

    Thanks, Chris. I’ll try to get out some more, maybe in better weather…

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