Water Smorgasborg by Joseph Calev

The response though was certainly not what I expected.  A different poster basically said “yeah, that’s not bad for two months with this equipment.  Now take a look at my awesome shots! You should try taking something like this!”.

To be honest, I did not appreciate this at all.  Yes, his shots were clearly better than mine.  However he provided no constructive criticism on my own shots.  I was just a beginner hoping to shine a bit and he threw a giant gobo on top of me.

This brings back an earlier story where I was on the other side.  A photographer posted several recent shots and asked for criticism.  I wasn’t crazy about either shot and posted constructive criticism.  I offered opinions on cropping, post processing, and angles.  I did not post any of my own shots.

Another photographer also responded and included several of his own shots in the discussion.  He offered much of the same feedback that I did.  Shortly after this, the individual left the forum never to return.

I believe it is worth having a discussion about photographer etiquette.  In general I find photographers are decent in terms of etiquette when actually shooting.  When I am photographing a patch of flowers, another photographer has never sat right next to me.  Similarly, I have not yet had an issue with another photographer interrupting wildlife I was photographing.  I do often have issues with non-photographers, who thrust their point and shoots on top of me when I am photographing macros, stand in front of me when I am photographing landscapes, and scare away wildlife I am photographing.

However I am discussing photographers here.  When it comes time to online discussions though, it seems we photographers are far less knowledgeable.  Therefore I would like to present my list of dos and don’ts.  Feel free to add your own.

Never post your own photo to a thread someone started to show off his/her own photos unless it is requested.

Photographers post their photos for different reasons.  They may want to show off or they may want criticism.  The general rule is never post your own photo on the same thread.  It simply is not polite.  You are taking the opportunity from another photographer and disregarding their work.

There are exceptions of course.  Sometimes a photographer will say “show me your best x shots”.  Other times the photographer may have a question on technique.  He may show an example photo where a problem occurred and ask for remedies.  In these situations it is perfectly acceptable to post your own shots.

If you comment on someone’s photo, add a “like” if the feature exists on the site.

This is a small courtesy.  Even if you’re not crazy about the shot, if you take the time to comment then click the ‘like’ button if the site has it.  This provides a good feeling for the other photographer.  If you want to provide constructive criticism, do it in the comments and still like the photo anyways.  Few photographers want to hear “this sucks”.  Many do want constructive criticism, but would like positive comments mixed with the negative.

The way I look at it, if the photo caused me to write a comment, then it must have been a decent photo for me to notice it in the first place.

Understand what the photographer is aiming for before commenting

Different photographers have different goals.  The goals of a stock photographer and a fine art photographer are quite different.  Make sure you understand these goals before commenting.  An awesome photo for stock photography will likely suck for fine art and vice versa.  If you strongly criticize a photo using the wrong goals, your comments will not be useful to the original poster.

Be careful about posting your own photos as example shots

Say someone has a question about lighting.  You response with a photo showing the discussed lighting technique.  This is perfectly OK.  Where the line becomes grayer is when someone mentions he/she is having a difficult time taking a type of photo and you reply saying “look at these awesome photos I took using this technique.  If you were nearly as awesome as I you would do the same”.

You are trumpeting your own horn here rather than providing any constructive proof.  Try to be more modest when posting.  It is OK to post awesome (in your eyes) example shots, but simply mention them as an example of the technique.  If the shots are truly awesome, others will call them out as such.

Try to understand what the photographer is looking for in critique

I am admittedly quite difficult in my critique.  If I do not like a shot I will plainly say so.  I will also give very specific reasons why I do not like it.  Some people greatly appreciate this feedback.  Others do not like it at all.

I openly do not like FlickR.  The reason I do not is due to what I call “the FlickR syndrome”.  This syndrome is very easy to catch if you are active on FlickR, as it is extremely easy to receive a ton of very positive feedback on an otherwise awful shot.  This leads some photographers to believe that every shot that leaves their hard drive is blessed and all other photographers will be blinded by the sheer awesomeness of their photos.

These photographers then post their photo someone where someone like I sees it and they simply cannot believe that something can be wrong with one of their photos.  I must clearly be an idiot for not recognizing the genius of this photo that hundreds of mindless FlickRites have proven.

The lesson of this is to try to understand what the photographer wants.  Sometimes it is OK to specifically ask what type of feedback the photographer desires.  Other times this is obvious from the original message.  If the photographer states that he took some shots he is very proud of, maybe it’s best not to comment.  If on the other hand the photographer states “give me your worst”, then absolutely do so.

