As I’ve been improving my photography skills and trying a few more creative shots I’m starting to find the limitations of my current DSLR. My current area of experimentation is macro photography.
I bought a macro lens earlier this year, a Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro which I’m very please with. If you’ve read any of the reviews on this lens you’ll know it’s reputation and I haven’t been disappointed. I have managed some great shots with this lens, however I do have a problem. The problem isn’t with the lens, but the camera.
I’m currently using a Nikon D40 which I purchased off ebay earlier this year. I knew at the time it was quite and old model but I didn’t want to pay out a lot of money at the time as I wasn’t sure if my interest in photography would last. I’m now finding the 6.1 megapixels somewhat limiting. For landscapes and general photographic subjects it isn’t an issue. However, to get a great macro shot, there is usually a lot of cropping involved. This is where the relatively small number of pixels becomes an issue.
Now I have to make a decision. I have been thinking about getting a new camera for a while, but I can’t decide on which model. I will obviously be buying a Nikon, I’ve already made a significant investment in lenses and don’t want to end up buying all new ones.
I am currently considering the D300s and the D90. I’m not sure if I can justify the cost of a D300s. At just over £1100 currently, it’s a more than I want to part with. The D90 is more my kind of price at just over £500. Obviously, if money wasn’t an issue I’d take the D300s over the D90 any day. I’m also hearing a few rumours of some new models being announced. Nikon Rumours are hinting that the D90 is about to be updated/replaced with a new model, the D9000. The D90 has been around since 2008 so I suppose this is not unexpected, although some of the specs being touted are a little unbelievable! I guess I’ll hold off a while and see what is announce in the next few months before parting with any cash. I don’t want to be buying another outdated camera.
As you may have noticed if you’ve checked out my 365 project lately, there are quite a few blank spaces over the last couple of months. I was doing quite well with it, right up to our trip to Austria.
The trip turned out to be a lot more tiring than I expected and I didn’t get as much time with my camera over there as I’d hoped or wanted. The trip was a great experience, but the courses and terrain were hard work. Couple this with the heat over the first few days (between 25c and 30c) and by the time we got back to the apartment each day we were exhausted. It took me about a week to recover from the trip and by this time I was way behind with my project. Once I’d got behind, I found it tremendously hard to get going again.
Well, I have managed to get going again, mostly due to getting my hands on some new kit. I’ll be uploading the recent photos to the galleries here in the next couple of weeks but for now you can see them at http://www.365project.org/andyb/365
For those of you who aren’t coming with us, and are interested you can track our progress to Austria using instamapper. Click on the following link to view our location.
http://www.instamapper.com/ext?key=10251138983553426285
There is also a miniature map on the right hand side of the page that has our current location on it.
Not long to go now until we set off for Austria and the EBHC 2010 tournament. This time next week we’ll just be hitting the road….hopefully!
Quite looking forward to it now, although I’m not quite sure what to expect. Everything is now sorted out as far as transportation goes. I now have all the documentation needed for the car in my possession, the ferry is booked and all the archery equipment declared. I now just need to check the driving regulations in the countries we’ll be passing through to make sure I haven’t missed anything.
The only part I’m not really looking forward to is the ferry crossing. I don’t really do boats, think it’s a motion sickness thing to be honest. The last time I was on a ferry was just after the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. Not a good crossing, although the severe hangover I had probably had more to do with it. Still, if I can conquer my fear of flying, a short boat trip should be a piece of cake.
I’m trying to figure out a way of plotting the trip using the GPS in my iPhone. I’ll put an update here if I mange to figure anything out.
After weeks struggling with the digital camera I bought while on holiday last year I decided it was time for an upgrade. My previous camera was an Olympus X-42, a low end model but an improvement over my 5 year old Kodak LS443….or so I thought when I bought it.
The LS443 was a good camera when I bought it, 4 megapixles, a distinct upgrade from my original Agfa camera at a mere 1mp. So I figured camera technology had moved on a lot in a few years and the x-42 was 12.2mp so I figured the photo quality would be much better. How wrong I was.
The x42 was perfectly fine outside in good light conditions, in lower light conditions and indoors however, it was terrible. It produced washed out images using the flash and colourless, dark images without the flash. After a few random attempts at changing some of the settings I had control over I figured it was about time I read the manual!
The X-42 doesn’t come with a printed manual of any description except a one sheet quick start guide. THe manual is actually on the CD supplied with the camera in .pdf format. After reading through the manual, and playing around with a few more settings I decided it was time to give up and get a decent camera. After all, I only paid £69 for the X-42 and as they say, you get what you pay for!
After doing some research and reading a few reviews, I decided to replace it with a Samsung IT100. So far, the image stabilisation and a better quality lense have cured the low light problems and I’m getting some decent results with it. It was double the price of the X42 but the performance is much better. So far I’m happy with it, but time will tell.
