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Perhaps the best place to check out Christmas light displays in Southern Oregon
We headed up to Medford and Greystone Court on December 30 to check out the holiday light spectacle. It was raining and Christmas was over so it wasn’t very crowded. I hear it was crazy the week before.
Jordan Highland with the second of his three slams on the night
Christmas 2011 sunrise from Ashland, Oregon
What a better way to start the new year than with a stellar sunrise? This is actually the sunrise we had on Christmas morning.
Take-home cupcakes from a recent holiday party
A friend of ours made these cupcakes for a holiday party we had at another friend’s house. They tasted even better than they looked.
Nikon D7000 with Sigma 24-70mmD F/2.8 EX DG Lens EXIF: f/5, 1/640 second, 70mm, ISO 400
Last week I headed out to do a little Christmas shopping and one of the places I stopped by was the Emz Blendz Soap Co. in Ashland. They are right next door to the Standing Stone Brewing Company.
Nikon D7000 with Sigma 24-70mmD F/2.8 EX DG Lens EXIF: f/2.8, 1/200 second, 24mm, ISO 400
But today I’m not here to talk about soap, candles, or bath salts; I’m here to talk about camera lenses.
Perhaps you received a DSLR for Christmas? And it probably came with a kit lens–something like 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6? So far you are happy with it, and you wonder why anyone would need anything else? That was my thinking back when I purchased my first DSLR earlier this year. Since then I’ve purchased about a dozen lenses. I’ve sold half of them as they were more to help me learn than to use for the long term. I have found that I really only need four lenses so I’m still looking to sell two more. Today’s photos were taken with one of those lenses.
Why may you want to upgrade a lens similar to an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6? I can think of many reasons. Here are some in no particular order:
1) More reach. 55mm doesn’t get you as close to the subject in some situations as you would like. 18mm isn’t that wide either. If you really want to take wide angle shots you should probably invest in something like a 10-24mm lens.
2) f/2.8 allows for much faster shutter speed which means sharper pictures.
3) f/2.8 works so much better in low light and indoors.
4) Depth of field. An ordinary photo at 55mm and f/5.6 can look extraordinary if it is instead taken at 70mm and f/2.8. Photos 2 and 4 in today’s entry show you what depth of field can do for an image. Your subject matter is super sharp and clear while everything else in the photo turns into milky goodness.
Nikon D7000 with Sigma 24-70mmD F/2.8 EX DG Lens EXIF: f/2.8, 1/60 second, 70mm, ISO 400
Nikon D7000 with Sigma 24-70mmD F/2.8 EX DG Lens EXIF: f/2.8, 1/160 second, 52mm, ISO 400
I have always had problems photographing the moon. Even the fullest of moons are difficult to have, with details, in any photo of something else. Night photography frequently involves leaving the shutter open for a few seconds and then things get even worse. The moon ends up looking more like lens flare than the highlight of your photo.
A couple weeks back we had an eclipse. I didn’t stay up for it, even though the sky was clear, because it wasn’t scheduled to happen until 4 a.m. and by then I thought the moon may be behind a mountain if I tried to view it from home. Even if it wasn’t, it would have been on the non-window side of my house which meant I would have had to go outside in below freezing temperatures in order to get a peak. So, instead, I took this photo much earlier in the evening from inside my house.
Contrary to intuition, leaving your shutter open longer to photograph the moon is a bad idea. A fast shutter speed and low ISO are key to achieving any kind of detail. I shot this photo (which has been significantly cropped) at 200mm at f/2.8 with an exposure of just 1/2500 of a second.
More than a month has come and gone since David Grubbs was murdered on Ashland’s Bike Path. No arrests have been made, and the police still haven’t indicated any suspects.
December has been a very dry month in Ashland–the driest on record they are saying. I took today’s photo on the morning of December 12, the only day this month in which we had a bit of snow.
These pretty presents aren’t going to remain in their pretty, wrapped, under-the-tree state for much longer…
