Monthly Archives: January 2019

Extenders are great!

So just wanted to show a quick size comparison between 200 & 400mm focal lengths when taking a picture of the moon.

Camera settings are slightly different but the picture on the left was taken with 70-200 F2.8L IS II USM & a Canon 2x extender lens at 400mm while the right picture was done with the F4L IS USM lens at 200mm.  The contrast seems slightly better on the right on the first picture but then again the settings were different and it’s possible that atmospherics could have played a role in sharpness.  Digitally zoom the 200mm to 400mm and the clear winner is the image where an extender was used.

I sold the 70-200 F4L IS USM so I can’t do any comparisons with that lens but the next clear night I’ll do these tests again and see if I get the same results.  I may also try the Canon Rebel SL2, with its APS-C sensor and the 1.6x crop, that would get me to a massive 640mm!

Can’t wait for the next night with clear skies!

A relaxing day

Today Brandon and I went to the ROM with Estelle & Georgia, we go often and thought it’d be fun to have some company and it was great!  Little G was so cute there were times she was scared but she persevered and I’m proud of her. While we were there Brandon did kid’s exploration game that encouraged children to explore the museum and I have to say it was rather fun to go and find specific artifacts and displays!  He earned 3 pins for all the running around, something he was proud of and I loved spending the time with him.

He had the Canon Rebel SL2 around his neck and snapped some pics as well, I think the pictures are great and he’s got a real eye for composition.  He’s much more artistic than I am.

Brandon took more photos but for some reason I was having a hell of a time uploading pictures, not sure what the problem was but it was damn frustrating.

As you can see the kids had an excellent time and we ate lunch at the ROM too.  Estelle & Georgia left a bit after lunch while Brandon and I completed the tasks to earn the pins.  We got home just after 2pm and relaxed the rest of the day.  I did some cleaning and just before dinner I took this picture of the moon and it turned out great!

That’s with the Canon 6D MK II, 70-200 F2.8 IS II w/2x extender @ 400mm, F8, ISO 100 & 1/40 sec.  I had everything set up on a tripod but at that shutter speed I might have been able to hand hold it!  There’s going to be a super blood moon next week, I hope the skies are clear like tonight so I can get some great pictures.  This is also as close as I’ll be able to get with my hardware, I’d need to buy Canon’s super expensive lenses to reach any further and it ain’t worth it since I won’t have any other uses for them so that’s out.

That was easy

Last night Stephen, Jason and I hit up Siege to play some airsoft.  Jason and I played the previous Friday and it was pretty good so we were hoping for another good game this time around. There were less people, around 20 though on the field at any one time maybe 16-18 or so which allowed us to move around pretty easily.  I forgot the name of this game but we had to attack defenders in the two large structures that are attached.

First let me apologize about the quality of the video, I’m using an older Contour ROAM action cam, it’s served me well over the years but Siege is pretty dark and I had to raise the camera’s exposure 4.5x to see anything.  I really should get something better but I’ve been out of that market for a while and I want something that’s less intrusive than a GoPro, Contours are great that way super low profile but definitely do not work as well in the dark.

We cleared the buildings pretty easily since between Jason and I we have 12 grenades though you can’t see me hand off grenades to others well with the gun cam.  Overall it was a good night, I had fun though my hands hurt as I got a lot of hand shots for some reason but that’s the risk one takes when they choose to play right.

Cute kitty

Brandon had a dentist appointment in the morning so I decided to work from home afterwards, I didn’t have any face to face meetings scheduled and I enjoy working in my home clothes. 😀  Slinky was his usual cute self and kept me company for much of the morning though around lunch time he went do his own thing and I guess he was tired.

LOL any cat owner can attest that they’re solar powered and it was his opportunity to take a nap in the sun.  Dunno what he was doing with his leg but it was up in the air for a while, too funny this kitty!  At around 2pm, I guess he recharged and spent most of afternoon on my lap keeping me warm during this chilly day.  Picked up B around 4:30pm then went to Kumon and relaxed the rest of the evening.  Brr it’s cold out, hope everyone is somewhere nice and warm tonight!

Snowy!

Since I’ve been playing with my camera a lot these days I’ve started to bring it to work as well and snapped these two pictures while I was on my lunch.

I was coming back from getting a burrito, obviously for the first picture there were no cars close by when I ran into the street like an idiot to snap the shot lol…  I like the symmetry and well with the second, it just shows the snow coming down hard.  No real accumulation though, it’s snowing pretty hard right now and it’ll be freezing till the weekend so who knows maybe I can go tobogganing with Brandon soon.

Windsor

So today I went to Windsor for a client meeting, I won’t talk about the meeting itself but I did bring the camera and snapped a few neat pictures.

The first picture is in the morning before I walked to the island airport, but the rest were in Windsor or at least in transit. 🙂  Laughed that there needs to be a sign saying transporting cannabis across an international border is illegal.

