I am excited…I have just ordered Canon’s new 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens. I imagine those that know me are saying…WHAT…a zoom?? You see, for years all I would shoot was primes (also known as fixed focal length lens). Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience of the zooms, but until now, they just didn’t have the same sharpness that the primes gave. And to say I am a stickler for sharp photos is, well… a rather large understatement. Primes also have the benefit of being light and because they can be really fast (i.e. where the lens “wide open” is at f/2.8 or larger), they are excellent for low light shooting:
Photo was taken on 9 May 2009 at a concert by the Cayman National Orchestra and the Cayman National Choir in low light with a Canon 5D Mark II and 200mm f/2.8L prime lens with no flash
I admit that the main trade-off with using primes is that you have to carry a number of lenses to compared to just one zoom lens. By way of example, to cover approximately the same range, you can carry a 70-200mm zoom lens while I would have to carry my 85mm f/1.2L II, 135mm f/2.0L and 200mm f/2.8L II. A really great article on primes verses zooms can be found here: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/Zoom-Vs-Prime-Lens.aspx. So, when Canon announced the new 70-200mm I started researching the lens, reading all the reviews I could get my hands on (for all those that provide reviews…Thank you, I find them extremely helpful).
What can I say, I love equipment (an no, there is no such thing as too much equipment). However, I will not buy equipment for the sake of having it. For me to acquire it, it must bring something to the table that I don’t have and allow me to focus on my photography. So when I found the 70-200mm MTF chart and considered what the reviewers were stating about the new 70-200mm giving the 135mm and 200mm (two of Canon’s sharpest lens) a run for their money, I started seriously thinking about the lens. This past week I broke down and placed the order for the 70-200mm. Time will tell, but I don’t see the zoom replacing my primes, but supplementing them. Much in the same way that I noticed Jasmine Star shot a wedding this past Friday (27 August 2010) on creativeLive’s online Wedding Photography Course ( http://creativelive.com/courses/jasmine_star/ ). Essentially, she used primes for the majority of the shots and pulled out the 70-200mm for the actual wedding service. I saw that and said, yeah, that’s what I had in mind 
I am looking forward to adding the lens to my equipment bag and will post some photos once it arrives.
What are your thoughts on primes vs zooms? Have you tried Canon’s new 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II? Let me know what you think.
Thanks for stopping by.
Richard
In designing my website I came across a problem…my wife and I disagreed on the theme color, she liked the black theme and I like the white. Knowing just enough programming to be dangerous, I set out to find a solution, a way that I could offer both options to visitors.
There are a number of sites that provide coding and an explanation of how to install alternative style sheets. While these were all very helpful, none of them seemed to work the way I wanted them to work… I wanted a nice push button option that changed the theme, stored it in a cookie, and worked in IE, Firefox, Chrome and Opera. Okay, realistically, I knew that was a tall order as the browsers don’t all work the same. Code that will work in one, will not work in another and vice verse.
Kudos to Opera as it was the first browser to work the way I wanted using code from: http://www.thesitewizard.com/javascripts/change-style-sheets.shtml. Unfortunately, IE8 refused to play at all. Firefox and Chrome would change for the particular page, but developed amnesia as soon as I moved from one page to another. I also tried the code from: http://www.blogohblog.com/integrating-alternative-stylesheets/. This code would not work at all for me.
I quickly realized that I was not alone, the errors that I was receiving and the problems I was experiencing others had the same ones. The solutions offered never quite fixed all of the issues and sometimes created new ones.
This was going on for a number of months as I could never devote enough hours to work through it. That is, until this past Sunday when I decided enough was enough, I wanted to fix this once and for all (or until IE 9 comes out and Microsoft changes the rules again 
). Long story short, I found an article from Paul Sowden: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/alternate/ that worked! The kicker…it was published over 8 1/2 years ago on November 2, 2001.
Here is how I finally got it to work…
1. I uploaded Mr. Sowden’s styleswitcher.js into the following directory: /wp-content/themes/picture-perfect/
2. I decided that the black theme would be the default theme and therefore left it as style.css
3. I made a copy of style.css and renamed the copy to white.css (in wp-content/themes/picture-perfect/). I then changed the colors to suit my white theme.
