Photo-a-day

[Bobster]

thats a first, newspaper tog using Nikon

[brammers]

Just got back from holiday. Rather than take the 8 hour express train back from Harbin, I managed to get myself a seat on the 24hour train... Maybe my Chinese isn't as good as I thought it was?

Still - have a tiger:



The 10:07 to somewhere bloody freezing - took this standing on the frozen river:



And a winter landscape:



I've never been so cold as when I took that last one - I was wearing a ridiculous pair of arctic warfare mittens and with them on my hands were cold. Taking them off to operate the camera - it was -20 and there was a howling gale... The camera + lens held up fine - even the battery - but the tripod contracted at all different rates and was a nightmare, stuff like the knobs contracting making the rubber all loose so you had to pinch the rubber down onto the control to use them... Crazy temperatures.

[icanhazburger]

thats a first, newspaper tog using Nikon

Yeah, someone I know took some photos at the olympics of the press in action there, was just a sea of Canon lenses.

[shiato storm]

And a winter landscape:



I've never been so cold as when I took that last one - I was wearing a ridiculous pair of arctic warfare mittens and with them on my hands were cold. Taking them off to operate the camera - it was -20 and there was a howling gale... The camera + lens held up fine - even the battery - but the tripod contracted at all different rates and was a nightmare, stuff like the knobs contracting making the rubber all loose so you had to pinch the rubber down onto the control to use them... Crazy temperatures.

awesome shots but this I like the most. where abouts were you? just interested as I'm looking to go away travelling somewhere - soonish I hope! and I know what you mean about cold temperatures - was in Russia in Feb a couple of years ago, cold is nowhere near describing it!

[Virtual Monkey]

Amazing travel pictures Brammers

The band of pink in the landscape is gorgeous!

[YorkieBen]

Yeah, someone I know took some photos at the olympics of the press in action there, was just a sea of Canon lenses.

From what I had read/heard at Beijing Nikon had an increased representation in the press equipment from previous years when it was white lenses everywhere. Apparently the D3 was quite popular.


http://www.canonrumors.com/images/canikon.jpg

Will be interesting to see what Canon do for the 1d(s) mkIV?

[brammers]

Will be interesting to see what Canon do for the 1d(s) mkIV?

Put in a working AF-C autofocus module?

Thanks for the comments about the shots - they're from Heilongjiang in north east China. Definately should have spent more time out in the sticks while I was there. Here's some more:



This next one probably won't look that impressive here - it's downsized too much. The real thing is 2m wide at 150DPI... Gonna have to see if I can stretch to framing it! To give you an idea of what it looks like at a proper size, there are 6 power lines and the cow isn't lying down, he's just sunk into the snow a little bit.

[kopite]

Those shots are amazing brammers

The last one in the first set is amazing. Wonder what a bit of HDR trickery would do with it?

[brammers]

Dunno tbh kopite... I do have stacked exposures of that and HDR software, but the dynamic range is all within the single frame. I was suprised too - I'd taken multiple frames expecting to have to blend the sky back in, but it was all there in the middle frame. If you're seeing stuff blown/clipped it's my laptop monitor again...

[mmh]

those are some awesome landscapes...

the 2nd one is spectacular!



went clubbing in birmingham last night...

[Bobster]

Dunno tbh kopite... I do have stacked exposures of that and HDR software, but the dynamic range is all within the single frame. I was suprised too - I'd taken multiple frames expecting to have to blend the sky back in, but it was all there in the middle frame. If you're seeing stuff blown/clipped it's my laptop monitor again...

great landscapes monitor is no excuse, that's why you have a histogram

[KidChameleon]

Those snowy landscapes look great.



I was in town today so I thought I would be nosy and have a look at the 40D in Jessops. I expect temptation would get the better of me if it weren't for my lack of money.

I had a bit of a play with it using my lense and compact flash card. It seems like a good upgrade, but I'll keep dreaming for now. Maybe by the time I can afford one, the 50D will be the same price as the 40D currently is. I was mainly just curious to see what the differences are.

I got this shot to test high ISO compared to my 400D.

40D, ISO1600, 100% crop. This was under the fluorescent shop lights.




400D, ISO1600, 100% crop. This was in the sunlight quite a while ago.





Not really a completely fair comparison because they are different conditions. It's not so obvious on this laptop monitor but on my desktop monitor there is a definite "sparkle" in the 400D picture, whereas the noise in the 40D picture is much less pronounced.

Just thought I'd share that.

[brammers]

Nice club shot mmh.

Here's some more from up-north. I've never walked across a river before...



Probably OTT on the vignetting there - will have another go at that one.

Here's some fireworks from Chinese New Year in Beijing - Happy Niu Year everyone! Sorry - bad Chinese joke :E









Sorry those last 3 are the same, I just like different bits of them all... They really show the benifit of IS though Vs high ISO performance. A camera good at high ISO would have also captured these shots very noiselessly, but would have lost all of the motion blur which is what makes fireworks shots so pretty. A stabilised 24-70 zoom + decent technique let me get silly exposures like 0.8s/f7.1/70mm & 1.3s/f7.1/24mm with only minimal camera shake. Tripod would have been better still, but this was walking home and those I took with the tripod from my window didn't have the same impact.

[mmh]

Nice club shot mmh.

thanks man!

Visually, for me at least, this photo is stunning!

the horse and cart one too, nice use of space

[mmh]

Some dancers from last night...





i had died and gone to heaven

[Virtual Monkey]

Last shot is luuuuvely Mmh! How skinny is the girl in the second shot?!!