The Photo

I've been going through older photos again as work has just started and I won't have time to get out and shoot unti the weekend coming up. This was a shot taken earlier this year when I went on a photo hike around Halifax with *facade-of-life . Up in the North End was a tree at the edge of Needham Park, a crow resting in the branches. This is one of the early shots that I took with my new 200mm 2.8L - because I was a couple hundred feet away from the bird the camera shake was pretty bad so I opened up the aperature to 2.8 (instead of increasing the ISO). This gave me a higher shutter speed (as even a shutter speed of s125 was too slow). The sky was overcast so it provided the perfect backdrop for the branches on the tree.

I was amazed at how sharp the lens is: tack sharp wide open - maybe a bit of a difference when stopped down. The contrasts are wonderful and the colour rendition seems to be spot on. I found this used on eBay and it might be the best lens I've owned to date! I started out in photography with an old camera that used prime lenses, so I've always warmed to them over a zoom. I know there is a limitation with your angle of view, but I find it to be a nice limitation - a challenge almost.

Tools

Canon EOS 20D | Canon 200mm 2.8L | ISO 100 | f2.8 | s1250 |