So it all began back in 2002. I was on a trip with my oldest brother and two of our friends on Cape Cod. I had purchased a 4 megapixel Olympus X200 camera for the trip and general use. One day, we went over to Martha's Vineyard and headed out to these scenic cliffs. The sun was setting and I wanted to take a picture of the intense bronze reflection of the sun on the water. I tried several times and just couldn't capture it the way I was seeing with my own eyes. It finally occurred to me that I was wearing sunglasses. On a whim I took the sunglasses off and placed them in front of the lens. Low and behold it got pretty close and when I saw the image on the back of the camera I was hooked.From the Olympus I bought a Sony but I was less than pleased with it's overall performance and by 2006 I had purchased a Canon Rebel XT for a trip to Ireland for my sister's wedding. We spent a week in Ireland and it rained for 5 of those days. The last full day I had in the country I had gorgeous weather to drive down along the Dingle Peninsula. If you ever think of going to Ireland, be sure to see the Cliffs of Moher and Dingle Peninsula, you won't be disappointed. After returning from Ireland though I tried shooting an ice hockey game with my Rebel and just wasn't satisfied so from there I bought a Canon 40D for a higher frame rate. This was great until the 7D came out and had much better high ISO performance, so I bought a 7D.
As it stands today my kit consists of the following:
Canon 7D
Canon 40D
100mm f/2.8
50mm f/1.8
17-40mm f/4 L
70-200mm f/2.8 L
My two favorites out of the bunch are the 70-200 and the 50mm. For the price (@ $100), the 50mm gives me just great results. Some of my favorite photos of my son, I used the 50mm and it is tack sharp. As for the 70-200, since I knew I was going to be shooting sports with the lens and would be employing a high shutter speed to freeze action, I elected to skip out on the IS version of the lens.
I use Adobe Lightroom on a MacBook Pro for importing and basic editing of images. Shooting sports though I have found the import speed to be extremely slow for my needs and I am seriously considering buying a copy of Photo Mechanic. A lot of sports shooters use it, and I have seen it in action and it absolutely flies and it is only $100 which is cheap for a solid application.
As for lighting, I have 3 speedlights that I trigger with Ebay triggers and then I also have a set of 3 AlienBee strobes.
2 - AB400
1 - AB800
1 - Octabank
2 - strip lights
I really enjoy them and for the money they have been great. If I could get one more accessory it would be a battery pack for the strobes so I am not reliant on wall outlets for the strobes.
Anyway, that is what I use currently. Not so much an informational post this week but maybe this will spark a discussion or some questions. Enjoy and have a great Mother's Day Weekend.
