[John Bennett]

Joel some lenses cost upwards of $50 a day. Thats why I mentioned that it depends on the lens. Some people if they want one of big lenses for 2 weeks +, will buy them, sell them when they get home and be out of pocket a couple hundred. It can be the cheaper route sometimes.

14 day trip/$20 a day your looking at 280.00. You could buy a 50mm f.18 for just a little more. That would let you use your 75-300 for anything that needs reach, give you a great portrait type lens and a lens for good porn by getting in close and opening it wide.

This is a link to one of the better stores in Toronto. Note the prices. Those are Cdn so it would be less in the states but still some lenses are 200-300 per week.
http://www.vistek.ca/rentals/rentalsearch.aspx?q=canon

You could buy a 17-40 fL for probaby 500 or so. Its a great lens on the short end (wide angle) of the focal range.

Having said all that. Because you have a 75-300, you have a wide gap below that either the 24-70 or 24-105 will fill the gap giving you a lens to use in every situation. Tw lenses on your trip and complete coverage from 24 t 300.

At that store the 24-70 rents fro 144/week

J

[John Bennett]

Joel depending on the lens and duration of your trip it might be more economical to buy one and then sell it when you get back.

Lenses worth thinking about.
17-40 f4 L….good for Landscapes, people etc.

24-70 f2.8 L: This is my “all” purpose lens. Most fish porn you’ve seen me post were taken with this.

24-105 f4 L. Similiar to the above lens. A wee bit more zoom and IS which might come in handy. Not as fast as the 24-70 so if lights low you might have more trouble stopping action, nor will “isolation” of subject be as heavy when you open the lens wide for narrow Depth of Field.

6 of one, half dozen of another which to go for if you ask me.

100-400 L IS
Very versatile lens which that if ou need reach, you can slap it on. It also doubles as a decent Landscape.

Of them I would say the 24-70 f2.8. You wont have reach for things that are further away but form the sounds of it you dont really care either 🙂

Its a great landscape lens and killer for fish porn. Mainly because you can get in nice and tight and throw the lens wide open to f2.8 for these kinds of subject isolation shots.

the 24-105 would be the other choice because its similiar and while lacking the ability to go wide to f2.8 it has IS. Its a trade off.

[John Bennett]

Thanks all.

John, yeah it’s a Red Fox. I’ve been trying to get him/her for the last month. The alst 2 winters I’ve spent quite a bit of time scouting for Coyotes and Fox, be it sightings, tracks, scat, kill sites and trying to learn how to call them.

Early Jan I was scouting a new area and found alot of sign centering around the area that holds the Mallards Ive been shooting. Each weekend I’ve stopped in and have seen new tracks, Mallard Carcasses etc, so Ive been getting into postion at sun rise waiting for it to show itself and shooting the Mallards to pass time.

After getting that shot of it crossing the nearby ice which puts into the brush in behind the Mallards, I back tracked it…May have found its Den…Not sure. Hopefully (xing my fingers) I have and will be able to get more of it.

[John Bennett]

Aaron, up here (Cda)

[John Bennett]

I will be adding a GPS one day.
Not because I fear getting lost. I’ve been in some remote area’s in my life and while I have gotten turned around, and have spent many hours trying to get back, knowing the lay of the land and a compass has always gotten me out….eventually

1st rule of survival is keep your wits.

I’d like to add a GPS for 1 simple reason. On the way back after a long day working my way in, I want to fly like the crow and take the direct route out. Wihtout a GPS Id not do that, unless Im intimately familiar with the area. Your just begging to add hours to the journey.

Grats Zach, the graphic turned out really well.

[John Bennett]

Slims really only pay divdends with WAs (under 17mm) and with Full frame sensors though. On my 1.3 sensor and with th 24-70 f2.8 I get no ill effects from my CP.

Again, spend where you have to save where you can.

For people like myself and others who have most of what they want absolutely buy a slim next. However the 100 bucks I saved by buying a BW pro dmc ($200 and change) vs the same BW dmc slim ($300 and change) …Goes along ways towards other accessories

If someones looking at etting their first Circ Pol ad have no immediate plans to upgrade their body to a Canon 5Dii, or Nikon 700….and stll have other much needed accessories to acquire Id not get a slim.

Accessories are almost always vastly under budgeted.
Tripod and head: Lets call it $300  <

Monopod: 125
Cards and batteries: a little more
Cable relase: $100
Flash: 300 to 500
Flash bracket: 250 to 300
Bags: I have 600 tied up in bags. 2 Lowwpros  ( heavy/light duty) and some Think Tank modular.

If you just look at filters and go with what Id call the bare essentials.
Good CP $200
Good GND $100
Good 3 stop ND 200.

The difference between a high end CP and high end Slim CP buys your GND

[John Bennett]

Very nice John.

