Due to a bit of a financial windfall courtesy of my local union (for which I have proudly been a steward and newsletter editor for over 12 years now) last year, Cathi and I have been able to upgrade some of our photo equipment. She got a Canon Powershot S1 IS digital camera with a 10x optical zoom. I upgraded all my lenses while still using my old faithful Canon EOS 5 film camera. I now have an arsenal that covers quite a bit of photographic territory.
The kingpin of this group is something I've dreamed about for the entire thirteen years I have been trying to take photographs: a big, honkin' 600mm lens for taking pictures of birds. This one (Canon EF600mm F4L IS USM) is also quite fast and has image stabilization. I also got a nice fast zoom (EF70-200mm F2.8L IS USM) for concerts, zoos and many other situations. To cover the wide angle territory I got the wonderful EF24-70mm F2.8L USM. To round it out, a normal 50mm f/1.4 lens. In addition, we geared up with some Lowe Pro bags and belts and some filters and other miscellaneous equipment.
In February of this year, although there were no further sizable windfalls, a number of factors nudged us to make the decision to go completely digital. The shops offering film processing have been dwindling in numbers rapidly over the years, especially for slide film. Call me impatient, but waiting three weeks to see slides is excessive. The immediacy of digital appeals to me. The main reason for waiting to go digital was not any nostalgic attachment to film, but the fact that my latest film camera was only a few years old and I have an irrational aversion to having recent purchases become obsolete that quickly. So, I am now the proud owner of a Canon 5D 12.8 megapixel digital camera. I have been putting it through it's paces around the house and took it on it's first road trip to the Philadelphia Flower Show in March.
The results of all of this new equipment are at various places online with more to follow. Cathi had her Flower Show photos up first as a slide show on her Photo Bucket site. I am preparing more for a larger display on our new 1002 Gallery site, where there are some concert photos already. Last year's ROSfest and NEARfest photos were taken with the new 70-200mm zoom, but this year's will be taken with the new camera. Also featured soon will be our Deleware River Cruise, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus and photos from recent trips to both the Philadelphia (many more photos of our new buddy Dimitri like the one at the top of the page - his mate, Kira, is due to give birth any day now!) and Elmwood Park Zoos. Other than the two festivals, some photos from other concerts at venues that allow photography will be up as soon as I can. I'm also dealing with updating our other web sites and learning how to use Dreamweaver, the web design program now included in the Adobe Creative Suite since Adobe and Macromedia merged. We hope you enjoy what is available so far and you will visit again as we put more up. Both Cathi and I have My Space sites and we will post bulletins to all our friends when our updates are finished.
This time on our project home page we feature all birds. Birds from 1002 itself, including some of the first photos with my new digital SLR. Some are from last spring. Hopefully this spring we will be able to have the time and good weather for even more bird photos! Until then and until the festival pages are updated, we hope to put up some more small galleries up on our 1002 Gallery site. So keep an eye out there in the coming weeks. Enjoy!
As always, just point and click your left mouse button on any of the thumbnail images below to view a larger photo.
Tufted Titmouse at 1002 February 18, 2007(first Canon 5D digital photos) |
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More Birds at 1002February, 2007 |
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Still More Birds at 1002 Red-Tailed Hawk, December 2006 |
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Birds at Norristown Farm Park, May, 2006Eastern Bluebird and Great Crested Flycatcher |
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Betzwood Trail - Valley Forge National Historical Park and PECO Property near Collegeville, May 2006 |
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Click here for photos from NEARfest 2007.
Click here for photos from ROSfest 2007.
Click here for Merlin's Page.
Please visit The 1002 Photography Project Gallery.
