Canon L lens for only £449.99

I like to have the finer things in life.Some people might think its being stupid with money.But i'm a huge believer in ,You get what you pay for .Camera lenses for example.If you are going to be passionate about something and invest time,heart and money into it.You are going to want to see good results.
Now you might be saying to your self,An exspensive cooker doesnt make a good cook. And in a way you are right.But lets face it,You are not going to cook the Queen a banquet in a microwave oven are you. NO!! you are not!.You as a photographer need to get the shot right first and foremost .But im bloody sure my pictures i will take with my DSLR and pro grade L lens is going to take a better picture than,Say someone shooting with a mobile phone,Even if ya Nokia has a Carl zeiss lens in it .But,Im Not saying that if you only have a mobile phone to shoot pictures with you are not as good as me or you are crap at photography.I have a friend who has recently aquired an interest in photography.Six months or so back he was selling a Canon EOS 350 D for someone.He offered it to me,But i had no use for it nor the money to be honest.My advice to him was to keep it and use it.Which he didnt.He continues to take pictures with his camera phone.He does have a bloody good eye for a photograph and i would imagine he is kicking himself for not keeping it .Iv seen some beautiful pictures he has taken with his mobile phone.But never the less,Despite how good a phone he has he is still very limited to the options he can use.ISO,Depth of field,Shutter speeds,Auto exposure bracketing.Armed with a proper camera im sure he will make for a bloody good artist.The foundations are already there.He has got the eye.
Anyway getting back to the subject.The finer things in life.In this case L lenses for Canon.With their delicious red ring of love and UD elements.Just holding one gives me a semi.You look and feel like a pro walking around with ya camera sporting L glass.Walking around taking pictures people in general just don't pay attention and walk past,But you can always spot the photographers having a quick glance at ya tackle so to speak.Its like people who are into cars.When ya see a Ferrari roar past you rubber neck a quick look.And considering these L grade lenses are rolling in at around £1000 + you can pretty much pay as high as the moon for one.Even searching eBay for one you can pay MASSIVE amounts for one. In fact they are selling on eBay for almost as much as they are new probably only shaving a couple of hundred quid off of one .Unless you find one with a scratched front element,internal dust and fungus to boot then you might get it at half the original price.Well,Like i said before i like to look for bargains on the net.Now this lens is probably the cheapest L lens on the market.But i found it for even cheaper.Probably only any good to you if you are living in England.And you can find a store with any in stock.Other wise you will have to order it in .
Canon 17-40mm 4.0L U Digital SLR Lens for only £449.99.......
That is bloody cheap !
Normally this sells for around £700 a throw.Argos of all places have got this lens on sales at this price .Saving a lucky photographer a massive 1/3 of the price .Perfect for landscape photographers with its wide angle.And constant f4 aperture and its ring type usm which give a really fast and silent auto focus.
Iv not checked but i wouldn't be surprised if these was more expensive on eBay for second hand.Well there you go,Another great deal.Thanks for reading.please feel free to leave a comment below if you found any of this useful.Or even if you already own one let me know what its like .

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5560662/Trail/searchtext%3ECANON+LENS.htm

WOW !!! What a great deal !

In this time of the hard up and lack of cash everywhere these days .Where THE MAN is bleeding us dry every second of every day.Tax hikes and heating and fuel cost forever on the rise.Its a wonder the honest hard working people can afford to even eat these days.We have fallen upon hard times people and we need to look out for each other if we are gonna come out the other side of it .I haven't had a pay rise this year and if I'm honest with you .I wouldn't bet my life I'm gonna get one either .Its getting to that point where i think if the government could,They would go the other way and give the working class a pay deduction rather than a pay rise if they thought they could get away with it .
Well the other week i was going through my usual websites i normally look at....No !! not porn.
Photography websites ,After all that's my bag isn't it .I look for a good deal on various different sites and the other week i found one .Compact flash memory cards are NOT bloody cheap.But while searching amazon i found 8 GB Sandisk ULTRA 30MB/s for only £17 including postage .Considering i paid almost £60 for my 8GB Sandisk EXTREME 60MB/s. At first i thought to my self ..These are gonna be a bit shit aint they. Half the speed of the extreme.I bet its well noticeable .But i thought Stuff it ill give it a whirl.After all i am a bit skint at the moment and I was getting rather pissed off with running out of memory card space as i only had the one 8 GB CF memory card which my Canon EOS 5D mkII takes .17 quid and a 5 days later my memory card turns up and to be bloody fair ...I don't notice a difference in performance.In fact i would have to open up the flap and check which card is in the slot because i wouldn't be able to tell.The cheaper Ultra modal keeps up with my photography NO PROBLEM.In fact I'm so happy with my purchase that on pay day i might even buy another one.After all its always handy to have a few to hand .day trips out with the family,Holidays,Even intensive photo shoots.If ya lucky enough to get some big bookings that is . ;0).So i feel as i got a bit of a result the other day.And because I'm a top bloke.I feel its only right to share the love with the masses and keep you informed of the good deals i come across on the Internet.And i do come across some bloody good deals from time to time .And as you guys are good enough to spare a few minutes of your life to read the ramblings of a bored man sat at his computer.It accrued to me only 20 minutes ago i should offer you something back.So if you want a compact flash memory card,Get yourself on amazon and get the 8 GB Sandisk ULTRA which is only £17 including postage .you will not be disappointed .