But most of all it looks warm 🙂

[John Bennett]

Will the only one I know of tat may be able to help you is Dr. Ian Martin. He’s writen books on the Grand River, guides (AFAIK) and is envoled with “Friends of the Grand”.

http://www.grandriverguides.com/

Failing that
You might be able to contact him through “Fly Fisherman mag”
http://www.flyfisherman.com/westerncanada/grandriver/

Or through the FoTGR
http://www.friendsofthegrandriver.com/index.html

[John Bennett]

I think this falls under there is no 1 answer.

Toons
I grew up using canoes, bought a toon a few years ago, havent touched the canoe since. As great as the toon is, it biggest drawback to me is point A to point B speed. As a result I periodically start thinking about picking up a Hobby Cat for those occasions where I want to cover alot water.

What I like about the toon.
Versatile: You can use them virutally anywhere, including from small to big water to fast water

Storage: Mines in a small cloat closet right now.

Transport: With a bigger vehicle I can transport it inflated and assembled. With our run about it goes in the back seat

Safety: Hard to beat toons when it comes to personal craft safety

Cargo: They can carry a surprising amount

Comfort: One reason I gave up canoeing is my lower back just isnt what it used to be. I can sit in my toon for hours

Practicality: great platform for fishing and photogrpahy

The only drawback for me is that they are slow from point A to point B.

I can probably cover more water padding 1 handed in my canoe than I could rowing hard in my toon.

[John Bennett]

Yeah you need to read the fine print 🙂

It’s just a bold sensationlist advert campaign to a) pimp their boots and their progressive thinking and b) bring some awareness to the issue and “potential” outcome of not changing.

[John Bennett]

I have a pair of guide classics tat started developing pinhole leaks in one leg during their first season…Wasn’t too happy about that but it happens.

I have tried everything to locate them, cant be more than

[John Bennett]

Michelle thats a good place to start.

Meter the BG, adjust your flash power. Take a shot and check your LCD/Histo…Adjust as neccessary.

I use a Gary Fong lightsphere and depnding on distance to subject /coverage have had to dial in as much as +1.5 at times.

However when it comes to flash I don’t think I’m all that good. In time with more experience and success we start to recognise situations and the adjustments become fewer and fewer. Meaning you’ll have a better idea from the get go whats going to work.

be it negative comp on you settings or negative or positive comp on your flash.

[John Bennett]

David normally I agree with everything you say but this time Im going to disagree a wee bit with regards to Carbon.

All things being equal I would take Carbon over anything else. A pound here or there may not sound like alot, but when you start carrying a bunch of stuff, any ounce you can save is a God send.

That said.
For people still trying to amass their arsenols…(body, lenses, accessories) the money saved by buying a heavier Manfrotto, vs a Carbon can go along ways towards *other* yet needed equipment.

Like a good

[John Bennett]

Just another nod in favor of the Manfrotto, its what I have. There are lighter but as Olle said, your looking at Carbon and thats jacks the price significantly. Just make sure you add a pan/tilt or ball head of equal capacity.

Until and if I ever own one of the big boys weighing 10+pds, I won’t need to get a sturdier one, neither will you.

[John Bennett]

Brandon, by top down I mean pespective. In this case your almost right over top of the jaw bones shooting “down” at them. The perspective can work at times but usually I find shots at the same subject matter but taken from a lower perspective have more …ooomph.

Don’t have any jaw bone images to show but think of the cliche’d skull in the desert image where the photograph is taken from ground level. In the future when presented with something intersting like like that laying on the ground, try both. One with a low angle/perspective with the bones jutting up and one thats more top/down.

[John Bennett]

Im generally not a fan of HDRs, they usuually appear surreal or cartoonish. Sometimes the work, for me though that normally means Id wouldnt know it was an hdr unless the producer told me.

So with that personal

[John Bennett]

currently Iback up my hdd to an external periodically and then once a year back the external up to dvd. Am considering scrapping the dvd in favor of more external.

[John Bennett]

Zach are you referring to the branches in the background?

No idea what kind of scrub/bush/immature tree they may be,
but in a nutshell thats undergrowth, thats buried under 4 to 6 feet
of snow.

The image is partially backlit…Sun was somewhere around
10 or 11 oclock..Hence the snowbank directly behind the bucks
in deep shadow, that to may be making it hard to distinguish the features in the smaller 750 x 400 image displayed.

Long winded way of saying this image is as shot. I have zero
qualms about cloning out some things when needed/desired
(so long as the end product is only for display/print), the originals
if they have an offending branch for example stay as is for editorial purposes.

I know you generallly prefer people keep dimensions smaller
but heres a 1024 x 750. I think it will help a bit.

/edit add
thought to mention that they are sparring/standing on a frozen lake, about 20 feet off shore. Hence the difference in depth of snow between the foreground and background. Thought it made for a cool back drop.

[John Bennett]

Dusty I beleive your right.

[John Bennett]

Yep.

Allows for more subtle control than the typical sun/cloud/tungsten/stpe settings

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