equipment

The Right Equipment

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Well, I did it again. I forgot my boots!

Normally I’m a stickler for the right gear. When Rachel and I go mountain climbing we carry day packs and wear zip-offs and fast drying active-wear clothes because I think it’s important. Our packs are filled with matches, filters, fire starters, emergency warmers, first aid kits and pretty much everything else we’d need in case we get stranded and need to spend a night or two in the woods. All because I believe in the right equipment.

Twice this year Ive forgotten my boots. The first time I had to buy a pair on the way up because I was going to be spending extended time periods standing in the woods (hunting). This time I’ll be snowmobiling which for those of you who don’t do it might sound cold, but it’s not too bad while you’re riding. When you stop it might be an issue but I don’t do a lot of that.

I’m gonna try it with my Goretex semi-insulated L.L. bean shoes and a heavy pair of wool socks. we’ll see…

UPDATE: just as expected it was plenty warm while riding. Stepping off the trail into snow banks is another story however. It’ll be good enough to get me through the weekend. I won’t forget my boots again though.

My New Photography Equipment

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Original EquipmentEven though I’ve been into Photography for quite a while, I only recently took the plunge into the realm of DSLRs.  Ever since then I’ve been making use of the 28-135mm kit lens which has worked out great.  However; due to the upcoming weddings and our upcoming trip to the Pacific Northwest I’ve been on the lookout for new equipment.

Last week I happened upon a great deal on Craigslist.  A woman was getting rid of her old Canon 35mm Film SLR along with all the lenses, flash and camera bag.  It came with a 50mm F1.8 (one of the lenses I’d been watching for, although I was more interested in the 1.4) a slide in-out 70-210mm F4 and a Speedlite 420 EZ.

The equipment isn’t the greatest, it’s rather old and fairly low-end but it will do just fine for a while.  The 50mm alone made the deal worth it.  Either way I decided to purchase it and add the stuff to my inventory.

New EquipmentI’ve also been examining wide angle lenses.  Unfortunately I haven’t found any used lenses that were wide enough for me.  Because of our upcoming trip to some of the most scenic places in the US, I decided to pursue new ones.  There have basically been 2 I was interested in (that I could afford).  The Sigma 10-20mm and the Tokina 12-24mm.  After tossing them back and forth in my head and reading lots of reviews I finally decided on the Tokina 12-24mm.  My first impression is nothing short of excellent.  It definitely seems wide enough and the build quality is superb.  I also enjoy the different type of manual focus mechanism.  I’ll probably post a review of it once I get the chance to try it out a bit more.

In just a few short days I’ve quadrupled the amount of photography equipment I have.  The only downside is now I need to find a place to keep it all.

I’m very excited to play with and learn my new toys.  I posted a few test shots in the slideshow below. Most of the shots were taken with the new Flash which requires Manual mode so some are a little overexposed as I get used to it.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649