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B0007QU74Q/ref=sr_1_4_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1319928249&sr=8-4&condition=new

I got an idea .

With nothing much to write about today.spending my entire day off work watching DVDs.I have had a pretty unproductive day.But my wife did ask me to get some shots of our baby girl. Photo op !!. She didn't have to ask me twice to get my camera out .I love playing with my camera.I got quite a few shots but nothing to jump up and down about .Obviously they were all beautiful shots being of my baby daughter,But this shot i REALLY did like.Such a simple shot but without a doubt one i will treasure for ever.She is actually watching the tv here.She gets that from my side i think :0).I have actually been looking on facebook at some other photographers baby shot work .Some that i follow on my photography page specialize in taking baby portraits with knitted hats and bonnets and producing shots so lovely that some of the shots even make me broody for more kids.I totally intend to get some lovely baby shots of my little princess.But my god its hard work .The second we try to pose her she wakes up and has different ideas.I will have to do some research on the net on how to pull these beautiful baby shots off perfectly.I see a huge market for baby portraits like these.If i didn't take this shot here of my baby girl id totally pay myself a million pound for this .Give or take a couple of quid anyway ..I shot this with the Canon 5D mkII using 70-200 mm f4 L usm lens.
focal length of 200 mm at f4 with a shutter speed of 1/200sec ISO at 250.The camera was in shutter priority .Seems just lately my Favorite shots I'm getting are of my children.Maybe this is how i will make my millions.I'm not too optimistic am i..lol
One of my ideas i have been toying with is to visit local charity shops and purchase props for my art.Lovely soft throws,Blankets in brilliant white, wicker baskets etc anything i can find to make my photographs stand out from the rest.I don't think it will take long to get a selection of props together.Then instead of doing what i have been doing,Which is offering my services out at £50 a shoot.Which i think is bloody cheap for the amount i have spent on my photography equipment.People don't realise how much photography equipment costs.I have a new plan.Do the shoot for FREE !!. You must be must be bloody mad i hear you say.No, Not mad there is a method to my madness.Do the shoot for free,Edit a selection of the shots i think are the best.And then stick a huge intrusive watermark right across the image.Place the images in an online pass worded album,so only the customer can see the images .And then let them choose the shots they like and charge them per image.Then get the images printed professionally as my printer is crap..
I can hear you saying to your self ,Is this bloke a fool or something ? This is how photographers do it all over the world ..Well this maybe the case and i'm the first to admit it. I'm not the sharpest tool in the box .But at least i get there in the end .After all i am very new to photography, I have only been doing it since January just gone.If you have any advice for a beginner trying to make it in this very competitive field i welcome any advice you can give me.Anything you can suggest on how i can turn my art into pound notes would be awesome .
If you would like to come and follow me on Facebook,I have a photography page on there which i have been posting images since ...Well January just gone . You can find me under Darran Anthony amateur photography.
Come and see what you think.Or just leave me a comment below if you cant be bothered to find my page on Facebook.Well thank you for reading,I hope iv entertained you for five minutes if nothing else :0)

