Defection to the Dark Side?

I did it. I made the switch. After being a die-hard Nikon guy for 25 years I made the leap today and switched to Canon.

Earlier this week I purchased a whole 40D setup, but the cameras actually got here today. First impressions: It's really different from my Nikon stuff. That and HOLY CRAP this thing is fast and silent! Perfection in a wedding camera.

Of course, here are the very first images shot with it. The girls were out playing in the yard, so I shot them.

This is Emma. She's the lady. At six, she'd not the oldest, but we've had her the longest. She is definitely the queen bee.

This one is Zoe. She's the puppy, and don't you forget it. She's nine months old and eats EVERYTHING. If she can't find anything to eat she will attempt to eat one of the other dogs. I am only slightly kidding here.

Lastly, we have Victoria, or as I like to call her “Mrs. Victoria Graybeard."

We adopted Victoria from the Humane Society in October. She had lived there for over a year and I didn't think she needed to do that anymore. It may be because I saved her, but she never leaves my side. Ever. Oh, except when I pull out the camera. She seems to be terrified of my cameras, no matter how small they are.

LUNA

October 6, 2006 was a perfect night for shooting the moon. Not only did we have absolutely perfect weather—clear skies, cool temps, virtually no humidity—but as it turned out, the October full moon happened to be closer to the Earth than most full moons. The moon’s orbit around Earth isn’t a perfect circle, and so there’s always a time each month when the moon is closer to Earth than at any other time—called its “perigee.” Only on rare occasions does a full moon occur at perigee. The beauty of this, for a photographer, is that the moon was actually about 20% larger in the sky than normal. So, like I said, with perfect weather—and a perfect moon—I couldn't resist.

I had actually wanted to do this for some time, but I'm glad I waited. I feel like the results, had I done it earlier, wouldn't have been as breathtaking. I shot this with a tripod-steadied Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 lens, using its dedicated 2x teleconverter. When you take into account the 1.5x multiplying factor that my Nikon D200 imparts, I had the equivalent of a 900mm lens! You can see for yourself, the result was amazing.

I designed the poster you see above for my son, Jack's 8th birthday. He's a space nut and needed a cool new image to be the focal point of his newly decorated space-themed room. When I went to have it framed, the guys at the frame shop went nuts and begged me for copies of their own. I figured, why not make them available as limited edition, signed-and-numbered prints. I decided to only make 10 signed edition prints available, and naturally Jack got number 1.

So here goes, get them while they last. I have only 6 prints remaining available at $99 each (not including shipping). Each one is 16"x20", color, with a white border. The prints are made on 100-year archival satin photo paper, at 2880dpi, using an Epson 9600 printer with Ultrachrome inks. Trust me, these are fine prints. If you know someone who is a space nut, think about giving them one of these as a Christmas gift.