$1.819

I took some time this morning to drive to Winfield MO to watch and photograph the eagles. Last year, I went to the dam at Winfield, and had great success. I had no idea whether that was just dumb luck or if they would be back this year.

It was a foggy day, so the visibility wasn’t the greatest, but sitting in the trees of the Missouri side of the Mississippi River were a half dozen American Bald Eagles, watching the waters for snacks. They are majestic birds, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them sit, hunt and play around the river.

Unfortunately, the observation stand I was on last year has been somewhat dismantled — the stairs have been removed! That’s the only place where you can see the churn of the river as it passes through the dam, and one of the best views of the eagles hunting. I hope that’s fixed before the season is out, as it’d be great to watch more hunting and less sitting in the trees.

I also took the ferry across to Illinois to see if there were any eagles over there. Last year, the trees were full of dozens and dozens of eagles. This year, though, I only saw one on the Illinois side, and opted to drive around a bit before returning home to Missouri via the ferry.

Today was also the first real run for the Celestron Telephoto lens I picked up a few weeks ago. It’s nice, and the images in the viewfinder look sharp, but I’m finding that the lens shoots a little soft — I noticed that a while back when shooting astronomical targets. I suspect it needs an alignment, and that’s something I might be able to do myself, with a little coaching.

That lens attracted a lot of attention from folks. I was asked if I was a professional photographer. When I said I wasn’t, there were shocked looks on the faces of the questioners, and comments about how I must really enjoy photography as a hobby to spend that kind of money on gear. I even had a question if I had a web site. I’ve got to get some business cards for the photography site, and get some content for sale out there!

All in all, a good day, with lots of successful photography. However, just enjoying God’s gift of the outdoors was plenty!

One of the guys at work just bought a Canon 20D, and brought it to the office so I could compare it to my 10D, and so he could play with some big lenses that I have.

I keep hearing that the viewfinder on the 20D makes it a much nicer astrophotography camera over the 10D — allegedly, the image through the viewfinder is brighter. I looked through his the other day, and it definitely is different. The focus screen has a bit of a frosted cast to it, which I like, but I didn’t set ’em side by side to see which was brighter.

One thing that struck me about the 20D was the shooting speed, or more appropriately, the media write speed. There’s a dramatic difference in how many frames could be shot before the camera had to slow down to catch up on writes to the media. With my media (a 32x Lexar — the 80x Ultra II I tested with was waaaaaay faster), I could shoot nine frames before the 10D had to slow down to write. With the 20D, it was forty shots using the same media. Absolutely unbelievable! Obviously a bigger cache, and obviously faster media write speeds. With the 80x media, I could shoot sixty shots with the 20D before it had to slow down for writes.

Given that, the 20D is looking like a very attractive upgrade. I’d originally expected that I would have to look at a 1D Mark II to get frame speeds like that. Now, I’m changing my mind about that, and am thinking the 20D will give me the speed I’m looking for.

The downside? Well, there’s still the 1.6x multiplier effect with the 20D (same as the 10D) versus 1.3x with the 1D Mark II. The 1D Mark II has changable focus screens — most of the time, I prefer a split-circle screen which just isn’t possible with the 10D and 20D. Most of my accessories will work with the 20D, aside from my battery grip.

So what’s the right answer? Well, it depends on what Santa brings me! 🙂

Travel Photo Contest Entry

This morning heralded the announcement of the winning photos in the Post-Dispatch’s travel photo contest. Once again, I was held at bay, with no prize, no honorable mention, no nothing.

Again, I look at the photos that are placing, and cannot figure what’s so great about some of them. Had I shot some of them, I might’ve tossed them. Perhaps my eye is a bit too eclectic or severe. Or, much like like my color choices sometimes, my photos are only especially attractive to me, and don’t stand up to “traditional” critical eyes.

No matter. What I shoot is what I shoot. Can’t change my brain’s interpretation of a scene, can’t change the color-blind eyes in my head, and can’t change all the experiences of my life that make me see things the way I do. All I can do is learn, and try to make photos I like. If others like ’em too, then that’s gravy! 😉

Looking for something to do this afternoon, we all piled into the truck, and headed to Lone Elk to see the bison. Sio had never seen them before, and the day was just barely nice enough to go looking.

After a nice lunch in Eureka, we headed on over to the park. When we got there, we noticed the World Bird Sanctuary was open, and decided to drop in. I’m glad we did!

