Sigma 70-300mm APO DG Macro (f4-5.6)

Good -

300mm focal length
APO glass
Macro mode
Price

Bad -

Loud AF (screw-drive from the body)

Ugly -

The coating - OK, it's black _{(a good thing, I think you'll all agree)}, but why does it glitter so?...

Three days in a row - *click*, cull, submit the good ones.

Hopefully I can keep the momentum going...

We shall see.

^{It's 2009! Where's my [flying car|raygun|SSTO spacecraft]?}
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Christmas was fun!
New Years was quiet

Chatsworth was OK (apart from the light quality which was... not great - except when we were on out way back )
Saw loads of deer, no good enough photos though...

New years resolution? Get out more!

Well, I don't, but I've just discovered how easy they are to do.

Step one: Set camera to Aperture priority.

Step two: Set ISO to the least sensitive you can (lowest number).

Step three: Get out there! (with tripod). (And remote release).

Step four: Set Exposure bracketing to +/-2 stops. (You may have to consult your manual at this point. [If your camera doesn't have automatic bracketing (Nikon D40, I'm looking at you...), set exposure compensation manually between shots.])

Step five: Three shots and three shots only, please. (one normal, one two stops under, one two stops over).

Step six: Import shots into HDR software of choice. (FDRtools or Photomatix Pro*)

Step seven: Generate, align, tone map, tweak, Run/Start/Export/etc

*The demo for this puts watermarks on your finished pic. Suffice to say, there is a way around this.

...and aims revolver into shadows*

Long time since I've been here....

Yep, photos.