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hedwards

Hank Edwards
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Well, I did get around to going for a more extensive walk through of the arboretum yesterday, the first image has already been posted. It was the first time that I felt comfortable walking around with professional glass. I hadn't realized just how inadequate I felt walking around with my ginormous L on my ginormous gimbal head. I guess there's nothing like a $2,000 lens to make one feel like a poseur. But the good news is that my self confidence has returned and the images I'm getting are probably the best of my career.

What I've learned from all this is that, getting an expensive lens will allow for you to get a few shots here and there that you might not have been able to get, but the effect is somewhat smaller than typically imagined. I could have gotten the bee photo with a much cheaper lens, the main factor that allowed me to get it was a 200mm focal length and the speed of focus. If that were my main concern I could have gotten a lens like the Canon 70-200mm F4L without IS and should have gotten more or less the same image.

That being said, having seen the 70-200mm F2.8L IS in action over the last few photo shoots, I can safely say that I'll be giving it up when they pry it from my cold dead fingers. Just because it's the photographer that makes the shots, doesn't mean that I'll give up the lens.
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Eh, I know it's been a while. I do have new work that I haven't put up, but I've been busy. Had a heat stroke combined with severe sodium deficiency last summer, and spent a few days in the hospital, I was completely fine, but it did sort of knock me off track for a bit.

Went back to school and got my TESL certification. With any luck, I'll be spending much of next year in Yangschu China. Or perhaps somewhere else.

On the bright side, despite being way out of practice, my skills seem to still be intact, with any luck I'll be going to one of the parks I don't spend much time in later this week and will have photos from that.
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Lens technique

1 min read
I'm still figuring out how best to use the equipment. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but it's taken awhile for me to figure out how best to use this lens with the tripod head I've got.

I ended up swiveling the tripod colar to the side and hanging the lens and camera slightly off to the side of the tripod head. Seems to be working better than balancing it on the top. Definitely not as good as a gimbal, but I can't really afford the $600 or so for a decent gimbal head.

I've been spending a bit of time making sure that my photo database is working well, mostly so I can keep track of my images quickly.
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Well, I'm still kicking around, I'd taken a bit of a hiatus because I was really starting to repeat myself to an untenable degree. But, I spent some money and got a new lens, which will hopefully give me enough extra reach to get different shots.

I ended up with a beautiful Canon ef 70-200mm f2.8L IS, yes it's quite a bit of lens and yes, having both the IS as well as the f2.8 is probably overkill, but there's a good chance that I'll be wanting to use a telaconverter on it later on, and both of those features are basically a necessity.

So far the lens is far better than I am, I guess it'll take a while to get used to it. A bit of a pain to use with my ball head, especially when shooting upward or downward, but the Bokeh is gorgeous and it should serve me well once I get it figured out.

I just put up a couple of shots, right now most of them are garbage, but I have gotten a few worthwhile shots. Probably later today I'll put up a few paintings.
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Still existing

1 min read
Well, I am still kicking. I didn't realize that it has been so long. Apparently since September. I do have a few new things that I am working on, but until I get through with the current serious of tests, it is unlikely that I will actually finish anything.

Best way to get a hold of me is by the email address. Nice and changeable if need be.
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