Fort Pulaski National Monument (Georgia)

We stopped near Savannah Georgia at Fort Pulaski National Monument and even though it was raining lightly on us we walked around a bit. Dennis and Haden crossing the moat on the drawbridge.

As I crossed the moat I paused to snap a photo - btw these were all taken with the little camera, I didn't want to drag the big one out in the rain and lug it around - we just planned on taking a quick peek.

We paused for a quick photo, I have to laugh at how the wind was making my hair fly, lol.

There was another drawbridge to cross to actually get into the fort. See the canon through the doorway?

Once I reached the door I turned around and snapped back the way we had come.

Huge, massive doors - imagine all the things they have seen in their lifetimes!

One of the soldiers' quarters. I cannot imagine having to live in this small space.

I think every "window" we encountered was actually a hole to poke a canon through.

We were allowed to go up on top and walk - each semi-circle you see would have had a weapon - only a few remain.

I found it interesting that they were so mobile, the ones below could even be pulled forward and backward, but on top you could only do the arc. They are really heavy for one person to push!

Looking down into the center of the fort.

A cool, gnarly tree near the parking lot.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

And between the parking lot and fort lies a soldier's grave.

A Turning Point in Military History

In the days before the Civil War, brick forts were America's main defense against overseas enemies. In one two-day battle during the Civil War, new technology proved its superiority to brick forts. The Union army used rifled cannons to compel a surrender by Confederates inside Fort Pulaski. No one ever built a brick fort again after the battle.

~taken from the National Park Service site

How I shoot Bluebirds

So, the next morning I woke up to the sound of Bluebirds. I was so excited that they were still here! I had to grab the camera and run out to see if “she” was still showing interest in my birdhouse.

Isn’t he beautiful! The males are SO bright right now.

I sat with my lens trained on the opening to the birdhouse waiting to see her peek out. There was no peeking this time, as she came out, he came down and I was so excited thinking I must have caught them terrifically. . .

Then so disappointed when I saw this on the computer. The focus remained on the opening, not the quickly moving birds. I’m thinking, if I had allowed the flash to go off I might have been able to freeze their wings, but then again I think they moved out of the area I had in focus so this is just it.

When she went back in, I tried again and she came out a little slower this time.

She’s doing a little house cleaning, but once again she moved out of my area of focus. Her little feet sure look good though, don’t they?

See, these last three photos all happened so fast I didn’t have the chance to move the camera.

She looks so sweetly curious, I just had to see what she was looking at. So, I moved the lens down, below her, and. . .

At this point I decided to go buy some nesting material to help encourage them to stay.

But this little Nuthatch caught my eye. I still thrill over the zany Nuthatches. I’ve only seen the white-breasted ones lately though and am kinda missing the itty bitty red-breasted ones. If you’re not familiar with Nuthatches, they are really fun to watch as the walk down trees eating insects from the bark. This guy had been digging around in some leaves prior to walking along the driveway.

This is a female Brown-headed Cowbird. These birds are new to me, but according to my bird book they are the only parasitic bird in the state, laying their eggs in host birds’ nests, leaving others to raise their young. So I guess they’re footloose and fancy free.

I was probably 20-30 feet away from the birds in these photos. That’s typically about as close as they’ll let me get. That’s my set-up there for birding. The 100-400mm on the Canon 40D, they are pretty much married, it’s rare for me to change the lens on that camera.

That’s the zoomiest lens we have and it can be used on any of our cameras. That being said, if it is put on the 5D, it would not be as zoomy. The 5D has a full frame sensor and the other cameras (Xti, 20D, 40D) have smaller sensors. Think of them like widescreen and full frame movies. When we bought the 5D, I almost got a 5D too, but I knew that I like to bird and the smaller sensor gives me more zoom. So I went with the 40D.

The 40D has a fast processor and many sports photographers choose it. It reacts quicker than the other cameras. It can shoot 5 frames per second compared with their 3 frames per second. This matters in birds. And when I saw the bird guy speak a couple of weeks ago, he says he uses the Canon 40D too, and he’s a pro.

My Camera Equipment

Cameras have always been in my life a little more than in most people's.  But I really wasn't interested in them, at all, until recently.  I think the first time I confessed my love was February 2007. I had no idea how much my world of photography would change when we brought home that first digital SLR in September 2007.  And, as I imagine, you can see by the list below we have jumped in with both feet.

You may be asking yourself why Canon, why not Nikon?  My only answer would be that it was neck and neck for a long time; we knew that whichever way we went would predict our entire future choices.  We would be buying a second camera body at some point and sharing all the lenses.  Nikon and Canon lenses mount differently so both camera bodies had to be one or the other.  Then we were told that Canon has slightly better glass (lenses) and we took the leap into a Rebel XTi.

It is my hope to compile a list of our various cameras and lenses, along with full reviews, to make it easier for people to answer those questions, "What camera are you using?" or "What lens are you using?"  The first one is coming soon and you should start seeing the words below turn into links to keep all of the reviews in one easy to find location.

Cameras (all of our cameras are digital SLRs)
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Canon EOS 40D
Canon EOS 20D
Canon EOS 5D

Lenses
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (standard zoom)
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM (telephoto zoom)
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM (macro)
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (telephoto zoom)
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM (standard zoom)
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM (standard zoom)
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II (standard)
Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye (Wide-angle)

Other Stuff
2 - Speedlite 430EX flashes and diffusers
2 remote triggers
modeling lights/flashes
Bogen Manfrotto tripods with ballheads
Crumpler camera bag for one camera
2- hardcases for all equipment
Lenses we've used
Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III (telephoto zoom)
Sigma 28-300mm F3.5-6.3 DG Macro (standard zoom)
Canon EF 16-35mm F2.8L USM, Canon EF 24-70 F2.8L USM, Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM, Canon EF 50mm F1.2L USM - We borrowed these from

Which lens is right for you?

originally posted Monday, 11 February 2008

Have you wondered what the difference is between the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens and the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens, besides the $400-500 price difference? Well, I’m here to help.

How much will you be using the lens? What types of things will you be shooting? Will you be using a tripod? How much do you want to spend?

The above photos were taken with the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III, you can generally find this lens for under $200 and as I think you can see from the photos it is a very good lens. It uses a DC motor instead of a USM to drive the AF. It’s fairly lightweight at 16.8oz/480g. Chances are you will need to use a tripod when using the lens at 300mm. I did use a tripod for those two photos.

 

The two photos above were taken with the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens, this lens can generally be found for under $800. It offers an ultrasonic motor helping to make auto focusing almost noiseless and fast, precise and practical. It has two stabilization modes, and you are able to turn the Image Stabilization off when you are using a tripod. The lens can be locked at 70mm, making transport easier; it weighs in at 22.2 oz/630g . But my favorite thing about this lens is that I don’t need a tripod at 300mm.

All photos were taken with the respective lens on a Canon Rebel XTi, EOS Digital SLR Camera.

Please note: The above links are for your convenience in comparing the two lenses, I get no credit for you clicking them. Canon offers many different lenses and I am trying to assure that you know precisely which two lenses are covered in this review.