As I Xi It v2.3

I was about to brush my teeth this morning when I looked out the window and saw some sort of ginger four-legged animal run across the garden and scaled the fence. I rushed back to my room, put my glasses on and saw that it was a fox! At first, I thought it might be that big ginger cat who sometimes likes to terrorise Cici. So, I dashed back to my room, put on the telephoto and shot it. Not the best pic, but you can clearly tell that it’s a fox. It’s not as manky as some of the foxes I’ve seen at night.

Fox!

What would be really nice to see is a hedgehog. Haven’t seen one in years. When I was a kid, they’d always be visiting and staying over in the garage.

Pics from my trip up into Swedish lapland. Trip report to come.

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After a rather long hiatus from doing any sort of real wildlife photography, I got my layers on popped over to Richmond Park on Saturday to shoot the deer in the snow.

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Seeing as its been snowing rather frequently in London and I’ve got that upcoming trip up into Swedish Lapland, I ordered myself a set of Manfrotto snow shoes. Although I have a set of Slik and Gitzo tripod legs, I went for the Manfrotto because a) they were cheaper and b) Gitzo ones were out of stock at the place where I ordered my new ball head. The Manfrotto and Gitzo snow shoes look the same anyway.

You don’t have to use the snow shoes just for snow, I’m sure they’ll work pretty well on dry sand and other soft sediment. They just increase the surface area between the tripod and terrain to reduce sinking. However, I don’t recommend them for use on smooth surfaces such as laminate flooring as they’ll just slide around. I suppose they could be used for the new sport of tripod curling.

They’re reasonably cheap at around £15 and get the job done.

I’ve previously reviewed the Manfrotto 486RC2 ball head here which sits on my Slik Pro 340DX. Since getting my fancy Gitzo tripod legs as reviewed here back in May 2009, I needed a more substantial ball head to go with it.

Now, I could’ve gone all out and brought an Arcaswiss, Kirk, Really Right Stuff or Markins ball head, but given that my heaviest camera combo weighs in at under 5 kg, I thought it’d be overkill to splurge £300+ on a ball head. I opted for the more modestly priced Manfrotto 468MGRC2 ball head at just over £150.

Like the 486RC2, this 468MGRC2 oozes solidness. I have no doubt that if you were to lob it at someone, it’d take them down fairly easily, assuming your aim was accurate. My favourite thing about this ball head is the friction control which stops the camera from flopping about, something which I found rather annoying with the other ball head. The ball rotates smoothly and locks down tight without much effort. Given that I’m planning to use this Gitzo/Manfrotto combo while I’m off to Swedish lapland next month, the large rubberised knob (tee hee) would be easy to operate with gloves on. I’d assume it’d be easier to use for arthritics too.

The 468MGRC2 has a rated minimum operating temperature of -30^oC so I’m hoping that it’ll hold out while I’m shooting the aurora in in the arctic circle where temperatures are reported to reach -35^oC at night. If it does lock up, then I’d have to bind one of those self heating hand warmers to it.

Looks like Watson is a fan of the National Geographic camera pouch I use for my G11.

Watson moves into the National Geographic

Another year gone, time for another annual retrospective review. Not really in the mood to write much so I’ll just leave you with some pics summarising the last twelve months, but I’ve got to say that the highlight of my year was probably my trip to South Africa. That was really something.

Yesterday evening after work I went shopping for some heavy duty gloves for an up coming winter sports holiday. I had my G11 with me and did a spot of night photography, strolled around Covent Garden, down to Trafalgar Square and ending at Picadilly. The Christmas lights this year are somewhat abyssmal. I reminised about how when I was an undergraduate, Jac and I would go night photographying along the river in the freezing cold. Oh the memories. It’s not quite so much fun when you’re shooting solo.

Here are a couple of pics I’ve taken so far with the G11. It’s a very capable piece of kit!

….and a G11 heavier. An early Christmas present from me to me.

A line up of my Canon compacts. The A590 in the middle will be “disposed” of via the eBay route while the teeny Ixus i5 will still stick around as the party cam… not that I’m an avid party fan. Hmn… perhaps I’ll get rid of that too.

I could post a review of the G11, but there are so many about already. It’s really neat and solid. If my 40D and A590 had a baby, the G11 would be it.

Family portrait