If someone follows you or friends you, consider following them back

You are not above any other photographer out there and they should not be thought of as your flock.  When someone friends you they are truly interested in your work.  It does not mean they think you are better than they – just that your work interests them.  Do the right thing and take a look at their work.  Many times I have been greatly surprised that immensely talented photographers – way above me in talent – have chosen to follow me.  I use that as an opportunity to follow them as well so that I may learn more from their photography.

Be careful when commenting on photos about people

We have all seen a lot of photos of ugly people.  We have also seen photos of nice looking people in truly awful poses.  I remember one photo a photographer posted to a forum that he was quite proud of.  It was of a rather pretty girl stooped down in a way that looked like she was about to go to the bathroom.  In another I saw a very young girl posed in a way that in my opinion was completely inappropriate for the age.

You have to remember before commenting on these photos that the subject may be the daughter, spouse, or close relative of the photographer.  Also, the subject himself/herself may read the post.  If you want to provide constructive criticism, provide it on what the photographer did – not the model.  Be careful when stating what you don’t like about a shot though as many models are quite self conscious.  Remember, most of these people are not professional models at all but are simply someone who volunteered for the shoot.  If you say something about them that makes them uncomfortable, they may never volunteer for that photographer again.

Always assume your photo sucks when posting it

Few people like posts that say “see my awesome shots”.  As I said before, post your shots with humility.  Let others call out the quality of your shots.

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Another rule is that I must pick one shot and only one shot.  This means I need to go through my shots until there is one left. Often this can be quite tricky as I may like several shots.  This exercise, however, teaches me to find flaws in my photos.  Until I realize these flaws, I won’t know how to improve.

This weekend I was presented with an interesting dilemma.  I had photographed during lunch by my office that day and had taken a number of photos.  That evening, I sat down with my wife and kids to select that day’s photo.  After a bit of culling, it came down to two shots.

Red Leaf by Joseph Calev

At first glance, the first photo seemed the best to me.  I rather liked the pattern caused by the missing part of the lea.  I wasn’t crazy about the gleam on the left of the shot or the fact that the right most “point” is off the photo.  In addition some of the points are more OOF than I would prefer.  Still, I thought it deserved being the shot of the day.

My wife preferred the second shot.  She couldn’t narrow it down, but really liked it.  The funny thing about the shot is I took just this one, then moved on.  When I looked at it in the viewfinder it didn’t look like anything special.  Typically I wait until it is downloaded on my machine before deciding whether to delete it.  Upon examining it on my machine it escaped deletion (I delete around 70% of my shots each day) but I wasn’t keen on using the shot.

In terms of criticizing the shot, I am not crazy about the blown out highlights, but most of all it didn’t really impress me as being that unusual.  The first shot tells a bit more of a story.  There used to be a leaf with this shape and some insect had a snack – leaving the outer edge of the leaf (which evidently must not have been as tasty).

In the end, my wife preferred this shot and I had already published the following shot a few days earlier.

Imagination by Joseph Calev

As I try to do something different each day, I went with my wife’s suggestion and published the red leaf.

The next morning, I awoke to a ton of e-mails and my first 100 vote photo!  I find it rather intriguing how so many people liked this photo but it has now reached the rare echelon of photos my wife wants me to print.

The next day, I let my wife make the full decision.  She chose this photo, which promptly received not a single vote or comment.

Calligraphy by Joseph Calev

For the record, I and my older son preferred this shot, which in retrospect I probably should have made the photo of the day.  It’s not a great shot, but I have a feeling it would have at least received one vote.

So what have I learned from this experience? What seems obvious is you never know how some photos will be received.  Everyone judges photos differently and there will always be someone who hates a particular shot.

Going forward I will continue to listen to the opinions of my wife and kids.  At times I will let their choice trump mine, while at other times when I am more sure of myself I will make the choice.  One thing with the Red Leaf photo is my wife really, really liked it.  So perhaps the lesson is when someone really likes a photo, it is best to pay attention.

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For me, this happens in particular when I am travelling.  Typically when I travel I have one chance to get the shot.  After that, we will visit a different place or leave the area.  On some occasions when I have a good hotel location, I do receive multiple chances – but the reality is I usually have to take what I get.

