Lessons from a photowalk.

It was hard to tell if it was my choice, the lure of fresh snow, or my wife kicking me out of the house, but I ended up taking walk at Thickson’s Point. I managed to get a number of good shots, and discovered a couple things along the way.

• I need gloves that don’t have finger tips. My hands were freezing, but I still need my finger tips in order to change camera settings.
• Vans are not the right shoes to wear in snow, ice or traveling off the beaten path. Falling down while climbing a hill with a camera isn’t good. Hiking boots would be better.
• Even though the sensor cleans itself, it’s still possible to get dirt in the view finder. Now to figure out how to clean it.
• I’m not comfortable taking pictures of strangers I see in public places. There were numerous dog walkers along the path, some of them would make nice pictures. Facial details wouldn’t have shown in the pictures, I just didn’t know how the people would react, so I didn’t take them.

On Friday, I was looking at the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8, today I tried taking a couple pictures at 85mm to see if I was comfortable with that focal length. I used the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6, dialed to 85mm, set to f/4. While I wasn’t able to get to f/1.8 I did like the focal length. Now I have some shopping to do.

Photos to come soon.