New lens

Well folks, I've found the next lens I want to invest in.





This is the Canon EF 50mm 1.4 USM. And it's perfect. I would "ask" for it for Christmas, but I want to be able to actually use it over the holidays (after having some time to get used to it), so I'm hoping to find a sweet Black Friday deal this weekend. The sample images I've seen from it online are just heavenly.

For example, this one, taken from the customer images page on the Amazon page for the lens:



I think that's all that really needs to be said.

I am always complaining that I can't take good photos at Christmas when we're all in Gran's living room opening presents. And that's because the living room is lit with warmest light from six different not-very-bright lamps all joining forces. My photos from past years are almost always blurry and not well-lit. Almost every single person who's reviewed this lens says that it's great in indoor, low-lit situations. That's exactly what I need, which is why [I guess] I'm willing to shell out the $300-something it'll cost for it.

Crossing my fingers for a sweet Black Friday deal...

Ch- ch- ch- changes

So, we're married, and everything went awesome. I'm not posting any wedding photos, because I didn't take any! ;)

But here are some from Napa Valley.

There were many, many chances to take the obligatory vine-heavy-with-grapes shot, and this is one of my favorites. I will admit, though, that after a while, all of the perfectly straight rows of grape vines definitely begin to look alike!

I love this shot, but I realized when I got them on my computer that the coloring is really off here. Huge bummer. It's confusing, too, because I'm pretty sure I had the white balance on "daylight," but we had just come from inside the winery, so I could be wrong. I especially love that the bottle is empty, and glass is just a little bit full. Really captures a moment, I think.

We took a hike in the mountains on the west side of the valley halfway through the week, and this shot was sheer luck. It's cropped out of a much larger shot, but I think it retained quality pretty well. I love his shadow on the ground, and the tips of his wings blend in perfectly with the forest floor! It's actually hard to tell at first what the photo is of, I think.

When I got this shot onto my computer, I started wondering how I could have made the building and trees darker, more silhouette-ish. I wonder if most photographers do that in post-processing? Or what setting should I have changed to get that effect... The F-stop? Bah. I'll have to try something like this again soon.

I took of bunch of shots in this mustard garden out in front of a restaurant where we had lunch. I loved the sticks they posted that said what was planted where.

The holidays are coming up, which means lots of family photos (probably won't post those here), but hopefully I'll still get some creative opportunities. Maybe snow will be involved...