Aww hell

Today was not a good day, I woke up with a huge headache and felt nauseated while I was at work so left early to come home.  Just heat up my lunch in the microwave then this happens.

Hmm now that I think about it, I was at home so I should have gotten my SLR but yeah I was pretty pissed.  The nausea has gone away but the headache remains and I have to fly to Windsor tomorrow for a client meeting. 🙁  Perfect timing, well I’m going to bed early tonight!

Zoo!

Today I took Brandon to the zoo, it’s been a while and since the weather was nice I was very much looking forward to the walk.  He asked me to bring the Canon Rebel SL2 so he could take pictures too, he really seems to enjoy it and man I can’t say how wonderful it is to share photography as a hobby!  It started around 1c in the morning gradually cooling as the day went by and even though Brandon was dressed pretty well he complained about being cold so we left without seeing everything.  That’s ok we have a membership so we can go anytime.

I had a lot of fun taking pictures, most were done with the Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS II USM lens though the ones with of the cheetahs I also had the Canon 2x extender on it.  I was stupid and shot Av mode so not all my pictures are in focus because my shutter speed was too low, oh well I’m even lower than an amateur so live and learn.

These are the pictures that Brandon took and I think they turned out great!  His pictures may be a bit nosier as I set the SL2 to Tv and a shutter speed of 1/250th thankfully most of the animals were not moving fast so he didn’t need anything faster.  Megan said he’s going to be better than me, no doubt as I have no artistic talent but my little guy does and if he enjoys taking photos I’m going to do my best to encourage him. 🙂

We came home after lunch and hung around the house the rest of the day.  I vacuumed and did some cleaning, cleaned some of my airsoft stuff too so it’s ready to go for next Friday if I play. 🙂

Happy Anniversary Maggie!

Today Maggie and I celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary and I couldn’t be happier.  I married my best friend, absolutely love the life that we’ve built together and with Brandon our family is complete.  Our future together is bright and I can’t wait to see what new adventure life throws at us, with Maggie we can handle anything!

End of 2018 trip

So our trip to Myrtle Beach was totally on a whim, Maggie asked if I wanted to go and I said sure.  We decided to drive, the Toyota Prius is great on gas so why not right & we went down knowing the weather was going to suck, the forecast said rain was coming and it looked like it rained on the entire East coast of North America.  The drive was ~14-15 hours, I probably could have done it on one go but decided to split both going and coming into two days so I could reset.

While on the road, Maggie shot a bunch of pictures with the Canon SL2 and while most didn’t turn out too well a few did.  We also noticed that gas is about 40-50% cheaper than in Canada, that and Americans really love to drive trucks & SUVs!  We made it a game on some parts of the drive to count the number of cars vs the larger vehicles and I’m not exaggerating when I say there’s probably 6-7 SUVs/trucks for every car we saw.  Makes me wonder what is going to happen to all these large vehicles when gas prices go up because well you know there’s a finite supply of fossil fuels.

The interstate is super boring but the side roads & local highways are a lot of fun, we drove through so many small towns and some parts of rural America really looks like a post apocalyptic world with run down homes, buildings & vehicles.

We stayed at the Monterey Bay hotel in Myrtle Beach and while the building was old the unit itself was not bad.  We had a view the ocean and even had a small kitchen to use if we wanted to cook something.  Before continuing with the story let me post some pictures that Maggie & Brandon took first.

Oh before we hit up the hotel, we did visit the Angel Oak tree a bit farther south and man it’s amazing and a bit spooky, if there were such thing as a monster tree, that’d be it!  It was really foggy during the nights & mornings so it was fun to walk around the beach at that time.  We did some shopping at some of the local malls, went to Wonder Works (like the science center but more fun), an alligator zoo and finally did some go karting.

Here are some of the pics that I snapped.

The one picture where Maggie & Brandon stood by the ocean was taken from our room with my 70-200 & the Canon 2x extender.  I didn’t do too many artsy photos as I was busy having a good time with the family but I did try to snap a few. I liked the pictures of the gulls and of the spoke on the Ferris wheel.  Probably enjoyed the go karting the most and I’m so happy that Brandon could drive one, none of the tracks around Toronto will allow someone his age to drive alone unfortunately.  He was also clearly faster than the other boy but wasn’t allowed to pass unfortunately.

We spent a total of 2 1/2 days in Myrtle Beach, came home early as heavy rain was forecasted for the day we had left so Maggie and I decided to come home instead.  It was a good plan as it allowed us to unwind today in preparation for work tomorrow but all in all we had a wonderful time.  Both the wife and I enjoyed the drive and Brandon didn’t seem to mind which was great.

LOL last picture shows that over 3,600km, I averaged 4.6 l / 100 km (51 mpg) and when I totaled up the fuel costs, it was less than $100 US.  The Toyota Prius ain’t a sexy or fast car but it’s the perfect car for a road trip and I can’t wait for the next one.