Photography by Kerry M-S: October 2010

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Finally got a decision about my poor broken lens...

I didn't blog about it at the time, but I had a run in with another photographer before I went on holiday. He was a BIG bloke (read - fat bastard) who was unable to hold his temper during a heated slanging match and he grabbed my camera by the lens and snapped it straight off the camera. I am willing to bet he's abusive to many in his life. I admit, I was no angel (got to love women's hormones!) but there was no need for what he did.

Here is a pic of my broken lens

I was devastated (after I calmed down) as it was what I got with my POTY prize money, it wasn't flash, actually, it was very basic, but it was sharp and I loved it. Thankfully I had taken out the accidental damage cover on it.... which hubby went MAD about, who's laughing now?! So I called them up, arranged to have it sent in and waited and waited. After a month I called them up to see what the hell was going on as I'd not even had a phone call. Turned out they had lost the paperwork that I sent with the lens and therefore didn't know who it belonged to and left it in a miscillaneous cupboard. Oh man, I was hopping mad. They promised to look at it ASAP and 2 days later I had a call to say it had been written off. They sent me vouchers to the tune of what I "paid" for the lens, bearing in mind it was only 3 months old and was still the same price.

As I mostly photograph nature & wildlife, I thought about getting a bit more zoom. After searching and reading reviews, it seemed the Tamron 70-300mm would fit the bill. I would be able to get it with my vouchers and reviews suggested that people liked it. So I picked it up from the shop and took it out that afternoon, a really bright, sunny afternoon at that. All I can say is that it was an epic FAIL! The good points were that it had a macro function... that was about it. The bad stuff included, SLOW auto focus, no image stabilisation and the most horrific purple fringing I have ever seen.

Here is an example, sooc, just resized and watermarked.

After showing my hubby that night, he said it was absolutely not acceptable and after doing some more searching, we decided that I should go for the Nikon 70-300mm f4.5/5.6 IF-ED AF-S VR. It was a lot more money, so we opted to use the vouchers as a deposit and take 6 months interest free credit and I walked out with it that day. I have to say I am in love, it's a nice bit of glass, the VR is a nice touch, it feels great in the hand and I can't wait to give it a real run in (bearing in mind it is my xmas pressie!) when we have a flickrmeet at Bradgate Park this Sunday.

Here are some shots I have taken with my newest baby.

At 70mm

At 300mm

More nature

Band shoot

I recently had the pleasure of my 1st non family, none child photoshoot. In the days leading up to the shoot I was nervous as hell, but on the day I felt good about it all (not good in myself though, had a really bad allergy day). 2 of the members of the group are old friends of my hubby, the bloke & my hubby went to school together, so go waaaaay back. We had fun and I learned a lot as well.

So 1st the main 2 are also a duo so they wanted some casual, some more dressy of just the 2 of them. These 1st 2 will need to be re-edited as the colours are not consistent with the rest.

Then we shot the main group

Then some of just the boys:

Then the threesome:

And an extra one of T because she was so fun to shoot!

Local & wild Red deer

Where I live are an awful lot of fallow deer, some sika & muntjac and a small herd of red deer. I finally found them about 2 weeks ago but I think I missed their rut :(

Naturally I wanted to get closer, damn you for not being a 500mm lens! I crept quite close before he finally noticed me. I'm surprised he couldn't hear my heart hammering! I'm also surprised this turned out I was shaking so bad! I only had a 200mm lens and this is NOT a crop. Now imagine how close I was to those antlers!