You get what you pay for...

Seriously.

Last January I bought the Tamron 28-70 2.8. I knew that some people had issues with the lens, but I decided to hope to get a good copy of it and save $$$ over the Nikon equivalent. Well, I got a lemon, and could not get a sharp picture if my life depended on it. You can see some of my test shots on my blog here on the Jan 16 and Jan 20 entries:

http://michymphotography.blogspot.com/2007_01_14_archive.html

Luckily I purchased it locally so I was able to return it no questions asked.

So I've known the Nikon version of this lens was the "one" I wanted ever since then. I finally scraped up enough $$$ for it recently, and on a whim I decided to check ebay before I bought it new. Sure enough, there was one for sale, and after emailing with the seller a couple of times I felt confident enough about it's condition (and him) to bid on it. I was so thrilled to be the winning bidder, however I was then so disappointed that it did not meet the reserve he had on it. Imagine how excited I was when he emailed me and offered it to me at my bid :)

It FINALLY arrived last night, so I took it for a quick test spin today. It's cold and a bit windy out, so I didn't last long, but I am beside myself with happiness as to how it's performing so far! This puppy is sharp, sharp, sharp! I know people complain about the size and weight of this lens, but honestly I am so used to having my huge and heavy macro on my camera that I don't even notice.

ANYHOW. On to the test shots. Most, if not all of these were shot at 400 ISO and above. I think all are at F/2.8. It's just THAT gray out today :( No editing to these, just a sharpen for web. This lens is fantastic with color, almost as good as my macro is! This was totally worth the long wait.

Tormented the cat again as she relaxed near the window:



and a 100% crop of her eye. Look at this!



And of course a couple of flower pics. I can't believe in 35 degree weather we actually have stuff blooming:





B is out of town, so I'll have to wait a few days to really try it out on people. I got literally 1 minute with C when he got home this afternoon before he needed to buckle down on submitting some of his college aps that are due tomorrow. The light was fading fast so my ISO on this next one was about 800, ugh! This was edited a little bit.

ALL that said, I am SO happy to have a good "walk around" zoom now, and I think this is all the sweeter since I had to wait so long for it. Now when I'm out and about doing whatever, I don't need to bring 3 different lenses with me, woo hoo! It's going to be great when we travel as well!

Spoiled rotten

Yes, S'mores is indeed, and I suppose we have no one to blame but ourselves. She is definitely the Queen of this household. She's got this THING about hanging out with me when I'm at my desk. And of course the only place she's happy it sitting smack-dab in front of the computer monitor. Apparently my lap just isn't good enough . So this afternoon I tried a new trick with her. I put a wool throw that C brought back for me from Scotland (which is usually on the back of my desk chair) on the leather chair beside me. Usually she doesn't like leather chairs much. I set her on the blanket on the chair and she was (and actually still is) happy as a clam. Score one for Lauren! Now I can go about my business without having to peer around her! Of course I had to terrorize her with the camera a bit :)

A little lamp light here and a very high ISO:


A little flash bounced off our pale brown/yellow walls and ceiling here. I think I finally beat the color cast they give off on this one. Yay me!

Trying out the softliter

And boy do I like it SO much better than the little softbox that I returned last week! The camera shop guy said I wouldn't have enough power with my SB600 to use a softlighter. He was wrong. This was only dialed up to +.3.

I only got to play with it a teeny bit yesterday. I have problems with getting the guys to sit. B blinks ALL the time when I'm shooting him without his glasses on, and I've tried every trick in the book to not get him to blink. Like 5 out of every 6 pictures he either has his eyes half or all the way shut. Now that I have the catchlights close to where I want them, once he gets back in town next week I'll see if he can sit for me. So, that leaves C for now. He keeps his eyes opened BUT between schoolwork, rehearsals, and college aps I LITERALLY am able to get him to sit for about one minute at a time. He is just FAR too busy and STRESSED OUT right now.

Here's one where the lighting turned out ok. Not perfect by any means, but ok. I like the depth that the shadowing gives to his face. I am using my SB600 and a 48" softliter, first attempt at feathering the light. Flash is on TTY at +.3. The fill is from my 42" reflector.

Ignore the bed head and unshaven face please :) The conversion is a bit darker than I normally do, I'm on the fence as to how I feel about it.

Disappointed with myself...

I blew out the center of the star big time in most of these, darn it all. Plus, I didn't bring a wide enough angle lens with me last night. Guess I'll have to try again next year. I would have loved to bring my tripod and slow the shutter down a bit more, but it is just far too crowded for that.

Still pretty sore and bruised from my fall, but it could have been so much worse!

Only in Seattle...

