Winter is coming. Don't put the camera away.

I was out looking for a special place to photograph last weekend. Someone had loaded a picture into Google earth calling it a "secret chapel". I decided to go with my son to take a look.

It turned out not to be a chapel but  rather more interestingly, a warren of little hideaway bunkers that the Swiss army used back in the early 1900's to train recruits.

 EOS 5dMKII. 17- 40 zoom 

1/100sec @ f7.10 ISO 640

I took my pics and whilst on the way back to my parking spot I saw the local chapel through the fog. This was the reult and actually my favourite image of the day.

EOS 5dMKII. 17- 40 zoom 

1/200sec @ f10 ISO 640

Just remember. Even though it's Autumn and the weather my not be all that nice, there are still a myriad of photo opportunities awaiting you.

See you next time. Thanks for reading.

Test drive

My old EOS 5 has been replaced with its successor, the EOS 5d Mark II.

I've also replaced my old 50 f1.8 with the new 1.4 version. Last Sunday I decided to test both out on a walk.

Fresh out of the box

A friend told me about a popular trail called the "1000 Steps" in the nearby Kanton (county) of Aargau. which leads up the side of a hill. I thought to myself that one thousand steps is only a name. It's probably a couple of hundred at most....

 First image with the new combo. 

1/400 sec Av Mode at f2.8

 1000 Steps (in local dialect)

1/250 sec at f2.5

 Big mistake. 

 One thousand steps is actually 1140 steps which go up an incline of about thirty degrees.

 The steps are thoughtfully labelled.

The first one hundred were OK. Perhaps because I had the rucksack on my back and was leaning forward. This adjusted my centre of gravity forwards and "helped" (maybe only psychologically) to keep up an even pace.

Another 600 to go.

Or so I thought.....

I was really pleased that I had the rucksack with me. I would really have considered giving up if I'd had my shoulder bag with me. With the rucksack, I had both hands free to steady and guide myself.

The Hama Katoomba 190RL

Over the halfway mark but still 

another 400 to go.

It's a bit of a let down when you reach the 1000 steps mark and there's still more steps to go!! Another one hundred and forty to be exact.

Steps as far as you can see.

Heart pounding and completely out of breath, I reached the top forty five minutes after setting off. "So what was at the top?" I hear you ask. Nothing much. Just a forest trail and a vantage point about three minutes walk from the top of the steps.

A place to rest and gaze out over the county.

1/200 at f13 (see here)

This is one of my favourite images taken on that day with the 50mm lens. There is no Photoshop jiggery-Pokery involved. I processed the RAW file in DPP, sharpened it a bit and added some saturation. All in all I am well pleased with the camera.

 1/80 sec at f2.8


Thanks for reading. BTW All images were taken with the 200 ISO speed set on the camera.