Liffey Gulls

Posted on by declan

Some days it can be difficult to take photos. No matter what I try to photograph I never manage to get an image that is up to scratch. A couple of hours of trying and just when I give up I stumble across something good.  Last Saturday I was heading to the North Side to meet some friends after a day in town with my camera when I decided to walk down the boardwalk and noticed a man feeding birds. The seagulls seemed to queue up on the banister waiting for a chance to swoop in and grab some bread. My Sigma 18-200 lens may not be the best in the world at taking bird photographs but I think I managed to get an acceptable shot.

iPhone Hoppers

Posted on by declan

Wind up racing space hoppers on my desk in work. They were a Christmas present.

Taking this with my iPhone. I’d like to post more photos from my phone but I don’t know if the camera is up to it.

Update – After some files got accidentally deleted on my blog I tried to restore old photos but the one of the space hoppers has hopped off into the great photo box in the sky and cannot be found. Here’s the closest I could find to some space hoppers, pumpkins 🙂

That new Canon SLR

Posted on by declan

One of my work mates just received the new Canon 5D Mark II with a nice Canon EF 28-70 2.8 L lens. A little boxier than my poor old 40D and with that lens it is much heavier, but both camera and lens make a nice pair and take beautiful looking test photos. Focus was fast and accurate and exposure seemed good as well.

I think I would get a battery grip, my little finger seemed to slip off the bottom, which is odd because the 5D Mark II is franctionally larger than the 40D which fits my hand fine. It must be something different in the hand grip shape. With a camera and lens that expensive I’d want them welded to my hand.

All minor first impression complaints aside, I’m jealous. It’s a lovely piece of kit that will no doubt produce high quality images. Still, no new camera or lenses for me for a while, I need a decent computer for photo processing first. Maybe a 5D Mark III in years to come is the best I can hope for.

Quiet here isn’t it

Posted on by declan

I haven’t done much blogging or picture posting here. In fact over the last few months I haven’t posted much to any of the blogs I’m involved in or to flickr. I have to change that.

Hopefully in the next month or so I’ll get my photo library sorted onto a new machine, one that can run photoshop and display photos properly. Once that is done I’ll put up a new website and start posting properly.

For starters this post is coming from my iPhone which had become my main Internet terminal 🙂

New Canon DSLR?

Posted on by declan

There are lots of rumours about new Canon DSLRs mainly around the 5D replacements and a possible 1D replacement. Curiously when I look at the canon website they are a campaign for “the Future of Photography”.

Looking at the camera image there are two things. First there seems to be a built in flash, there is a line visible under the canon logo and there is no hot-shoe. The 5D has no built in flash and would any pro camera would be without it’s hot-shoe flash?

Second, and more interesting, there are no buttons, none at all, and no control dial?

I wonder, with all the coverage for the higher spec cameras is Canon about to surprise the market and launch another entry level DSLR camera with a touchscreen interface? That would be interesting but is it really going to appeal to the typical DSLR user? It might get some point-and-click users to make the jump to DSLRs. A camera with all the advantages of a DSLR but with the ease of use of a point-and-click? Will touch screens make it into a new 5D or will that take another release or two?