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Showing posts from October, 2013

Using the Canon 70-300mm 4-5.6 IS USM for wildlife photography

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The Canon 70-300mm 4-5.6 IS USM is a great lens for anyone getting into wildlife photography but isnt ready to spend over 1000$ on a pro L series lens. I got mine used for 350$ and have had it for two years now. I have learned that with the right settings and some patience you can still get great sharp images. The most important thing to remember is that if you are shooting off the tripod keep the IS (image stabilization) on at all times. This lens is not very sharp wide open (which is f4 at 70mm and f5.6 at 200mm) I find stopping down to f8 greatly increases sharpness. If you find it hard to get enough light and a fast shutter speed at f8 just turn up the ISO a bit. Noise reduction is getting better all the time, on my camera I can go to 1600 without it being noticeable in the final image. I still try not to increase ISO above 800 if I can avoid it. Also I find I almost always have to use faster shutter speeds than my light meter tells me to. Image quality goes way down after 200mm

Alaska Yukon Roadtrip

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Our road trip through Alaska and the Yukon territory was an incredible experience. We spent two months on the road in our Volvo wagon. We climbed peaks, came face to face with grizzlies and bison, hiked and camped through the rain, snow and cold. We drove to the end of the most northern highway in America and hiked back country through the tallest mountains in north America. Alaska is a land of such incredible beauty and unlike anything we have ever seen in our travels around the world. This is the Tundra north of the Brooks range. This is past the Arctic circle and past the tree line. A beautiful barren landscape inhabited by caribou and musk-ox. A family of Musk-ox grazing on the Tundra 2km from the Dalton highway. Musk-ox are ancient creatures from a time when woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers roamed north america The Dalton highway runs 666 km from just north of Fairbanks all the way up to the Arctic ocean at Deadhorse. This highway goes further north than an