In their weathering area, they had all kinds of birds of prey — hawks and owls. They were tethered, and almost close enough to touch. We all had a great time watching them preen, spead their wings, and stare back at us like we were the exhibit.

At the visitors center, Sio got to pet a twelve-feet albino burmese python — beautiful white and yellow creature. I was amazed at how soft the skin was — I can see why folks make leather goods out of snakes.

The coolest thing, though, were our encounters with the elk in the park. Right off, we saw a male and female. The male had a huge rack! We had a couple of additional sightings, and then ran across the herd.

The herd had 10-12 elk, just roaming down the road, and in and out of the stopped cars. We were all gawking at the majesty and beauty of these massive creatures. They meandered on down the road and went off down a hill.

No bison, but nature at its finest, nonetheless!

$1.619

Sio, Becky and I loaded up the Family Truckster and went to the St. Louis County Fair & Air Show. Becky and I last visited this show two years ago — last year was waaaay too muddy! — and we had a blast.

As expected, the traffic was pretty bad coming and going, but the location of the new house helps tremendously — back roads all the way, both ways, and we were able to skirt most of the “city dwellers” that had come west to gawk at the aircraft.

The air show started just about as soon as we set up our chairs, and ran pretty much non-stop for three hours. It began with the Golden Knights and concluded with the Blue Angels, with tons of good stuff, new and old, in between.

The most impressive? Well, the Blue Angels are always fun to watch, but I was still awed by the C-17 and B-1B. The C-17 is just massive and awesome to see fly — how can something that big be in the air?! 🙂 The B-1B stirs old memories, and still has a soft spot with me.

I can remember my first glimpse of the B-1B when I was stationed at Offutt AFB, NE. Someone was getting a show of just what that aircraft could do — this was perhaps 1986 or 1987, and few of us had seen one of these beauties performing live. Our whole building emptied to watch this swept-wing marauder fly, diving and climbing like a craft half its size. Needless to say, we were all gobsmacked.

The flight of the B-1B today wasn’t as spectacular, but it sure brought back some memories for me!

Photos will appear below — I only (!) took 1400, so be prepared to burn some bandwidth! 😉

[Lake of the Ozarks, MO]

Last night, we drove down to the lake for a weekend of rest and relaxation with Mary & John and Curt & Kelly. John’s grandmother has a condo down there, and it is plenty spacious.

This morning, we had a terrific lightning storm. Unfortunately, I woke up too late to catch the good stuff, but I did shoot a good bit of cloud to cloud lightning, lighting up the cove.

Fun in the sun, swimming and wandering around, and that was Friday.

Also on my trip, I picked up a monopod. I’ve been wanting one for a while, but getting the 100-400 lens really drove it home — the camera with a 3+ lb lens hanging off it is a bit much to handhold sometimes!

Of course, my Bogen 3030 would fit it well, but that is one heavy pan-head to stick on top of a simple solution. Dad had bought a Bogen 3205 for the Meade, and apparently got a Bogen 3229 quick release head with it (for which there was no use with the ‘scope). I’ve put that atop the monopod, and it seems to do a fine job. The challenge is finding a lightweight head that will fit the threads on the Hakuba, and share common quick releases between the two.

I had to have some kind of challenge this week!

While on my lens exchange trip yesterday, I also picked up a new tripod — a carbon fiber tripod. Four pounds (including the 3-way pan head). I’m not a huge fan of the PH-G40 head (1.2 lbs), as it uses a “camera-sized” 1/4″-20 screw to mount it, which means that I can’t use my (admittedly heavy) Bogen head on it. However, the tripod will hold 15 lbs. (or 25, depending on whose doc you read), so it oughta do the trick.

I’ll probably have to get a new head and new quick releases to interface with my monopod.

My monopod? Yes, my monopod. See the next entry!

$1.599

Today was lens trade in day! I traded several old Sigma lenses, and acquired some new gear.

First up is the Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. This is a tiny little lens compared to the L glass I’ve been handling lately, but really seems to do pretty well. I can now shoot photos like the one to the right with no flash, just with ambient lighting.

I really got this lens on a bit of a lark. I wanted something fast, for shooting indoor shots during family events and other kinds of indoor activities. This seems to fit that bill.

I’m sure it’ll be fun to play with the extreme DOF, too. I’ve got my eye on the 50/1.0 too — much more extreme DOF — but it’s a ton of money, and something that would seem to be pretty specialized.