I did have some doubts about the event  - it wasn’t in subway range (this is New York, everything revolves around the subway system) and when you get a little bit farther away from the city, you need to have a car to get from point A to point B. Plus, some people said they went to the event last year and they weren’t too impressed.

Despite the doubts, I decided to rent a car and drive there. It wasn’t as bad a drive as I would’ve thought – the place was about one hour and change away, and the highways were quite empty on that morning. I knew Victor was interested, so we carpooled. We got there early and had time to even go into the local DD and have some more coffee and a snack (it’s really hard to wake up at 7 on a Sunday). further more, we were early enough to get into a parking lot, and not park on the road like many others.

The organizer of this event – Green Chimneys – is the nationally renowned, non-profit organization with a mission of restoring possibilities and creating futures for children with emotional, behavioral, social and learning challenges through educational, therapeutic and outreach services, while providing care for animals and nature, thereby promoting a philosophy of dignity and worth for all living things. (as stated on their website under “About Us“).

The two pictures below are details of a larger mosaic, created by the kids that were helped by Green Chimneys, as explained to me by a young guy, Marcel, who saw me taking the picture. Each square of the mosaic was hand made by a different kid.

They brought many predators – owls, eagles, vultures, in addition to the animals they usually have on site (not all of them are birds – they have pigs, cows, goats, sheep, mules, peacocks, an emu, etc.)  They also have some birds in cages – they care for them because those birds would not make it in the wild, or would be dangerous to people. Unfortunately, although I took some pictures of some caged birds, due to the wire fencing (sometimes double fencing) the pictures did not come out as good as I would’ve liked, so they will not be posted. Also, you will notice that most birds were tethered – they are birds of prey, so it’s better to make sure they don’t attack people.

This one was wearing a hood – it became too agitated because of all the people.

This was a special kind of owl – an Eagle Owl. They  are special because they are the largest kind of owls. And these pictures are quite high on my favorites from the event list.

In this picture, the said owl was all fluffed up because of a dog present. The owl keeper told us he (it was a he) doesn’t like dogs. See for yourself how much he didn’t like the dog…

I have more predator birds pictures in the Picasa/Flickr galleries (I’ll post the link at the end of this post). I want to post some pictures of other animals they had in their campus – me and Victor took the time to walk around, and we’ve seen almost every part of the campus.

So… they had a lama – funny animal..

Then they had this thing with too many horns (not really sure what kind of animal it is)

I wanted to take some better pictures of this peacock, but some kids scared him away, and i was only able to get one photo of his tail. Although there were some female peacocks in the areas, they did not have the big flashy tail.

I spent some time to convince this big bird to look straight at me….  but this picture makes me laugh every time is see it.

And they also had some “different” chickens – they look like young birds, but these are mature, and yellow is their color.

Ok, this is a long post…. hope you’re still here, and reading the text, not only looking at the pictures. To my surprise, I didn’t use more than one lens all day – i had the 10-22mm and 17-55mm, but the 70-200 2.8 IS II was glued to the camera. The only times it came off was when I installed or removed the 1.4x TC. I think I love this lens too much, and I should go back to using “shorter” lenses.

For more pictures, please visit my Picasa or Flickr galleries

So there it was – a slower day in the office, beautiful weather outside, and I was craving to go out. I spoke to a friend photographer and we decided to use the lunch break to go out in Central park and try out our new gear (my new 70-200 f/2.8L IS II and he was trying out his new Nikon D700).

Gear selection was a no-brainer this time – the 7D with the 70-200, and the 1.4x lens extender. Batteries were charged, memory cards were empty, everything was set.

We entered Central Park from 6 Avenue, and we worked our way to the Mall and back. There were many tulips in the park, and they made excellent photo subjects.

But there weren’t only flowers in the park – there were also lots and lots of people, doing all the things you’d expect them to do on such a beautiful spring day – like reading a book…

… exercising their guitar skills….

… believing they can talk to wild geese…

…performing to the park visitors…

… taking a break ….

…enjoying their dog life… (seriously, this dog was enjoying Central Park more than some people)

But my favorite photo of the day came to me close to the end of the stroll through the park. I saw this man, who apparently is trying to walk on air and carry the world on his shoulders (well, not really, but you get the point)

It was a fun lunch break, and I got back at the office starving (luckily I got myself some food on the way back).  I ended up improving the mood of the day (yes, it’s hard to believe anyone can make a Friday better, but… I guess this worked for me).

