RadiantView PhotoBlog

I acquired a Canon 5D Mark II during December and have been slowly trying it out. I am quite amazed with the image quality and the advances in the features over my older 20D.  I debated long and hard between the new Canon 7D and the 5D Mark II.  Both seem to be excellent cameras and each have their advantages.  In the end, I decided I wanted the higher image quality and the extra image width offered by the full frame 5D Mark II over the higher frames/second offered by the 7D.  Canon didn’t make the choice easy.

Douthat State Park

Douthat State Park

Shortly after Christmas, we had the opportunity to visit some good friends in Lexington, Virginia. While there, I made a short predawn drive to Douthat State Park, arriving about an hour before sunrise. As this first image shows, it was cold, with a good bit of ice on the lake.   The extra image width of the full frame camera helped me to capture the full vista of the frozen lake with my 24mm lens — something that would have been much more difficult with the crop sensor on the 20D.  Below is another view of the lake taken about 40 minutes later.

Douthat State Park

The ability to “go wide” really shows itself when you get close to an object in the foreground, as I did in this image below of a stream at Douthat State Park. In reality, the stone in the foreground was pretty small, but the wide angle lens makes it appear much larger in the image.

Douthat State Park

Virginia Military Institute

My first morning in Lexington, I got up early to take predawn pictures.  I was hoping for a foggy morning and was not dissapointed.  The image below of a Civil War era Cannon at the Virginia Military Institute has an entirely different feel on a foggy morning than it would on a nice clear day.  Unlike the images at Douthat State Park that were taken at the wide end of my 24-105 lens, here I zoomed all the way out to the longest focal length (105mm), which compresses the fog and enhances the feeling of loneliness.

Cannon in the morning fog at Virginia Military Institute

Another image I captured that morning was of the four training cannons known as “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”  Noticed how much the fog had lifted in the 30 minutes since I captured the previous image.  The feeling of loneliness is gone.

Cannons at Virginia Military Institute

Early Morning Frost

The last image I’ll share in this post really highlights the great image quality I’ve seen from the 5D Mark II.  It’s an image of early morning frost on some grass by the pond at Claude Moore Park.  Even in this small web version, the clarity of the frost crystals on the grass is amazing.

Early Morning Frost at Claude Moore Park

A couple notes.  You can find more of my recent images on my flickr page.  Also, taking pictures in the cold carries with it some extra concerns for both yourself and your camera equipment.   So dress warmly and make sure you have a large plastic bag with you.  Before going back inside, wrap your camera in a plastic bag, then place it inside it’s camera bag.  Let it warm up slowly for several hours before removing it once you get back into your warm house.  You can read more tips at this Digital Photography School link.

1st place in 2009 Claude Moore Park Photo Expo, Youth 12 and under category

We just found out this evening that my daughter Sarah’s picture of a Lotus blossom won 1st place in the Claude Moore Park 2009 Photo Expo for the Youth 12 and under category!  Needless to say, she was very excited and I was very proud of her.

I submitted two photos.   One for the “Roots & Buds” category and one for the “winged wonders.”  While they were selected to be shown in the expo, I didn’t win any ribbons.   Oh well.

The Photo Expo is this coming Saturday,  September 26th, from 10 am to 4 pm if you are interested in attending.  It’s a free event.

My two photos are shown below.

Lotus on Canvas by Tim Pennington

Gyro Falcon by Tim Pennington