We decided to go downtown this afternoon and evening to see the tree lighting at Westlake Center and go out to dinner. We've never done it before and it was a lot of fun. Then they light the big star at Macy's and do a mini fireworks show as well. After the tree lighting as we were walking away I saw this trash can:



Totally the quintessential Seattle photo for sure! As I shot this photo, two other people took pics of it as well. Glad to know I'm not the only one who found the humor in it! It was a really fun and energizing way to spend an afternoon and evening, and our dinner (as well as the company) was fantastic!

Playin' with the flash off camera some more....

Latest attempt from last night. I am still using the little softbox. This time besides the reflector on the opposite side of the light I added a second small reflector in front of him, slightly below and angled back to his face to help with filling in the shadowing on his neck a bit and to get some more light in his eyes. It is far from perfect, but I see some improvement over the photo I posted the other day.

Learning this is going to be a tough and long road, but I am determined to succeed!

Today....

...I decided the little softbox is going back to the camera shop. I did some more reading last night and I just don't think I'm going to be able to get the light I want from this thing. The shop has a good return policy (though I've never utilized it)....so hopefully they'll take it back no questions asked. I did order a 48" softliter today from B&H. It should be here early next week. Hopefully it will give me the light and diffusion I'm after!

Yesterday my mom and I went to the big nursery to shop and have lunch. They have every plant imaginable, plus a HUGE and beautiful gift shop. It was such a nice day, I love being able to just wander around with her and visit. It's so relaxing!

They have a HUGE greenhouse filled with poinsettias, some shapes and colors I've never seen before. Three different itsy bitsy ones came home with me so I could shoot them. I think I wish I had gotten larger plants as I'm not getting the overall look I'm going for with these little ones. Everything is too close together, so throwing the background OOF is pretty tough without losing the focus on the flowers themselves. Maybe I'll make a quick trip up there next week and buy a big one.

These are all taken with the softbox to camera left and the silver/gold side of the reflector camera right.

This is a GORGEOUS one, but I think it's too busy to photograph well:



And I'm thinking I may make out Christmas card from one of these next two. And then again, I may play a little more over the weekend and see if I can get something I like better as I'm not wowed by these.

It's times like this I realize just how much my husband loves me....

Who else would sit for me while I work on using my flash off camera? He's been in and out of this chair in the dining room a number of times the last few days! Just for a minute or two each time, but he's been very good natured about it (even though the photo doesn't show it)!

So this is using my SB600 off camera with a very small softbox, and a reflector for fill (please ignore the cluttered background). I think I'm getting the lighting down, but I need to reflect a little light up onto his neck a bit to soften the shadows there. I'd love to get larger catchlights, but I don't think with the equipment I have I'll be able to. I've tried with the flash closer, further away, at different angles, and it's just not happening.

I love bouncing the flash off the walls to get those larger catchlights, but the walls and ceiling in the main rooms of our house are a dijon color and give off a terrible color cast.

So anyway, I'm totally up for some CC on the lighting if you're up for it!

Goofy squirrel

So this morning I was looking out into the backyard and this goofy squirrel was trying to make it up our 6 foot high fence with an apple in his mouth. That thing probably weighs about the same as he does. He made it about 2/3rds of the way up (very slowly) and then fell down, poor guy! I turned away for a bit, and the next thing I know he's up there with it. That is one determined guy! He sat up there having breakfast, so I popped a memory card in the camera and headed out. The closer I got, the less happy he got :( though I stayed about 20 feet away. Apparently I got too close, as he arranged the apple just so (leaning against the top of the fence post) and hopped over it and ran away. I wish the "hopping" image wasn't a little OOF, but such is life. I'm curious to see when (and if) he comes back!



Life is good, and I'm still doing the ebay thing. I think my mail carrier is probably pretty unhappy with me about now. Yesterday I had 17 packages to go out, and some were quite heavy. I'm going to have to go pick up a Starbucks gift card for him for all the extra work he's been doing for me the last few weeks. On a brighter note however, it feels great to get some of this stuff out of the house. Remind me never to start collecting things again!!!

I have to say I am disappointed in Washington State voters. Just about every initiative and proposition I voted on earlier this week went the opposite way of my vote :( I can live with that I suppose, but one of them really irritates me. In WA state, schools levies must pass by a 60% vote, not just a simple majority. There was a proposition on the ballot to change it to a simple majority (like everything else we vote on) and it FAILED. I thought for sure it would pass. Why would people vote against it? Makes me mad every time school levies fail, especially when it's due to this stupid rule.

Speaking of schools, my polling location is C's old elementary school. As I walked in to vote, I realized that after C graduates this year, other than going to vote I probably will very rarely set foot in another school. It's an odd feeling, and really drove home the point of how much all of our lives are going to change in the next year. Bittersweet for sure. I feel like I have to really relish everything this year, it's a year filled with lasts.....