Autumn is upon us

Its the time of year when the leaves turn golden and fall from the trees.Sunsets are much earlier in the evening with beautiful colours.Where there is a beautiful picture pretty much everywhere you look.Just lately me my wife and children have been going for walks in the evenings.Gets us all outside ,expands the lungs and gives me the perfect opportunity to get the camera out .I'm loving the light from the Autumn evenings.
The only trouble i have,Like iv mentioned before.with in walking distance of my house, Everything that is remotely interesting i have snapped dozens of times over.I am looking for a new project to shoot.So i think on my first day off i get.I will be dragging the family along to the nearest woods for a walk to shoot a few beautiful Autumn forest scape's. I have a few other destinations up my sleeve, local castles will make for a fantastic days shooting as well.And all these trips out make for great family time together.I would welcome any ideas people reading this could offer .Any interesting locations in the south east of England.If you have any ideas please leave a comment below.I am fully open to challenges as well.for example if there is something in the area you like,And think it could be a good picture.Leave me a comment and details and ill see what i can do.Please people Inspire me,Challenge me see what i can do.
Im going to share a few pictures i have been snapping in the last few days.

I captured this yesterday on a walk with the family.I have no idea what the tree or berry is.I don't even know what made me shoot it .I just looked up and took the shot.Thought nothing of it until i viewed the pictures on the computer and this one just spoke to me.I really quite like it .I shot this with a Canon EOS 5D mk2 using a 70-200 mm f4 L usm lens at 104 mm's.The aperture was set at f5 with an ISO of 400 and a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second.I done a quick noise reduction and slightly sharpened up the image using Windows live photo gallery.

This is an example of the awesome colours the Autumn delivers.Not a particularly great image but the colours are outstanding.And using the 70-200 mm f4 L lens delivered quite pleasing bokeh.Again using a 5D mk2 with 70-200 mm L .Aperture was set at f4 with ISO of 200 the shutter speed was dialed in at 1/800 sec with a focal length of 70 mm.No post processing applied here.

The autumn provides great portrait back drops as well.Here i took this shot of my son.

Using an aperture of f5 delivered a nice creamy bokeh but not too blurred to obscure the fallen leaves.Was shot at 200 mm with an ISO of 400 and a shutter speed of 1/200 sec.Post processing was done using Windows live photo gallery,A quick noise reduction was done and image was sharpened up slightly.Then i done a mono conversion again using windows live photo gallery.If you have any thoughts or ideas for me please leave a comment below.I look forward to hearing from you .So until the next time take care and happy snapping .

I want to be inspired

Just lately I'm feeling a little uninspired.And i want my mojo back .Maybe because iv been a little preoccupied lately,Having 3 children to look after.And the fact i have nothing to shoot.I live on a flat marshland where pretty much NOTHING goes on EVER!.I have photographed pretty much everything that is remotely interesting within walking distance from my house.And to be fair kind of bored taking the same photos over and over again.I want something different to shoot.But what ? that is the question.I am interested in urban exploration but i don't know of any abandoned hospitals or derelict buildings in the area.Another thing that interests me is macro photography.I have been looking around for my next lens.sometime in the new year i would like to buy a 100mm f2.8 macro but another huge question that faces me is L or non L ? I have seen reviews on the net from the Digital rev guys.And Kai Wong from Digital rev says there really isn't much between them.obviously the L version does give you a slightly better quality image and it does have image stabilizer for those hand held macro shots.I would also like to put a EF 15mm fisheye on my wish list .But this all cost money.And photography doesn't seem to earn me a lot of money.I need to start promoting my self a bit more.letting the world know im here to take their picture.I have lots of ideas in my head as what makes a good photo and quite capable of creating a piece of art for anyone who wants it .
For now i will have to stick to the equipment i have until that starts to make me some money to pay for its self .And then i will expand.After all you don't need a true macro lens to take macro shots.There is ways around it.Close up filters,extension tubes,macro bellows and turning your lens around the other way.You can get some pretty good results from this to. This spider was shot using a Canon EOS 1000D with 18-55 mm Kit lens with a X10 close up filter attached .      

 

Bugs are great to shoot macro with .Another good subject to shoot is to go raiding through the kids toy box and dig out some suitable subjects like iggle piggle..

Will this be how i find my inspiration? playing with my childrens toys ? who knows ? even if it is,Is it a bad thing ? after all toys are fun.My kids love them.Well i think i know what i will be up to tomorrow on my last day off work.Watch this space to see what i come up with.