Home from Yellowstone... with video to share

THE VIDEO IS ONLINE HERE IN HD

I was in Yellowstone from February 26th - March 2nd. The photos will take me a while to edit; but I put together some of the video clips for those who might want to watch. I have removed the audio from the Otters as there was lots of shutter clicking going on while I was recording. The (spoiler alert) Wolf footage has the audio on all except the last clip as the sound is the best part.

The footage of the Otter/s was captured with the 7D and 500/4.0L IS while the Wolf footage was captured with the use of telephoto converters (2X and 1.4X). The Wolf was a long way off and the atmospheric distortion is very obvious. The distance adds a cool element of delay on the audio... you'll see.

Enjoy

Canon 5DII and 7D film SNL

NBC'S SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE SHOOTS OPENING TITLE SEQUENCE IN FULL 1080p HD VIDEO WITH CANON'S EOS DIGITAL SLR CAMERAS

The new season of NBC's Saturday Night Live debuted not only with an a new cast, but with a new look for the opening title sequence as the entire opening montage was shot using the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the new EOS 7D digital SLR cameras. The concept behind the opening sequence was portraiture as the director and crew looked to capture "living" portraits of the city, the cast and the unique characters that make up the New York City nightlife.

The full press release is here.

7D Users Rejoice

Adobe now has full raw support for the 7D in both Lightroom and Bridge/PS.

I have updated; but not played yet.

Here is the link:
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html

DPR posts full 7D Review

I don't know why it is not all over the web yet; but DPR has posted their full review of the 7D.

I have been sharing my thoughts on the camera and it is nice to see some real tests that align with my thoughts.

The review is here

It is simple.. the 7D is the best APS-C camera to date :)

Enjoy

Yellowstone, October 18th - 19th

PHOTOS ONLINE

I made another two day trip to the park and yet again my main goal was to spend time with Owls. Many of you who know me know that I do not give up on a goal once I get it into my head. I have the vision of a shot I want and I am going to keep going back until I get it, heck even when I don't get it I come home with quite a few nice images of Owls, so I'll keep going back.

The 7D got to go on its first trip to Yellowstone. The camera proved its worth after shooting lots of test shots, a football game, and volleyball match. It did a great job proving itself and did not let down in Yellowstone. Now my disclaimer is that Lightroom, the software I use to edit, only has beta support for the 7D's RAW files. The images I have online and my impressions are based on what I have been able to dial in via Lightroom myself without full support. I will keep these saved in Lightroom and edit them again when there is support for the camera; but as that could be a month or two I decided not to make you all wait to see the images.

The park has warmed back up and most of the snow has melted. Dunraven pass opened back up; but the bears were not to be found. The Canyon group was way out from Alum Creek. The Owls were active and put on a nice show. The Tundra Swans are moving through, I'll ask that if you are going to try to photograph them you do so without scaring them off as some of us go and sit for hours so that they will come in near to the shore and when visitors come running down to the shore the birds move away. Thanks :)

Oh you want to know my thoughts on the 7D, well the AF is significantly better than the 50D. The speed... 8 frames per second speaks for itself. From what I am seeing with noise and noise reduction from the beta support in Lightroom I will say that the camera is 1/3 to 2/3's of a stop better than the 50D. ISO1000 made some very nice files and made it possible to photograph Great Grey Owls in flight while it was raining and quite dark. The metering is something that many have not talked about; but I found much better than any of the non "1" series DSLR's have been. The new sealing made me feel much more comfortable shooting with the 500/4.0L IS in the rain. The camera is a great upgrade from the 50D.

My new full gimbal head from Induro (GHB2) is very nice. It has things dialed in very nicely, and does so for less than the Wimberly II. I was also able to fully test out a custom machined version of the RRS long lens stabilized that I have spoken of a few times. It is nice and I would say adds 5% to 10% to sharpness overall. Thanks Pete.

I had a good trip and all of the new gear worked out as well as I had hoped it would.

Take a look at the photos on my site and as always feel free to leave comments, questions, and criticisms there… oh and give your favorites a thumbs up too.

Thanks, and enjoy.

Canon 7D

Canon 7D... get in line for yours today, from the sounds of it the camera will be worth lining up for.

Here it is on Canon's site.

Enjoy