Sunday 3 April 2011

Secret Garden, Kent


Secret Garden, Kent, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Last month I was lucky to find a second hand 70-200mm lens at an affordable price. Moving to full frame I was really missing the 1.6x at the long end - my main lens (24-105mm) was quite credible at 1.6x, but kind of shot range at 1x. Now, as the season is changing and the flowers are coming out, I spend my weekends lying on my front like a seal, manual focusing, f/4.0, 200mm, etc.

When I changed camera I swore I'd never use live view, but it is so useful in situations like this when micro focusing through a narrow DOF. The 10x live view zoom is amazing for micro-focusing, though it has left me deeply insecure about the accuracy of focusing without using it.

It's strange how the grass screening the front of the lens dissolves into green smoke at the long end. In this case the lens was almost completely concealed by greenery, but it still somehow sees through it all, leaving just a tiny haze.

Not that I'll look a gift donkey in the mouth, but Self Reflection made Explore - despite getting a fraction of the views/favs/comments of other recent post. Everything was worse - ratios, totals, etc. Who knows how the donkey works his magic - but thanks to everyone who's attention helped him make up his mind.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!


See Secret Garden, Kent on Flickr for additional notes and comments.