Would I do this again? Yes! Why? Because it’s good to do something I enjoy, be outside, freed from the conditioned air of the office, enjoying the sun and weather.  You should try to make time to go outside, and escape the office, even for a short time. You can be into photography, but it’s not mandatory – even a walk around the block would be excellent, giving you a chance to detach from the stress at work, allowing you to go back refreshed and ready to take on those tasks that pile up in your inbox.

There are more pictures from this lunch break on Picasa or Flickr.

Thank you for reading, and if you like any of the pictures, please comment to let me know which one and why you like it, or tell me what’s your idea of relaxing and renewing yourself on a work day (if I don’t ask too much).

I was there today, for several hours, and as a teaser, until I get to process all the photos I’ve taken, I will post just one of them. This dancer was performing the “Butoh Dance”.

There were actually two reviews that sold me on this lens – one made by Bryan Carnathan over at The Digital Picture (although those reviews are “slightly” biased), and the review made by the people at Photozone.de.

I have used the mark 1 of this lens, and while it was mostly ok, i found it to be quite soft wide open, good for people, but not so good for sports or landscapes. Looking at the reviews and comparisons to mk1, the mk2 showed improved contrast and sharpness, which is something I appreciate in a lens.

One thing that bothers me slightly is the weight of the lens – mark 1 wasn’t a light lens, weighing 46.2 oz (1310 grams), but mark 2 is slightly heavier at 52.6 oz (1490 grams), meaning that I can’t use the regular strap (the Crumple Industry Disgrace, which is a pleasure to use, it distributes the weight very well, so you don’t even notice you have a big dSLR hanging from your neck) and I would have to use the R-Strap, hooked to the tripod ring. When you use a heavy lens, it’s better to lift and support the system by the lens rather than by the body – to prevent damage to the camera mount.

I didn’t have the time for more tests, but the initial impression, based on the quick photo session I’ve set up with Miyah is that this lens rocks!  (please excuse the white balance of the pictures, the lighting was a bad mix between natural light, tungsten and fluorescent).

I waited on this 70-200 2.8l IS Mark II to come out for a while – I was interested in getting the mark 1, since it was the best zoom for portrait photography, but I wasn’t convinced to buy it. However, when Mark II came out, all the reasons that kept me away from Mark I vanished.

This past Sunday, I took a visit to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. The place was packed with people and flowers (d’oh!! spring finally came), and I took the 60mm macro, the 17-55mm, 85mm and 135mm lenses with me, along with the flash, camera,  memory cards and cold medicine.

You might ask – why bring the flash? Why use the flash on a bright sunny day? Stay tuned for the next posts, which will contain tips and tricks on how to photograph flowers!

There were so many tulips everywhere, it was hard not to take pictures like the one below:

While I’m not a flower buff, I do enjoy the explosion of color after the long harsh winter we had here in the North East.

As I said, the place was really packed, there were people everywhere. I thought it would be a good time to take out my fisheye lens and use it.

It was a really nice day as you can see above, and everyone was having a good time, sitting on the lawn at the Cherry Esplanade.

But back to the flowers – I went to the Botanical Garden afterall. And since it was so crowded, the only good background is the sky:

More pics from this series can be seen on Flickr or Picasa (depending on your personal preference).

Thank you for reading this post, comments are always appreciated!

I took my camera out and started to document the event, along with the dozens of tourists in the area, and one pro photographer (there could’ve been more, but I only noticed one). The incident started around 5PM, and when I came out things settled down a bit.

Due to the carbon monoxide emissions (which lingered for hours), there were injured firefighters. (I tried to avoid a too graphic content).

Since I do not have a press pass, I had to watch from the side. In the picture below, tourists were evacuated from a hotel, before they got to check in.

I saw this fire truck getting water from a hydrant, and I thought it would make an interesting photo:

Firefighters cordoned off 3 blocks on Broadway, and closed 3 streets.

I was always curious about firetrucks and this time I had a chance to see the side panel that controls the water pumps.