Until recently, I found I would get annoyed quickly.  I would get impatient at the person with a camera cell phone attempting to photograph something that just isn’t possible with it but refusing to believe that this is the case while standing right in front of my camera.  Even more annoying was on a recent trip to China a guy sat right in front of what I was photographing and then motioned for me to get away so his wife could take his picture.  OK, I still get frustrated at these people – but I now have a new strategy.

The strategy is simply to make your enemy your strength.  Instead of getting frustrated at that which is preventing the picture you desire, look at what opportunities this opens up.

The shot above is a beginning example of this.  While we were in Beijing, the light was horrible.  Due to the strong pollution there, everything in the entire city was washed out and we did not see a single patch of blue sky while we were there.  I realized that the light was just simply not going to improve, so I chose to zoom in instead.  I rather like the shot above.  True, better light could have made it spectacular, but it would have had to come from a perfect angle and I think this shot isn’t so bad without it.  In this case, I used the poor light to push me to take more closeups that have less dependency on light.

On another trip to the Great Wall, we were stunned to wind up in a part that was literally overflowing with people.  While there are parts of the wall that have fewer people, our tour guide (ChinaTours.net – I do not recommend them) took us to one of the most crowded parts and there were so many people that we were literally packed like sardines.  It took forever just to move several feet.  Clearly I was not going to obtain the images I was hoping for.

So instead of trying to avoid people – I chose to focus the shot on them.  While I am still not completely happy with this shot – I think it needs some more post processing – it is one of my favorite shots from the Great Wall.  It clearly demonstrates what we were up against and what the Great Wall has become.

While we were in Xi’an, we decided to attend a Chinese cultural theater presentation.  The theater was very nicely decorated and the costumes and dancing were all very well done, but very often while I attempted to take pictures several guys in front of me would lift their small cameras as far in the air as possible to get a shot.  It became very annoying just when I thought I had a great shot I would find a camera in the middle of it.

Thinking about it a bit more, what would become of my shots anyways?  I couldn’t sell them, as I didn’t have the model releases.  A few of them I would show to family and friends, but that was about all.  Therefore I decided to try something different.

I really like this shot, even though my wife hates it so much she forced me to remove it from our photo album from China.  It still needs a bit more post processing, but is still my favorite shot from the evening.

In both of the cases above I deliberately made use of the thing that was annoying me to get a shot I liked better than most of the rest anyways. 

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This weekend, though, I decided to do something a bit different.  Given a home I had to photograph in Monroe, I decided to take a trip to Ben Hierland’s Wildlife Park.  I took along my 100-400 and my 7D and used my monopod for stabilization.  I’ve had my 7D for a good month now, but this was the first time I had actually used it for wildlife.  The idea was that the crop factor should give me a good idea what magnification I truly needed and which lens would work the best for me.

I must say I was completely shocked at what the answer turned out to be.

Over the period of the day, I came to realize two very painful things.

First, I know almost nothing about photographing wildlife other than insects.  I spent a great portion of my time there traipsing around and proceeded to scare away a great number of very interesting looking birds.  Heck, even an 800mm would not have helped me.  I need to learn some serious technique.

The shot above is one of the few shots I did not delete.  I should have deleted it along with every other shot from the trip, but I felt sorry for myself.

The second thing I realized is that the 7D really sucks for low light.  I had already been aware of this but this was the first time where I was forced to truly see it.  To date I had mainly used the 7D during the day and hadn’t really been forced to go above ISO 400 for anything I truly cared about.  The extra stop of a 500 or a 600 will not help here.  With my 5D2, I feel fully confident in shooting at ISO 3200.  Beyond that the shot may look interesting on FlickR  – but commercially will be unusable.  With the 7D, I would not go above ISO 400.

The simple fact is that when it comes to taking early light photos of birds and other wildlife, the 7D will not cut it for me.  At some time before I truly get into wildlife photography I will need to look into a 1D Mark IV.

However, to be honest the real limitation here is my abilities as a wildlife photographer.  A 1D4 will just help with the low light solution.  It will not help me learn how to get close to many of these birds and many other techniques of wildlife photography.  To learn those, the best way for me to improve is to keep using the 7D with the 100-400 and hope for good light.

