Badlands–July Desktop Calendar

July 2010 Calendar

I arrived safe and sound at my Montana cabin after an amazing drive via Yellowstone’s east entrance where we were greeted by a total of five bears within a 20 mile stretch. It was quite spectacular and although I took a few photos, I really wasn’t prepared to spend a few hours waiting for the prefect shot. I still needed to get to the cabin before nightfall, stock the fridge and get a fire going. But, more on the bear sightings in the next post. I wanted to answer a few Q&A Friday questions (I know I’m a day late) and give you July’s desktop calendar…so on to it.

Q—Peggy– I’m starting out in photography and will be investing my money on a sound camera, lenses, programs, and workshops. Since I’m fairly new and will have a learning curve ahead of me what area few basic lenses I should be investing my money in? I don’t want to get something that’s way out of my league for me or something that really wouldn’t impress me either. There are so many to choose from. I really want to focus on landscapes to start with and then spread out. What’s one lens you never leave home without?

A—What I always recommend is staring out with a decent beginner zoom. I shot for many years using a 28-135mm and a 75-300mm for wildlife and sports. These lenses are great place to begin and when the time comes that you feel comfortable with your equipment, then I would consider upgrading your glass. The lens I never leave home without also happens to be my very first Canon “L” series lens, the 24-70mm. I love this lens, but it would have been overkill for me early on in my career.

Q—Jim –When I’m photographing close-ups of flowers my lens won’t focus but just keeps making sounds like it’s trying to focus.

A– Assuming your lens isn’t defective, this can often times be an issue that you’re too close to the subject. Depending upon your lens there’s a minimum distance you need to be positioned away from your subject in order to focus. I recommend placing your camera on a tripod, using your manual focus and try moving back little bit from your subject. A wide angle lens or macro lens will often have a closer focusing point then a telephoto lens.

Thanks Peggy and Jim for the great questions. Keep the questions coming, I think they have been really great so far. Finally, here is your July desktop calendar. I shot this in the Badlands en route to Montana. I finally got to test out my Lee Filters, and they were awesome for this type of shooting. I used my 16-35mm lens with the neutral density Lee filter, and here it is… Enjoy, and have a great Fourth of July holiday, and don’t forget to take your camera to the parades and fireworks displays. John

To download the 1280X883 calendar  click HERE

To download 2560X1600 (larger desktop)  calendar click HERE

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 7:57 pm. It is filed under Desktop Wallpapers, General, National Parks, Q&A and tagged with badlands, July 2010 Calendar, Q&A, yellowstone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.