End of the month blog post, after a very busy month for me. I have been up and down the country shooting for Splaat Media, staying in hotels and enjoying the intensity and excitement of photographing productions of shakespeare with SSF (shakespeare schools foundation). It has meant that I have had very little time for much else, which has been a blessing and a curse at the same time.

I was also using my new 24-70mm F/2.8 lens, which had the zoom required and the high F stop (2.8), to shoot in the low light that comes with theatre work.

I had wanted to discuss this lens before now, but I had not had a real opportunity to use it until these events took place throughout this month. I did use it for for a wedding as well at the end of september, but found that I was getting better images from my 35mm F/1.4, so had not really used it much since. I am waiting for the chance to use this lens on some landscape work down in cornwall over christmas so more on that when it happens, as I can take advantage of its 24mm widest focal length.

I was also given the opportunity to shoot at the Royal Albert hall for Music for youth for a few days, which was a fantastic experience, and on top of this, I was also able to use the 70-200mm F/2.8 IS USM II lens for the first time as it was hired out for me to use, which blew my mind, so there may be some lens maneuvering over the coming months to get this lens into my bag for the long term.

Royal Albert Hall taken with my 24-70mm F/2.8

I would love to show some of the shots I got from this event, but sadly I can not share them without permission from the relevant school so you will just have to take my word for it.

I have learnt through these shoots a lot about shooting at higher ISO levels (as high as 8000), which is something I have always tried to keep as low as possible to prevent noise. The 70-200mm took this in its stride on the 5D MKIII, with stunning images up to around ISO 6000. The 24-70mm was not so competent, with noise and softness creeping into the images a lot more at this sort of level, but it still got the job done.

I did have one afternoon free to myself this month, which turned out to be very productive, if a little stressful (my fault for visiting a zoo at the weekend). I have been itching to use my 400mm lens for a while now, I miss having it with me, so really wanted to get out with it a lot more over the coming months. I decided to go to Bristol Zoo, which is only a 10 minute walk from my new place. I took basically all my gear with me so I was prepared for all eventualities. It was also a great test to see what lenses were used throughout the afternoon.

The first, and only image I took with my 70-200mm. This is a great lens, I just don't seem to use it as much as I should. This image is even taken through the wire mesh and is clear as day.

My first stop was the bug and reptile house, and straight away the 100mm macro was perfect for this area as it was quite dark and crowded. Even shooting through the glass, you can see the subject as clear as can be. I find that this is my go to lens as I love to show detail, and these are a perfect example of this, The 100mm seems to be so versatile due to its focusing distance.

As you can see in the image above, the 100mm is also fantastic at subjects further away, this meant that my 70-200 F/4 stayed in the bag.

I also managed to use the lens to get two completely different feels from the same subject. In this case a spider in its web.

I moved on from here to the main reason for my visit, the chance to use my 400mm prime. It seemed like an age since I had used it so I snapped away...

Golden Headed Lion Tamarin - 400mm F/5.6

As always the 400mm on the 5D Mk III gets some great images, ok its at a zoo so they subjects can't exactly go anywhere but the image quality still comes through in the end product.

I finished off my time at Bristol zoo, as the sun faded, in the forest of birds trying to get a half decent shot of any of the birds in there. I again changed to the 100mm macro for its high F Stop and got this shot above. This again shows the versatility of this lens even at higher ISO.

Finally I come onto something that I have looked at for a long time now (well over 2 years), but have not had the courage to invest in until now, soI have decided to spend some money on a professional printer. Now I researched this for a long period of time, and decided to start with one that would not break the bank, but would be able to produce high quality prints. I plumped for this one (see below)

I have loved having the printer already as it is the first time I have been able to see my images in print, and not just on a backlit screen. Not only that, it has made me rethink the images im capturing as to what would look good as a full A3 print. Its also got me delving back into older photos that once shared, go on the shelf and maybe never see the light of day again. The trick now is to see if I am able to sell these prints and create another revenue stream for my photography.

Seeing an image like this one above, taken a couple of years ago looks stunning when printed properly, which hopefully others will appreciate too (Fingers crossed).

I have a couple more blog posts to get through over the coming month, including the concluding part to Yellow sun, as well as one on a wedding I did last month so watch out for these coming soon....

FIN

Nov 27 Comfortably Numb

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Nov 27 Comfortably Numb

Dec 26 Blackbird

Nov 1 Dancing In The Dark

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