a few from senegal

I've started preparing for my move so I haven't had much time to go out and shoot lately. While I was looking for some older photos to put up, I decided to rewind a couple of years to this day, to see if I had taken any photos. Well, two years ago I took these in Senegal.

Ana managed to pack a whole lot of things into each day, so in the morning we found ourselves on a boat in the national bird park of Djoudj, a little north of Saint Louis. I got a chance to use my then-newly-acquired 105mm.

By the late afternoon, we were further south at the small desert at Lampoul.


We ran around in the sand, rode some camels and slept in a tent. Unfortunately, we only found out as we were leaving that they had kites you could fly and body boards you could use to slide down the dunes. We spent some time failing at flying a kite before our 4x4 was ready to leave.


If you're interested in seeing more, just click.

135

I really like the results that come out of this lens but I can't justify keeping it. I went out to Chelsea yesterday to try and get a photo or two out of it, but the only decent photo I got was from the post yesterday, using the 35. I suppose I'm just not used to the tight angle but in either case I think I could do without it. I have very few good photos form this lens, but the ones I do have I like very much. It's a hard decision. The above two photos help show one of the places where this lens shines. (I can live with the vignetting - I think it adds to the photo anyway). I'll post a couple more examples from this lens later this week.

I've been thinking what my next move in terms of equipment is going to be. I'm almost positive I'll go back to Nikon, if only because it really just feels more natural to me. No knocks against Canon, I just feel like I could never react as fast as I could with the Nikon. And regarding the full-frame vs crop debate - I love the performance of the 5D, but I think by the time I'm ready to make an equipment change, crop sensors will have made significant strides in noise performance. If I could get the noise performance of the 5D in a Nikon D90 body with the Nikon flash system, I think I'd be satisfied (although I could always use a stop or two more iso). I'm getting tired of having equipment too big and heavy for me to actually enjoy - every time I go out I have to make a decision whether or not to bring my camera. I miss my old D80/17-55 combo.

I won't be switching at least until the next cycle of full frame, and then crop cameras. Which I'm assuming won't be until next year at least. Even then, the 5D should last a couple more years from now. Having said that, here's my wish list.

• *Crop sensor in a D90 (or even D300 if I can get it weather sealed) body that can do a clean 1600 and usable 3200iso.


• *24mm fast DX prime


• 17-55


• SB-900 (maybe the 800 instead)

*'s are the things that don't exist. And maybe's:

• 50mm/1.8 (maybe the new 50/1.4 - dunno if I could justify the price, or I would love to see a *DX 55/1.4)


• 35/1.4 DX


• 105/2.8 micro

I recognize that I'm obsessing too much over the equipment, not focusing enough on the actual photography but I can't help it.

And there's also part of me that wants to go back to film. We'll see if I'll have space for a darkroom in my apartment in Paris.