The result of this entire escapade is I concluded that I am not yet ready for a large telephoto.  I remembered back to how I started in macro.  The MP-E 65 was not my first macro lens.  I started out with the Canon 500D diopter and used it for a year – slowly improving my macro techniques.  After some time I hit a wall with the 500D.  I knew I needed more magnification and after a great deal of research I concluded (correctly) that the MP-E 65 paired with the MT-24EX was the answer to my problems.

For that reason I am now learning towards investing the money originally aimed for a large telephoto into more macro equipment.  I haven’t yet come to an exact conclusion on what I will purchase, but I will certainly move towards taking more tripod based macros as today pretty much everything is hand held.  However, given my experience with shooting macros I am fully confident I will make the right choice when I do purchase something.

Sometimes, you just need to take a step back and realize that better equipment will not help you.  The real difference maker in photography is technique.  It is certainly true that sometimes equipment will allow you to do something that is otherwise not possible, but unless you’re fully able to use that equipment it still will not make a difference.

That is the case with me and a large telephoto right now.  I will need to spend some time practicing and studying before I can truly say that I am limited by not having a large telephoto lens.

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There has recently been a growing chatter about the rise of the amateur photographer and the threat this poses to professional photographers making a living today.  The claim goes that, since these photographers offer their photos for free or for pennies on the dollar, true professional photographers can no longer make a living.

This argument has grown quite heated at times.  One the one side, you have professional photographers trying to convince good amateur photographers to sell their photos for a good rate.  On the other side you have amateur photographers complaining that professional photographers are trying to control the market.

There is no denying that the market has changed.  Places like Shutterstock and IStockphoto have certainly changed the equation and people on FlickR giving their photos away for free are also changing it.  Journalism has also significantly changed, meaning many once employed photographers are now looking for jobs as newspapers fold and news organizations look for amateur photographers on the ground.

However, just because the market changed does not mean professional photography is going the way of the dodo – far from it.

Case 1: Event photographers

Nine years ago my wife and I needed to find a professional photographer for our wedding.  We eventually found a place that charged $2200 for both photography and video.  This wasn’t a guy who happened to own a camera, but involved photographers using medium format cameras, very expensive video cameras, and involved three photographers and some work done in their own studio.

In a few years we will need to find another professional photographer to photograph our sons’ Bar Mitzvahs.  It is true that there are now many amateur photographers charging $500 or even less to photograph an event.  However, if we want it photographed well, we’re talking between $3000-$4000 – and that does not include video.

How can a photographer make a living when there are other individuals undercutting him/her by several thousand dollars?  The simple answer in this case is you get what you pay for.  This doesn’t seem to be lost on their clients either – as many of them are booked very far in advance.

Are economics killing these photographers?  Far from it.  Consider also that with the rise of digital – costs have come down significantly for many of these photographers.  If you have the skills and equipment, you can make a lot more in event photography today than ten years ago.

Case 2: Amateur ‘advisers’

For a more modern example, look at sites like Strobist.  I like this blog and try to read it every day.  This is a guy who started out as a low paid newspaper photographer who I suspect is not hurting for cash today.  Could he have done what he does today ten years ago?  I severely doubt it.

There is a new market for professional photographers today and that is telling amateur photographers what to do with their equipment.  With the rise of the amateur photographer there is now a huge market today of photographers too busy or clueless to figure things out for themselves.  They want to know what equipment to buy, how to take a picture, why their pictures suck, and how to post process.  They are willing to pay money to do this.  They may click an ad on a blog, click a link that gives a kick back to the blog owner, buy a book by an author, or attend a class from the photographer.

There are quite a few people these days other than Strobist who make their living doing exactly this.  This is an entire market that barely existed ten years ago.

Case 3: The stock photographer

“OK”, you may say.  “I’ll give you the above two, but what about the stock photographer?”.  What about the stock photographer?  In the old days, many photographers made money by selling many of their shots through stock agencies.  Some photographers did this exclusively, while others did it in addition to their normal photographic duties.

What many do not realize is the traditional stock market is not dead.  Images are still being licensed for thousands of dollars.  Images are also being licensed for a few cents today and are also given away for free.

There are still companies that are very specific about the images they need.  They will spend a significant amount of effort in finding the image that perfectly suits them and have no problem spending several thousands of dollars for the rights to that image once they find it.  Often, the image is not possible to find at any stock agency and they pay a photographer to take it.

Other companies are less particular about the image they need.  They may need a photo of a particular location or of someone doing something.  For these companies, the microstock sites work well.  For professional photographers, microstock sites offer the ability to make something from the shots that didn’t make it.  Even for the top photographers, stock sites typically take only 5% of their photos.  The microstock sites offer an avenue to sell the other 95%.

