Why I Love My Canon 5D Mark II

I've written a lot about the Fuji x100s and while I really like the camera, this image shows why I will never give up my DSLR.

This is taken with the Canon 5D Mark II with the 100mm macro lens plus an extension tube. I love the super close macro. I just love taking them and it's something the x100s just can't give me.

I must say that every time I pick up my Canon it feels like a lead weight. But it does take some pretty pictures.

Alexandria Parade of Lights

I totally took the wrong camera for this event. It's a night time parade of boats decorated for Christmas. It's a very cool show that, for some reason, I've never heard of. And my DSLR would have been a better bet for this event, but I didn't feel like hauling it down there. So I went with my trusty Fuji x100s. They would have been hard shots with the DSLR as well. Way too dark, and too much movement on the boat.

Eileen invited a bunch of people to watch the show on her boat at the Alexandria docks. Great place to see the parade. It was 35 degrees outside and after an hour, I lost the feeling in my toes. I'm not made for cold weather.

Anyway, all my pictures are horrible, but I did manage to get one of Eileen's boat after the parade.

The lights at the top right are a plane flying by. We are right on the flight path to National.

Mormon Temple DC with Light Trails

Since I love light trails, I wanted to find places that were a bit different. Scott recommended shooting the Mormon Temple. It's easily visible from 495 and there's an overpass very close to it.

Well, I found out that the overpass doesn't have a full sidewalk on the side facing the temple. It's about 12 inches wide and cars use that overpass regularly. Surprisingly there are no holes in the fence. None. I often find cut holes in the fences on overpasses, especially the ones that don't have space for camera lenses to fit in. So for this picture, I had my camera on the tripod and had to lean the tripod against the fence and fit the lens in the hole. Not ideal at all. Every car passing by shakes the fence. Every large truck passing on the highway shakes the fence. And I shake the leaning tripod because it's cold. The cold weather added the nice pink stripe in the sky, so I can only complain so much.

I don't think I have one totally in focus image. But this is the one that was the closest.

Retro Style

I don't shoot in the studio near as much as I would like. Part of me doesn't enjoy it any more (the part that has to deal with pushy people and no-shows), but part of me loves it. That's the part that gets to play with lights and props and the part that creates something beautiful.

Outside My Window

Here are the two things I see outside of my window all the time.

This is from the window at work.

Rosslyn

I was able to get to Rosslyn at 5pm for some light trails.

And then while I was walking back to the car, I tried some black and white shots. This walkway is by the metro, it's huge and I love that about it. I might try it during the day. In this shot, I love that you can see the shadow but not the person.

While I'm not a fan of the blurry shot, I kinda liked this one.

And here's why I was off early - my dentist is making the crown for this implant. I'll have a new tooth to replace that old baby tooth in two weeks. (We started back in July.)

Cup of Warmth

I like to participate in photography sites' weekly contests. Most of the the time, the subject matter is out of my comfort range, so it's really quite a challenge.

This week, 500px.com had Cup of Warmth as their contest. I knew everybody would do coffee or hot chocolate, so I wanted to do something different. I figured I try some fire in a cup.

I went to Goodwill for a little tea cup. Got out my newspaper and lighter and went outside. It's been rather overcast and yukky, so I had to make do with what I had.

I tried in the leaves that I had in my backyard.

Not bad, but a little dead looking. So I walked down the block and picked up some super red leaves. Came back to my yard and sat in the wet leaves and tried again.

Here's what it looks like from inside the cup.

And just in case you think this is easy. One newspaper section burned up, wet dirty pants, and 450 pictures later, I have a picture that I'm mostly happy with.