On my way to an evening concert up in the Washington DC area, I made it more of a day trip by stopping by a few parks between here and there. Two (Neabsco Creek Boardwalk and Huntley Meadows Park) I’d visited before and really enjoyed, and the third (Scott’s Run Preserve) was a new one …
At the end of each year, I really enjoy going through the year’s photos and whittling down my keepers to an even 100 that I think represent my best for that year. It’s a great exercise in seeing what worked and what didn’t, how my shooting and editing style changed, and mentally revisiting some of the most magical places and moments of the year. Come along and see!
When I got my first dSLR, I started collecting vintage manual lenses to expand my lens collection. How do they hold up on today’s high-res mirrorless cameras?
Dutch Gap Conservation Area is my favorite place in the Richmond area for a nice wildlife hike–always lots to see and hear out there! This time, I headed out with my Canon EOS R7, which I picked up about a month ago. I love my R5, of course, but I found that for wildlife and macro especially, I often missed the 1.6x APS-C crop factor that I was used to from my previous dSLR cameras. So I did some shooting and made a video with my thoughts on the R7 after a month or so. Come along!
With fall color still near peak, I headed back over to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a wander. The destination: The Peaks of Otter area, with an eye towards finding the site where a B-25 bomber crashed into Sharp Top Mountain in 1943. Come along and check it out!
I wandered to a new-to-me location, the Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery in Charles City, Virginia. I thought it might make a good place to see what I could do with the combination of my 800mm f/11 IS STM and the Canon 1.4x RF teleconverter–would 1120mm and f/16 produce decent results? Come along and see!
Last year I only made it to the Halloween Haunt at Kings Dominion once, very late in the run. This year I hit it on opening night, and will definitely be going back again. It was a busy night, of course, but I had a ball checking things out. Come along!
I took a day off to make a long birthday weekend for myself, and headed for my happy place: the mountains! My main goal was to hike the Hawksbill Summit Trail, to reach the highest point of Shenandoah National Park. It was a beautiful and crisp day, the first full day of fall, so I also added a couple shorter trails: Lewis Mountain Trail and Stony Man Trail. As a bonus, I made a sunrise stop on the way to check out the Barboursville Ruins. Come along!
I enjoyed kayaking when we lived in Florida, but I haven’t done much of that since moving to Virginia. So recently I got myself a new kayak (more on that in a bit), and hope to use it a lot more in the near future! Today I loaded it up for a wander to Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield VA, about 20 minutes from home. I hit the waters of Swift Creek Lake for a lovely morning paddle. Come along!
In my Canon EF-mount kit, one of my favorite lenses was the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro. It was solid and sharp, with snappy autofocus and good stabilization. So when I moved to an RF-mount system, I definitely wanted to pick up the new RF version, which is an improvement in just about every way: …
Read more “Gear Up: Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro and Focus Shift”