Tourists never miss an opportunity to take an out-of-the-ordinary picture, sometimes they can go a bit too far (IMHO)

The rest of the pics are on Flickr or Picasa. Please see below the ABC news coverage of this incident.

Thank you for reading this entry, comments are always welcomed.

(via Rob Galbraith – www.robgalbraith.com )

Update: This was also posted on Photoshop Blog on April 4th.

Gear, lights and background were the same as last time, but this time I had a steamer available so I was able to clean the wrinkles in the muslin background (that really eased post processing). There was another change – I was able to properly use two flashes for the the background, one flagged by a soft-light reflector I bought from Adorama some time ago on impulse but didn’t find much use, and the second flash flagged with aluminum foil taped with gaffer tape (i really should write a DIY post on this, it’s cheap, strong and very good when used with the shiny side as a reflector). You can see in the above image how I lighted the background.

First up was Anna, very beautiful girl, soon to be a bride. She actually posed as a bride – the makeup was for a Serene/Natural bridal look. As you can see – I gelled the background flash using a blue gel – the veil would not be properly seen on a white background. Anna was quite shy, and I am happy I captured that on camera. I wish her a very beautiful wedding and a happy and long marriage!

Next up was Mila, very pretty, and she was already married – she wore the dress before, so she was a bit more relaxed. Terry gave her a Plum/Lavender bridal look. I kept the blue gel on the background flash, for the same reasons as above.

After these bridal looks, it was time to spice things up a bit, and Susan came forth, looking hot and dressed to kill. The makeup, according to Terry, was for a “Sensual Smokies look”. She was just natural at posing, and made my job very very easy. I just couldn’t take bad pictures of her. For one of the first photos, I tried to light the background purple using a gel, and the photo came out excelent, as if she was walking on the red carpet. I could’ve framed better, but I like this picture just the way it is.

We tried some more poses, I changed the background to white, and this it what came out – she looks like she belongs on a magazine cover.

This turned out to be a long day – Terry was doing make up, and wardrobe and hairstyling for all three models, and my domain was the set. It was an interesting day overall, many lessons to be learned, but the day wouldn’t be over until Terry would step in front of the camera. Here are her pictures  - in the first one, she’s holding the brush, as a make up artist she is (she didn’t intend to brush my lens, but I made sure to stay far enough).

In some of the pictures, such as the one below, I decided to move one of the umbrellas lower so the light comes from slightly her chin, to give her a glamorous glow, while i was taking the picture from a slightly high perspective.

We also took a few pictures of Susan and Terry together, and as much as Susan looks naked in this picture, I assure you she was very much dressed, but in a dress that kept her shoulders naked. This pictures, as well as several others, were taken with just one light (the second light was turned off for a change, the photoshoot was going too good to take a break and replace the dead batteries in the flash)

Most of the pictures are taken at f/8, with the Canon 7D with the Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 IS, at shutter speeds between 1/125 and 1/200. Flashes for the main and fill lights were set between 1/2 and 1/4 power, lighting through shoot-through umbrellas, controlled by the on-camera flash controller. There was no need for the CST/CSRBs wireless triggers this time, the flash commander worked flawlessly – the pace of the photoshoot was slightly slower, so I didn’t get the dreaded “busy” message on the back camera LCD.

I want to thank Terry for the makeup, Anna, Mila and Susan for being such great models, and you for reading this post. There will be another photo shoot this coming weekend, so stay tuned for that post

It comes with the same, excelent, 18MP sensor as the Canon 7D, same metering and video modes as the 7d, but with less features and obviously lower price – $799 for body only (that’s $900 less than the 7D).

The 18MP sensor on the 7D is considered one the best APS-C sized sensors out there, and to be able to get it in a Rebel is a great deal, if you’d ask me.

Several of the differences between the T2i are:

• only 9points AF vs 19points,
• T2i has a smaller viewfinder
• 7D has a better build quality, is more ergonomic to use, has some weather sealing and higher framerate.
• the T2i has a better LCD screen, with 2:3 aspect ratio and slightly more pixels than the 7D LCD (1,040,000 vs 920,000)

Reviews are popping up on the internet – at PhotographyBlog, at Camera Labs, at ePhotozine, and they all agree it’s a very good option for a first dSLR, or upgrade from an older model. Follow the links for more information.