4. I also created a copy of the ImageMenu.css file and renamed the copy to imageMenuWhite.css (in wp-content/themes/picture-perfect/imagemenu/) (changing again to suit your color tastes…but being consistent with white.css)
5. I added the following code to my header.php file:
<link rel=”alternate stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/white.css” media=”screen” title=”white” />
<link rel=”alternative stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”<?php echo $url; ?>/imagemenu/imageMenuWhite.css” title=”white” media=”screen” />
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/styleswitcher.js”></script>
[This last one should be just at the end of the head section, just above the /head line ]
6. I then added a Text Widget called “Black or White?” with the following code:
<form>
<input type=”submit”
onclick=”setActiveStyleSheet(‘style’);return false;”
name=”theme” value=”Black” id=”style”>
<input type=”submit”
onclick=”setActiveStyleSheet(‘white’);return false;”
name=”theme” value=”White” id=”white”>
</form>
It is a rather simple process that has only taken me a few months . Hopefully, the above will save you significant amount of time developing your alternative style sheets.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask in the comment section.
Kind regards,
Richard
Recently I was asked how I created the slideshows in my photoblog as the WordPress theme I am using, Reflection-Mod Photoblog, does not have that capability built in. As I was preparing to reply to the question, it occurred to me that others who are using the theme may find the steps I took to be beneficial… In a nutshell, I created Pages and embedded into the Pages the slideshow html code generated from my Zenfolio photography site. The following are the detailed steps I followed:
1. Create a Main Slideshow Page
I created a Page titled Slideshows with no parent and included the following in the html field:
The photos on this site can all be viewed as slideshows. Clicking on the links below will take you to the respective slideshow. Once you arrive at the slideshow, roll your mouse over the slideshow. If you would like to see the slideshow in full screen mode, please click on the bottom right icon and then press the play button to restart the show. If you have any questions regarding the slideshow, please do not hesitate to leave a comment or email me. Kind regards, Richard
<a href=”http://www.richardhamiltonphotography.com/slideshows/slideshow-all-photos/”>- All photos</a>
<a href=”http://www.richardhamiltonphotography.com/slideshows/slideshow-fashion-and-modeling/”>- Fashion and Modeling</a>
…
2. Create Child Pages for each Slideshow
As you will note from above, I have links on the main Slideshow Page pointing to each individual slideshow. These are actually links to Pages that I have setup to “house” the code for each slideshow. Therefore I suggest you set up Pages for each slideshow you would like to include in your blog. On the right hand side of the page under Page Attributes, choose Slideshows as the parent. I left the Template as Default Template and Order as 0.
3. Link to Slideshow
Here is the magic The actual slideshows were created from my Zenfolio account (http://photos.richardhamiltonphotography.com) and I embedded the code generated from Zenfolio’s excellent slideshow maker into the HTML area on each respective slideshow Page. While I used Zenfolio, this should work with any site where you can create and link to slideshows.
As a side note, I use Zenfolio to show my photos, create slideshows, store my photos online and to sell them. I have been with Zenfolio for a number of years and highly recommend them. If you are thinking about signing up, you can consider their different plans here: http://www.zenfolio.com/zf/pricing.aspx (I have their Premium plan). If you use my referral code: FTY-NU2-W5E when you sign up, you will save $5.
That’s all there is to it. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Kind regards,
Richard
In early June of 2009 I set a goal for myself to produce a photo that would be viewed at least 1000 times on my Flickr account. As with any good goal I also included a deadline…the end of 2009. I then proceeded to break my collarbone and stopped shooting. Fortunately, in mid-June I participated in the first assignment of the Strobist.com Book Camp II with a head shot of Suzy and myself floating in a swimming pool. I am very excited to write that the photo, which I have enclosed below, was viewed today for the 1000th time on Flickr!
I would like to thank everyone who viewed the photo, and pay special thanks to those who left their comments.
Richard
As a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (“NAPP”), I have a subscription to the Photoshop magazine. They provide a digital copy of their magazine through http://www.zinio.com who provides the free Zinio Reader which allows one to read the magazine on the desktop.
Today I updated the Windows (Vista) video drivers and the ATI Catalyst Control Center on my laptop only to find out that I could no longer read my magazines in the Zinio Reader. It was only showing blue lines on blank pages where the content was suppose to be.
If you have used Zinio, you will know that their help area is greatly lacking. The solution? It turns out that you must check the boxes “Use application settings” in the Anti-Aliasing section in the Catalyst Control Center (Graphics -> 3D -> All). Hope this helps you if you experience the same issue.
Aside: If use use Photoshop and are not a member of the NAPP, I strongly urge you to consider joining. The Photoshop magazine is one of the many benefits that you will receive from NAPP. For more detail, please click here.
Kind regards,
Richard
