Last Day of Summer 2010

I don't think we wanted summer to end. There is a chill in the air. It was 8c this morning on my ride to work and I had to zip in my liner. But it's refreshing to be able to ride without the excessive heat we have had during the past two months. Also I notice that there is more traffic on the roads and they are all going at a snails' pace, ie: slow, I mean very slow but eventually I get to work and park in my usual spot outside my window



another thing I notice is the very low sun angle, shining directly from the front which means you are riding blind and cannot see the oncoming traffic so this is when I like to tuck in behind another vehicle, for protection.

The official time of the autumnal equinox in Vancouver is 8:09pm (September 22) so I thought that I would venture downtown to grab another night shot and sort of aim for 8pm. Well, I got there a little early and it was getting dark and the light was fading fast so I had to shoot now. I rushed, set up my tripod and here is what I ended up with


(Inukshuk at English Bay, Vancouver, BC)
Canon T2i, Tamron SP 17-50 DiII Aspherical, F20 30s ISO 100

I just purchased this "new to me" lens from Craigslist last week. I wanted a higher quality lens to take on my big adventure in 2 weeks, thus the reason for getting used to my new camera and practicing my night shooting technique. This is also a new camera which I purchased a couple of weeks ago. I am really a Nikon person but my D80 is getting old and the newly announced D7000 won't be in the stores before I leave so I had to make a quick decision. I like the idea of being able to shoot full 1080HD with this camera so I can travel lighter by not having to take my Camcorder and another charger. I wanted something with a larger sensor and less crammed pixel density. I will also be bringing my Canon G10 as backup for times where I wish to be in stealth mode.

A few days earlier I was down in False Creek looking for night scenes and this was taken with the 18-55 IS kit lens. If you stop it down it is quite acceptable but it is mainly constructed with plastic and has less internal light shielding, plus being variable aperature, it is slow


(Cambie Bridge, south side False Creek, Vancouver, BC)
Canon T2i 18-55is kit lens: F16 30s ISO 100 approx 21mm

Here is another image taken with the same lens from underneath the Cambie Bridge


Canon T2i 18-55 is kit lens: F16 30s ISO 100

I also wanted to test my telephoto lens to get an idea of what it could do. It was not really dark yet so I attached my ND4, neutral density filter so I could slow down the shutter speed. I wanted to get the compression effect with the signal lights. I positioned my tripod at 10th avenue, near Broadway and shot north towards downtown. The bridge starts at about 5th Avenue so you can see that I was far away from the action


Canon T2i 55-250 is Kit lens: F32 25s ISO 100 @ 250mm

and finally, here is the full image from which the header was cropped. It was still very bright so a ND4 neutral density filter was attached. (ND4 = + 4 F stops of light)


Canon T2i 55-250 is kit lens: F22 5s ISO 100 @ 180mm ND4 filter

Lately I've been anxious for the sun to go down so I can go out with my camera and "make some pictures"