3 walks, 4.3K, 3.8K, and 85mm

Fish Creek 3 days in a row! A brief summary.

Friday (3.8K):
It started out a beautiful day, warm and windy.
The walk started on top of the bluff near bridge 9, walking to the gravel bar near the bridge

There were several different versions of the dramatic clouds over the trees.

A little later, still blue sky looking north.

I found this lovely reflecting pond and spent some time puttering around it. The first photo is from here as well.

Only a few minutes later I was hustling along looking for the path up and out. A quick stop to capture the clouds rolling in at impressive speed.

My car was a short walk away, and I'd barely started driving when the rain began. By the time I got home it was a howling monsoon, but stopped shortly after.

Saturday (85mm):
The plan was to rent a Sigma 85mm f1.4 lens for the community association Halloween party. The theory being that the f2.8 lens I used last year simply wasn't fast enough. (We need not get into a discussion about how or why a chunk of glass, metal, and plastic can be fast or slow, unless you really want me to. It's a whole other blog. Trust me when I say the 85mm lens is 4 times faster.)

However, whoever last rented that lens turned it in damaged, so it was not available to me. Sigh. I ended up renting a Canon 85 mm f 1.2 lens. Great, I thought, even faster. (Don't ask unless you really want to know.) The results were better, but still not what I had hoped.

It started with my favourite model and all round BRBE Michelle indulging me during a snowy afternoon. There are some lovely shots of her that we are both pleased with, but then there was this.

You probably look at her and think it's a nice photo of her, and you'd be right. (The others are much better.) It's the background that kills me dead. Look for the green and purple lines along the curbs. Gah! It's called chromatic aberration, and it's gross.

Not to get technical on you, but this is a known thing for this lens, and the so-called solution is not to shoot wide open. So this is at f1.6, which is significantly slower than wide open, and there's still huge chromatic aberration. My question is, why buy an extremely expensive lens to be able to shoot at f1.2 when you have to shoot at f2.8 to get usable photos? There are other lens that shoot f2.8 and they are MUCH less expensive.

The other solution is to be really, really picky about your background. Like this.

I love her serene and confident look, but look how the background is out of focus. That's what you want faster than f2.8 for.

Anyways, I shot the Halloween party, and the photos came out better than last year, but still not as crisp as I had hoped. Here's one shot I really liked.

The problem in a dark room is that I needed to shoot like the camera was a mirrorless to see what I was focussing on. Every time I took a shot I had to wait 5 seconds to take the next one. It just killed me. Kids move much faster than that.

Sunday (4.3K):
I was one of several people taking another walk in Fish Creek today, over towards bridge 1. Lots of nice shots, and we all seemed to be having a good time. One of mine is in the running for Image of the Month coming up in a few days.

I don't often have much luck with running water, but I like that the flow is obvious.

Water is good for other things too.

A weird shot for me. The bird took off just as I clicked, and I played with the photo to bring up the swirl of the wings.

Lynx of the Day

Deadwood of the Day

Scavenger Photo