It is true that it takes a lot more savvy these days to make it as a stock photographer.  A professional photographer needs to market himself today more than ever before.  Companies will not just find you – or will they?

There is a growing trend of companies finding images on FlickR and then offering licenses.  Some of these companies offer little to nothing but there is a sizable contingent of companies willing to pay good prices because a particular image fits their needs exactly.  There now exists a growing base of photographers who even make a living selling photos through these methods.

Case 4: Amateurs giving their photos away for free

So what to make of amateur photographers giving their photos away for free?  Is this hurting the photography market?  My argument is this is far from the case.

Most professional photographers these days make the majority of their income from paid assignments.  The client needs something very particular – something that cannot be found through FlickR or any stock site.  This is how I make the majority of my photo income and these photographers are not really affected by those giving images away for free.

It is true that some companies rely on finding photographers who do give their photos away for free.  However there are even more companies out there willing to pay a fair price for something they need.  With the international nature of the web, a company in Japan can now find a photographer from Mexico who happens to have the photo they need and sign a license agreement with him/her.  This was not possible before.

So who are photographers who give their images away for free really hurting?  They are not hurting the professionals.  They are hurting themselves.  Many of these photographers argue that they take photos for the love of taking photos and seek no monetary rewards.  For the companies out there looking to profit from their images, this works out for the better.

In today’s market, the line between a professional photographer and an amateur photographer is very blurry.  However the line between photographers who are taken advantage of and those who are not is as strong as it ever was.

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I had some decisions to make.

At various times, I considered turning this into more of a review blog.  The idea was to review various pieces of equipment and books and then get a cut when someone ordered something from my links.  I did post several of these blogs, but came to realize something very quickly.  Those who are well known for writing about photography are generally not well known for their photography itself.  In other words, the more one writes reviews about lenses and other equipment, the less one progresses as a photographer.

I also thought about using this as a stage for my best photography.  This can get rather boring too though.  Hey!  Look at this!  Some pictures are better than others and some I do want to show off, but I want this to be an entertaining blog – not one where I attempt to stuff my photos down your throat.

So what type of blog will this be?  My goal is for it to be an entertaining one.

I must admit that the implementation of this idea is not entirely set.  I do have some ideas which I will begin to implement very soon, but my hope is that those who do read this blog find it entertaining.

While I will no longer provide any equipment or book reviews here, that doesn’t mean this blog will not teach something.  I do hope to teach others about the nature around us and other things, but I also plan to do this in a manner that is not tediously boring.

I apologize for being vague here and ‘pardon the dust’.  Rather than explain this further, I think it is best to begin showing you…

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Photography-wise, much has happened in the last several months.  I purchased the Canon TS-E 17 and the Canon TS-E 24 II lenses for a number of purposes and they are now two of my favorite lenses.  I will discuss them more in a future blog.

I finally bit the bullet and purchased Lightroom – along with Photoshop CS4.  I am still getting used to Lightroom and have barely used CS4 yet – though I hope to ramp up on them soon.  I do rather like Lightroom – particularly the keywording feature – though I must admit I’m still getting used to non-destructive editing.  I think the thing that annoys me most about it so far is I cannot (or at least I haven’t figured it out yet) overwrite the original JPEG.

I typically use the RAW file as my negative and the JPEG as my currently edited version.  If I change an image significantly – I’ll generally save it as a new file.

I have also learned quite a bit about time management lately.  In the past, I heavily participated in photography forums – most particularly a photography alias at my work.  I have come to realize though that these forums are not that incredibly useful.  In particular I began to notice the following.

1) I was writing more about photography equipment than on actual photography.  This may sound rude, but I have noticed that those who write the most about photography generally don’t take the best pictures.  The reason is the exhausting amount of time it takes to create a decent review and research things.

2) In most forums, the truly professional photographers are few and far between.  If you really want strong criticism of your photos and techniques, you’ll generally need to go directly to the photographers – not to the forums.

Therefore I have ceased participation in most of these venues.  I do still occasionally post in a few places – but only when I have a very particular question and I know there are members there that are very familiar with that subject area.

This has allowed me more time lately, which I hope to channel into consistently writing blogs.