We weren’t exactly sure if we’d make it on to this shoot or not. When we booked in in October we were originally numbers 20 and 21 on the reserve list. We were planning on going to Doverdale with a couple of other members of Artemis if we didn’t mangage to get booked on to the Liberty shoot.The Tuesday evening before the shoot I decided to call Dawn at Liberty and find out how far up the list we were, we were 4th and 5th. After a chat with Dawn, it was suggested that we should turn up on the Sunday as they knew there would be cancellations and they would get us in somehow.
RAF Lakenheath is about 2 hours drive for us, so we aimed to set off at about 6:30am to try and give us time to stop for some coffee on the way. We actually got away at about 6:50 and when I put the address into the sat nav it gave me an arrival time of 9:30am, yeah right!
We arrived at 8:45 and headed down to get booked in. The shoot was quite busy and when we looked at the list most pegs had 6 people. Due to the lack of daylight available, it was only two arrows per target and the shoot would be stopped at 3:30pm regardless. As to be expected from Liberty, a lot of the targets were around the 40 yard mark with not much given between red and white pegs. The cub pegs were also very stretched and the cub in our group struggled a lot, although it was his first time out with a new flat bow.
The weather held out for us until roughly lunch time, at which point the heavens opened and for about 30 minutes we got absolutely soaked. Luckily we were close enough to the cars as the rain started so I swapped out my soft shell for a waterproof.
We got finished quite early and were ready for the presentations at about 3pm. As usual Kay came first in her class and I have no idea where I came. I was over 100 points off first place which I expected as I hadn’t shot particularly well for whatever reason, Kay seems to think I have a problem with my arrows but it could have been down to the cold or the clothing I was waering. I’m not used to shooting in that many layers of clothing. First thing I guess to try would be a new set of arrows then just more practice in more layers of clothing.
I enjoyed the Liberty shoot the first time I shot the course but now it seems to be the same distances all the time. We are booked back on to the spring shoot in April along with some other members of Artemis so I guess we’ll see what they have to offer for that shoot.
Right time to go get started on making some new arrows!
After a very wet and windy Friday and Saturday, Sunday started out dry and the wind had dropped considerably. We set off for Derby a little later than expected but with a little more weight in the right boot we still managed to get to Markeaton in time for a McDs breakfast. Just as we were finishing breakfast another Artemis member, Stan, turned up for breakfast.
We arrived at the shoot in Radbourne just after 9am and were told we were set for a 9:30am start. We got out on to the couse just before 10am. This was a 2 times 20 course, the first time I’d shot one of these. The morning started out with 20 paper face targets. After everyone had shot all 20 targets they would be changed and 20 3D targets were put out.
For me it was a day of two halves. I didn’t feel settled at all in the morning. I had asked to move pegs and ended up with a group of six which made for a slow start. For whatever reason I wasn’t shooting very well, nothing was connecting. After 20 targets I’d only scored 202 points, and average of 10.1 a target. Not good!
At lunchtime, myself and Kay were moved to another target which resulted in a group of five. The afternoon seemed to come together a little better. I’m not sure if it was the change in group or the change to 3D targets but what ever it was it was improving my shooting no end. I’d already passed my morning total for twenty targets after just twelve targets. I slowed down towards the end of the second twenty targets but I still finished with a respectable score of 314 for the afternoon. By no means good enough to make up for my abysmal performance in the morning but enough to make me feel better.
This was the first time I’d shot at Pride Park, and for a 2 times 20 course it was a very enjoyable day.
Having signed up to go to the European Bow Hunter Championships in Austria next year we needed to join the EFAA and get some experience of their shoots. Kings Forest bowmen were holding a two day shoot in memory of Dot Southgate so we signed up to go. Mark arranged our EFAA membership and our cards would be waiting for us when we arrived at the shoot.
Kings Forest Bowmen are located a few miles away from Bury St Edmunds, so we travelled down on the Friday evening and stayed over at a very nice camp site about twenty minutes away from the shoot. The campsite had the cleanest toilet block I’ve ever seen on a campsite and the facilities were first class! The campsite was called The Dell and I can highly recommend it.
We arrived at the shoot early on Saturday morning not quite sure what to expect. We got a great welcome from the guys at Kings Forest as well as from the President of the EFAA when we were given our membership cards. This was a two day shoot and we would be shooting a marked 3d preceision round and a marked 3d field round, marked meaning the distance to the target are marked. This is the main difference between EFAA and NFAS, although the EFAA do shoot some unmarked rounds. The second thing I noticed that is different is that everyone entering an EFAA shoot undergoes a bow inspection, another good idea and something that I agree with.
The courses are 28 targets and on the marked 3d precision round you take two arrows at every target. An inner kill scoring 10 points, a kill scoring 8 points and a wound scoring 5 points. The same course is shot from different pegs for the marked 3d field round and is similary in format to an NFAS big game round.
