The year in Review....March 2009.

March was a strange month. It was perhaps the beginning of the end regards my 'current' passion for photography as I started to tie myself up in knots regarding kit and processing. I just could not find a happy medium. But, I think I got some decent photos again and the Canon 5D Mark II stood up well in all conditions. The interesting thing about March was that I found myself in between cameras so I took a friends 5D / 24-105 combo to the seaside. It blew me away. What a stunning kit selection. What I found about this camera is that the render and detail is still stunning and oddly enough, in Outdoor photographer, the reviewed the 5D against a D700 which had some three years of R & D in the bag and yet, the Canon creamed it on every level. Once in a while, a camera comes along that changes the game and the 5D was one of them.

Some nice images of perhaps the most natural model I have shot.

And some cool seascape - of which the bulk here are Canon 5D.

Hello World....

And so on 5th Dec 09, little Amelia Reid was born. One month early but all is well. She is a tiny 5lb but gorgeous to boot. She is the first daughter of Joanna's sister Laura. The first of many? Who knows, but babies remind you that sometimes, everything is just simply fantastic.

The year in Review....February 2009.

Feb 09 was another good month with some top notch images bagged. I enjoyed the Canon camera both indoors and out.

Had a couple of weekends in Devon and another great session of boxing, along with some promo table tennis stuff for a local sport academy. The colour and tone of the 5D Mark II once again looked great and the boxing images, were in my opinion in a different league to the D3 even at high ISO. The level of detail held up by the camera was staggering and I put the 17-40L to good use in the corners to get some lovely dramatic wide shots. Boxing is and always will be a sport that looks easier than it is to cover - especially at this level. Walking into a packed house of 600 people who have paid to watch 12 odd bouts needs careful negotiation of the corners to ensure you don't get in the way, but you do get the shots you want.

I enjoyed the table tennis shoot and one of my favourite shots this year is the second table tennis shot shown here. This young girl is a Brazilian professional - I got lucky with how the light fell on her face and love the half moon lighting of the ping pong ball.

The month ended with a nice trip to Focus which was a great but tiring day out where we spent some money and enjoyed all aspects of photography and the massive industry it has become.

The year in Review....January 2009.

Just as last year, I have decided to blog the year in review as it is a good retrospective look back at the years stock, of which the quality, quantity and of course the output was variable.

Jan 09 started with a bang as the guys and I headed to Wales where I put my recently acquired 5D Mark II combo to good use up on Brecon. It also scored some great 'urban portraits' and some lovely bird images, and overall January was a good month photography wise as I got some lovely images and the Canon 5D MarK II cut the mustard. On the downside, I moved kit on to buy the Canon 5m F/1.2L lens which on paper was my dream lens. Suffice to say, I felt that the lens was an absolute disaster to use and really upset me. Serious money on a serious lens that I soon discovered was known to have faults of which pilot performance seemed to have no effect on. Needless to say I moved it on.

I suppose that this started planting the seeds of doubt in my mind regarding Canon's AF once again as I had been shooting with Nikon D3 for a year prior and people who have used that camera know it does not miss a beat - period. So, here are some of the best shots from Jan 09 -

Money for old rope....

Had a lazy Saturday sorting out. Stumbled across an old hard drive with photos from 06 and 07 on. Had a look - too much to trawl through but found these in a folder from 07 and imported them to Lightroom. I discarded these on the day as the event whilst cool was shot away from the sun and whilst the exposure is sound, I forgot to take a speedlight to they were all a bit hit and miss. The beauty of Lightroom is the fill light slider. I had a quick play with these and brought them to life nicely....of course, a light on the day would have been better but testament to the power of processing that you can bring 2 year old photos back to life....

Muddy hell....

Managed to get a couple of hours out on the trail today. It was wet, very wet and very very gloopy to ride in. Hard to find and hold a line and stay flat out, but good to get out there. Actually, very good exercise in a way as you push a smaller gear to keep the bike moving through the muck and water. I always enjoy getting plastered in mud as riding back into town leaves people agog at your absolute mess and cleaning your ride after a session is always fun. I packed the GF1 in the rucksack and took a couple of short videos and some cool photos that are once again endemic of how good the GF1 is. Simply potent in the right light - though thats true for all cameras of course. I took my 5D2 + 16-35 L lens over to Wales once but went over the bars at Cwmcarn and decided not to take a big camera out riding again, so this little beauty is ideal for this kind of stuff. If I were covering an event locally then SLR + 2nd curtain and flash would be a must. I am toying with the idea of not covering local Bikefest's next year, but actually riding them but then I do like the photo side of it..

Back in Black....

OK - so thanks to everyone for the messages and comments. It seems people like reading my blog. I had started to think that it had become self indulgent. Maybe, but it is more about the cognitive therapy it offers from time to time. I will continue to post but given that I am rolling with the GF1 now it wont be that much. Being honest, I am impressed by the new Canon 7D so may try and review that in the coming weeks, assuming Canon will lend me one.

Thanks for the support. It means a lot.