The Weatherman

Prior to our trip to Carmel, I spent Friday on the slopes at Alpine Meadows. I shot this photo on the way up.

On Saturday we drove down to Monterey and visited the Aquarium. Check out this shot of a Jelly Fish.

Saw some good surf on Saturday after we left the aquarium.

We stayed with some friends on Saturday night and then drove down the coast to Big Sur on Saturday. We saw the waterfall at Julia Pfeiffer State Park, had a bite to eat at Nepenthe, and caught the sunset at Pfeiffer Beach.

We stayed at the Big Sur Lodge. On Monday morning, I hiked up to Pfeiffer Falls and snapped this photo.

We ended our trip at Point Lobos State Preserve where we saw Orcas and Gray Whales. Plus there are tons of sea lions out there.
Check out all of the pictures at paulandsteph.com

Well, I got the new lens and it’s amazing. Extremely quiet and fast at focusing. Excellent quality. And it’s not that big. Unfortunately, the photos I post online go through 2 jpeg conversions so they lose some quality. But here are some photos I shot.

Looking down my street. In the raw image I can read the street sign which is about 100 yards away.

Mom and Lou.

Oscar hanging out in the living room.

Jake on the bed.

Yes, I ordered it. I’m hoping to get it this week.

Read some reviews of the 70-200 f/4L here. This rounds out my lens collection that I had planned to put together. Actually, I originally wanted a 70-300 lens, but most were too cheap or too expensive. I know that sounds funny, but the next step put the lens closed to a $1000. I’m not there yet. There are some 70-300 f/4-5.6 with IS, but I really wanted the speed (f/4) throughout the full focal range. The other options were all cheap sub $200 lens. At first I thought, that’s fine, at least I can try it out. But who wants to waste their time taking soft, fuzzy pictures.

I considered the Tokina 80-200 f/2.8 but it was back ordered everywhere…and I’m not one to wait. That’s OK, I already have a Tokina, so now I have a Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 EX, a Tokina 12-24 f/4 ATX Pro, and the Canon. A little sample of each.

Also, over Christmas, Steph got me a Canon Speedlite 430EX - Wow! Having an external flash makes a world of difference. My indoor portraits are ten times better and much more natural. No red eye or deer in the headlights look.

Now if CamelBak would only make a camera backpack - that would solve my photo and hiking needs for once.

Update A backup and hydration sytem combo do exist - Lowepro DryZone Rover

Apologies for the absence from the site. I’ve been busy, like most of you, dealing with the holidays. This was Zach’s first Christmas and he loved it. He was heavily spoiled…good thing he won’t remember.

I like toys.

Even Lou’s happy…really, that’s a smile.

I checked out Mavericks. But it was a very gray day, so the pictures are not very exciting.

New Years Eve with the neighbors.
Be sure to check out all of our holiday pictures.