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You probably know that I am into photography and I am a member of the Microsoft Photography Club. This year Photography Club Members from around the world spent five months assembling and publishing a world-class, fine art photo book. The time and talent that went into this project makes every copy of the book a gift to its owner. We even put a full book preview online (160 pages of preview!) 100% of the profit from sales goes directly to the United Way and you get a valued and timeless reminder of how you too make a difference for those in need.

You can preview the book, or order the book, from your desk. Not only does this book make a wonderful addition to any collection, and a thoughtful gift, each copy you purchase contributes directly to the ongoing, important work of United Way. This book is offered for purchase at the cost of printing plus $25.00. This additional amount is contributed directly to United Way in your name and is fully tax deductable as a charitable contribution.

Even if you don’t think you’ll buy a copy of the book, go take a look at the online preview anyway. It really is amazing!

And yes, my photo is in the book.  It is this one.

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1) What will I get next?

2) What do I eventually want to get?  In the end there should be some limit to what I buy?

In terms of what to buy next, I have had several thoughts given my budget.  I have already decided to pickup the Canon TS-E 17mm once our kitchen remodel is finished.  The question is what else to purchase.

Option 1

Canon 200mm F4 Hybrid IS Macro – This is only a rumor of course.  However given Canon’s press release about a hybrid IS coming out in a lens before the end of the year this is a very possible reality.

I am very torn about this one.  Recently I sold my Canon 180mm macro because I just could not get dependable results out of it.  I do not know what it truly was, but while I can get consistent results from the MP-E 65, I found that the sharpness on the 180L was lacking.  I suspect this new macro would not have this issue.

Canon 85mm 1.2L

This is one incredible lens, but my main worry is how much I will use it.  I would mainly use it for shots of my kids.  It would certainly allow me to sell my Canon 50mm 1.4 that I hardly ever use.

Canon TS-E 24 II

At first it seemed silly to buy this together with the TS-E 17mm.  However, they make an incredible combo.  While the TS-E 17mm has the width, the TS-E 24mm has the advantage that it accepts filters and has more shift.  For real estate, the TS-E 17mm is the best for interiors, while the TS-E 24mm is better suited to exteriors.

Buy nothing and save for the 600mm

This is my dream lens, but it doesn’t seem very logical to put everything into this lens right now.  Besides, at the end of next year they’ll probably announce a replacement.

And the answer is…

Tentatively I have decided to go with buying the TS-E 24mm II along with the TS-E 17mm.  The combination will not only be a killer combination for real estate, they also will be great landscape and travel lenses.

I may change my mind if Canon releases the 200mm F4 Hybrid IS macro – depending on the specs.  However I’m more likely to still buy the TS-E 24mm and put my real estate sales towards buying the 200mm macro next year.

All of the other lenses for which there are rumors seems less interesting.

New Canon fisheye(s)

There are several rumors that new fisheyes will be released.  I have long debated purchasing a fisheye.  Certainly the shots are interesting and you can do some great things in it, but the main worry is whether it would regularly make the final cut for the bag?  I can only fit so much into the bag and I’m more likely to take the tilt shifts than a fisheye.

Canon 24-70 2.8 IS

I have not and do not intend to buy a 24-70 lens.  It has nothing to do with the image stabilization.  That focal length just doesn’t work for me.

Canon 24-105 2.8 IS

This is far more intriguing and I would certainly be tempted.  If such a lens existed, I would probably purchase it eventually despite its size.  That focal length would work well for me and it would be a great vacation lens.  If they could pull this off, it may even push my 16-35 II out of my bag sometimes – given that I would have the TS-E 17 already.  However, I would be unlikely to buy this immediately.  I would want to know that they truly pulled it off and right now the TS-E 24 is more important to me.

Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II

This lens definitely makes sense for Canon.  It is a flagship lens and though the current one is great it could use an update.  As for me, I’m perfectly happy with my 70-200 F4 IS due to its small size and see no reason to purchase a 2.8 version.

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Last weekend we took the kids to see the Blue Angels in their annual show in Seattle.  This was the first time I finally had a lens that could catch them decently in the Canon 100-400.  The lens worked fine and for the most part I felt the focal length was adequate on the full frame 5D Mark II.  The autofocus was quite slow, but I was still able to get some decent shots.

The above shot was the one I received the most comments about and I like the composition.  I also tried to get in close on some of the planes.

  All in all it was a fun day and the kids got a big kick out of the Blue Angels – especially when they flew right over us.

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