Since the distances were marked, I decided to have a play around with gap shooting. I was surprised at the results. Once I had my point of aim I could pretty much work out where I needed to be aiming, of course knowing the distance to the target helps with this immensly.
I had a really good weekend and a very good first impression of the EFAA. Both myself and Kay came away with second places which I was really happy with, and after my initial success with gap shooting I will be looking forward to my next marked distance shoot with the EFAA. I also want to spend some time on a marked practice range so I can get more precise gape for a wider range of distances.
I’ve been messing around with my bow the last week or so, trying to fit a rest. Since buying my new bow back in May I’ve been shooting it off the shelf using a Martin traditional rug rest. The bow came with the traditional rest fitted and since I’ve only ever shot from a rest I thought I’d give the shelf a go. After a few months getting used to the bow I couldn’t get the same level of accuracy off the shelf that I used to get from my old bow using a rest. So I finally decided to try and fit a rest to my new bow.
My old bow was fitted with a Bear rest, but I couldn’t seem to find one of those anywhere in the UK. The closest I could find was a Cartel Hunter rest. I also wasn’t sure quite where to fit the rest on the bow. It’s a lot easier if your bow is designed to take a pressure button, most of the arrow rests available have holes designed to line up with the pressure button so it’s easy to put them in the correct place on the riser. My bow doesn’t have a fitting for a pressure button and neither has it ever had a rest fitted. Time for a bit of guess work and some trial and error.
My first go wasn’t all that successful. I fitted the Cartel rest toward the rear of the riser and proceeded to test it on the boss in the back garden, a distance of about 12 yards. The results were, shall we say….interesting. The arrows were hitting about a foot to the right of where I was aiming. Not only that but they were coming out of the bow heading left, then whipping round to the right very noticably. It started to get dark at this point, so I decided to put the bow away and give it a go another evening.
Saturday came, and I decided to pay a trip to a couple of Archery shops in the area and pick up some different types of rests, and ask a couple of people for some advice. From what I was told, I had fitted the rest too far back towards the face of the bow. Armed with this new information and a few Petron A76 rests I returned home to have another go at fitting the rest.
The Petron rest is a lot thinner than the Cartel, the result of which is it keeps the arrow closer to centre. I fitted it as close to the centre of the riser as I could and went out to test it in the garden. The difference was unbelievable, I could pretty much put the arrow in a 2″ square from 12 yards. I tried it out for a few dozen arrows and was very happy with the results.
The only downside is that the Petron rest is bright blue. It doesn’t really look quite right on an all wood, one piece bow so I’ve order a couple of Cartel rests from Quicks. I’m not sure if they are the same thickness, or if they’ll give the same results, but they are black and will look better attached to my bow. If they aren’t as good as the Petron rest I’ll just have to figure out some way of colouring the Petron to make it less conspicuous on my bow.
Pics to follow…
Just lately I’ve found that both myself and Kay have been making quite a few new arrows, well it’s mainly me to be honest 
Up to now, we’ve only had the one fletching jig between us. When you both want to make arrows it gets a bit time consuming sharing the jig. On a recent trip down to Quicks archery I decided to get a new jig. The only jig I’ve used up to now has been the tollgate fletching jig. Unfortunately, Tollgate were bought out by a company called Arten who have stopped making the jig. I looked at several jigs and finally settled on a Cartel.
I made half a dozen arrows with the cartel jig, but I wasn’t overly impressed. I still preferred the Tollgate. I started to have a dig around ebay and see if there were any second hand Tollgates for sale. Luckily I found two currently on offer and proceeded to watch them. The prices weren’t bad, both of them were currently at about £12. I decided to stick a bid on one of them and find out if there were any auto bids on there. I got my bid accepted at £16.50.
I continued watching both items, but there was no further movement on the one I was bidding on. Having experienced ebay sniping before I made sure I was in front of the computer for the last hour of the auction. Nothing much happened, that is until some little bastard put a bid on there with 15 seconds to go. No when I’m sniping I leave it late, but 15 seconds is taking the piss. Thankfully I had an auto bid on up to the amount I was willing to pay and got the bid on just in time to piss the other bidder off. I eventually won the item with a bit of 19.50.
I figured the person that I beat for this particular jig would then go off and bid on the other one that was up for auction. He’d managed to annoy me enough for me to go and bid on the other jig. I put an auto bid on this one up to £15 (it was currently at £10). The auction ended at roughly the same time the next day, so once again I made sure I was in front of the PC. Sure enough, with 20 seconds to go someone, I assume the same person, someone tried to outbid me. Yet again, I still had enough time to get my counter bid in and win the item. The ironic thing is I actually got the second one cheaper, the second one only cost me £18.10. I didn’t particularly need a second one, but now we have 3 in total. It does make making arrows a lot faster with 2 or 3 jigs on the go at the same time.
