No Photographs This Week

It continues to be a lean time for the photography and on my only trip out I didn't take anything worth posting. I went back to the place where I had taken the shots of the Curlew and Lapwings a few weeks back because at my house the weather was quite nice and bright. By the time I got there it was the same old story, the black clouds had started to roll over from Manchester again. Not only that, there was no sign of either Lapwing or Curlew so I guess they must have moved on. There was a couple of hunting birds swooping around but none of the photos I took were very clear or very near. I tried to rescue some in Aperture but they were all beyond redemption.

On the plus side I ordered and have received a new 17-85mm lens to replace the broken one from my previous blog. I decided in the end that I couldn't really justify spending nearly £1,000 on the 24-70mm L lens, especially as I wanted to get some other stuff in preparation for going on holiday. Maybe if I start to make any money out of my hobby I can think about buying professional gear, but until then I need to be sensible (unfortunately). I found the new lens on eBay for about £250 as a new lens, unboxed which had been split from a kit. My original lens came in the kit with my Canon 40D so I don't need a box. I haven't decided what to do with my broken lens yet. Is it worth fixing now I have new replacement? The second hand ones on eBay are only making around £100 and it could cost more than that to get it fixed. I've considered taking it apart and seeing if I can fix it myself, you never know. Even if I can't I haven't lost anything.

So, what did I get in preparation for my holiday? I decided that I needed some more memory cards. Last year I didn't take the charger for my card reader hard drive so in the second week of my holiday I had to switch to shooting in jpeg rather than raw format when the battery went flat. I also had to reduce the number of photos that I shot which didn't make me happy. I am taking the charger for my card reader this year but the extra memory will reduce the amount I have to rely on the card reader. I also bought a couple of spare batteries for my camera. Again I am taking the charger but I don't want to be caught out with no power for my camera.

I also decided that I wanted a new bit of kit so I also bought a flashgun. I didn't get a Canon one because they seemed quite expensive so I bought a Nissin Di662 for about a third the price of an equivalent Canon one (7dayshop.com is brilliant for cheap stuff). I haven't played with it much but it seems to do all the things I want so far. I've never used a flashgun before so it's all a bit new to me and maybe later I might buy a second one to enhance my lighting options. Maybe a Canon one if I find this one is limiting and then use this as the secondary light. I'll get used to using one first and see how it goes. The flashgun uses AA rechargeable batteries, so I had to get some batteries and yet another charger. Also I bought a charger for my iPod Touch so I'm now taking 4 different chargers with me on holiday. There's got to be a better way!

So hopefully this weekend I will get some good shots and I'll post them some time during the week. As I've not had any new photos to play with this week I've added some Lensbaby photos from my garden earlier in the year into my gallery. I need to add lots more photos into my gallery because I have loads that I think are quite reasonable. I do need to get more organised in my workflow. Hmm, you never know it might happen.