Once again a rainy day...

today worse than yesterday. The camera into a taped and rubber-banded baggy pending the arrival of a more official and costly wrapper. Was counting on the dog owners to need to go to the park. Only a few out but almost a 100% of the encounters although I botched most of them with lousy camera settings. Didn't spot anybody else with a camera — going to figure out this "get what nobody else gets" sooner or later. Today's experience would say you don't need to go to Patagonia to snap solo.

Took only the "weatherized" A7r with a 35. Just that and one of those $200k umbrellas. Despite or maybe in-spite of limited personal precautions — soaked again. Nothing a bloody won't fix.

Prepped camera

The only color snap, the gallery is all B&W.  Click here or on the snap below (clearly the best of the lot in color or B&W) .

Prepped umbrella

A walk in the park

On what might appear superficialy to be a crappy day for a walk in the park turns out to be the complete opposite. The rain which is a bad match for a stroll is the perfect compliment for a rugby match. This one facing off Johns Hopkins and Loyola on a partially denuded field made more interesting by a liberal dumping of rain.

These all on the 5D Mk III with the 28 f/2.8 IS ala mode Mel Digiacomo, meaning as close as one can get without going on the field.  Digiacomo would have likely gone on the field but I have the neither the chutzpah nor the photo skills to get away with that.

The risk is to some degree getting hit by a player but since this is college club rugby and not the International the risk is not particularly high. While the risk of getting hit is actually high — the impact is not. The guy below in the color snap missed the tackle but didn't miss me. He well... er...  bounced off. I was left merely with some muddy residue from the contact.

Two galleries, replicas except one is in color the other B&W.  Take your pick. Click on the respective snaps below or here for color and here for B&W.

Rain delay...

at Camdem Yards for the Orioles and the Rangers.  Not so different two miles or so to the east.  Quick flat-stitched pano with the complete ND configuration including the Lens Rental 24 TS-E. The thing feels like it coists what it does. Took off the 45 TS-E to mount it — no comaprison, might be why it is twice the price.

Three portrait snaps, cropped 12x5.

Druid Hill Park and nearby

Some shots of the park and along Jones Falls Road on a rainy Sunday morning.  Two snaps here, the rest are here.

Swim Lanes.  An image with a lot of sass compared to the stiff Tilt-Shift shots of the Botanical Gardens.

Liquor store delivery car on Jones Falls road.  Apparently originally acquired from the Cavasino Brothers in Cannes.

Home for holidays

So, the sharper eyed 20 and 30 somethings are home for the holidays.  No snow from the big East Coast Christmas storm but impressive skies.  Combine the skies with a thirty something (Tim) and a tripod mounted 7D with a 1.4 extender between the camera and the 100-400 at 400mm and you have a equivalent of 896mm to take some shots of Baltimore Harbor from Veranda #4.

 

Same situation from an earlier trip home on a rainy Sunday afternoon in late September.