Yesterday, I went to Washington D.C. (Mr. Smith goes to Washington?) to do an engagement session with Craig & Hillary.

If you don't know, the height of Cherry Blossom season is April 3 until April 5th out in D.C., and boy, it was beautiful. It was about a 6 hour trip, and we got there around 5. We started with pictures at 6:30, getting that last hour of beautiful light.



Of course, we kept going for another hour. We were able to use the beautiful twilight and the monument lighting to create some really cool images!

After we were done, we all went out to a little diner (mmmm...diner food!) and looked at the images and had a good time laughing and telling stories.

I had to be back today, so it was an all night drive back, but it was sooo worth it! I can't wait to shoot their wedding - it's going to be a blast!


[geek talk]
It was the first time I got to use my new Sigma 24-70 2.8 EX DG lens. Oh yeah, this is my new favorite! Great color, super sharp, fast focus - awesome! (Now if the filter was just smaller than a square mile, it's be great! It takes an 82mm filter!)

The zoom ring is smaller than expected - the focus ring is actually about 2x the width. It's stiff but not difficult. I imagine that it will loosen up after I use it more.

Another interesting thing is how you switch to manual focus. You actually push / pull the focus ring. It locks into position (AF / MF) and that's the switch. Nice, since it disengages the clutch so you can't damage the AF motor (this one doesn't have the HSM).

It was slightly louder than the HSM versions, but not unreasonable. It focuses so fast I can't imagine anyone actually noticing it.

I also got to play with the new Sigma 50-150 2.8 EX DG lens. This little baby is so light, but has a great usable range. Super fast too! It has the HSM motor (like the 70-200 sigma) but I swear it's about twice as fast. It never hunted - it just locked on!

It came with a circular hood - not the normal petal type hood. It actually made the lens look more substantial, since it's actually a very small lens for a 2.8. If you didn't know, you'd think it was either a 4.0 or a standard variable aperture lens!

It's a great match for the 18-50 2.8. Steph is going with this setup (18-50 2.8 + 50-150 2.8) and I'm going to run with the bigger ones (24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8). The digital only lenses (18-50 / 50-150) are at least 1/2 the weight and size of the full frame models!

It interesting to note that the digital versions (18-50) work out to almost exactly the same range on a 1.6 crop digital as the full frame versions without the crop.

In english:
18-50 * 1.6 crop factor = 29-80
50-150 * 1.6 crop factor = 80-240

Put those lenses on the 20D/30D/Digital Rebel, and they are almost the same as the 24-70 & 70-200 on the 5D or 1Ds!

Good thinking sigma!

(Still looking for that sponsorship - love the polo shirt I got at WPPI!) ;-)

[/geek talk]

Until next time!

Shan