Further EOS R Testing

 

I keep taking every opportunity to test how best to set up the EOS R for the various scenarios I encounter, and on this afternoon, it was general handling, and using my go to general lens, the 24-70mm with its macro facility.

The main road that my house borders on one side in Marston Moretaine provides numerous front gardens with at this time of year in bright sunshine provides full use of this lens. The first was a hedge of Heather, that the local bees love, and there were opportunities a-plenty to get attractive compositions of flowers, that could one day become backgrounds for shots that I can use to carry greetings messages to family and friends.

The bees on this occasion were not very compliant, staying only brief nanoseconds on any one flower, making grabbing a meaningful image composition almost impossible, and surprisingly on this visit numbers were down compared to an afternoon earlier in the week when the numbers were far higher. This time I spotted possibly half a dozen individuals, earlier there had been literally scores, which was what had prompted me to find time to take a camera out to capture this lavender bonanza.

I did visit a few more gardens bordering the main road, but ended by shooting a beautifully renovated house front which in the sunshine cried out to be recorded.

This coming weekend will provide the opportunity to check out fast moving subjects, and for this, I also checked out a lighter long lens, the Tamron 160-600mm, which I am hoping to use in earnest when coupled to the EOS R.

Easter Sunday, Caddington-2010

After so many grey days and drizzle, Easter Sunday seemed like the first day of Spring – not bad when nearly a week after the official British Summer Time! I had hoped to have mown the lawn on the Saturday, but circumstances conspired against that happening, so after watching Sebastian Vettel win the Malaysian Grand Prix, and Lewis Hamilton come from twentieth to sixth, I was in the mood to mow the lawns back and front. Moss hardly constitutes a lawn, I suppose there must be some grass, but what I kept emptying into the bin did not suggest there was much! I also added Budleia branches from earlier trimming.

With the sun being blown from behind clouds every so often, I took out my new 100mm Macro with its Image Stabilisation for its first serious outing and added the 1.4x converter to give me greater length and took a walk through Caddington village to see what I could capture of the first tentative signs of Spring, it was rewarding, not the least because of those I met as much as the shots I took.

I am hoping that tomorrow has some sun to give me another chance.

A Very Hot Day

It was far too hot a day to spend sat inside a muggy office staring into a computer monitor screen, so having cleared the vital work, I took myself and a different lens and closeup ring setup, into the garden, to hone my macro skills on bees and hoverflies.

Neither were in profusion. Hoverflies were far too flitty for me to capture anything meaningful. I even tried adding a closeup ring to my 80 to 400mm lens, but the strain was just far too great to be workable, so it came down to using the middle-size ring attached to the 90mm macro. Soon however, the dearth of subjects forced me to consider going farther afield.

This had another benefit – between bouts of shooting I could return to the air-conditioning of the car! My blue shirt soon took on salty tide marks evidencing the times I was out in the heat and strain.

My journey this time had taken me to the small village of Charlton, home to the Windmill Public House, by a stream, and the birthplace of Sir Charles Bessemer, he of steel fame. I was so near to Maydencroft Manor, that later I chose to pay Bob Williams a visit. I found him, finally taking a well-earned break, and preparing for an alfresco supper. He has been planning a much larger event: a Concert in the grounds, in support of the Delmé Radcliffe Appeal for Friday evening.

If I thought it was hot, how must Andy Murray have found it playing tennis till after 10 o'clock to secure his place in the quarter final?