Tofino, BC

We just got back from a trip to Tofino,  British Columbia, where we spent the week between Christmas and New Years day.  Most of the time was spent relaxing, and for me that means at least some time shooting photos.

The first few days were exceptionally rainy an windy.  The sheet of paper taped to the door of the lodge upon our arrival read

"Vancouver Island's Pacific Rim National Park are warning visitors about massive waves, gale force winds and hazardous surf conditions this holiday season."

Prefect for me who does not really enjoy the warm and sunny beaches of the world.  The forecast turned out to be fairly accurate...

Chesterman Beach in a driving rain storm.

With the amount of time I spend in the mountains, I get the chance to see a lot of very interesting cloud formations.  My early morning walk to watch the sunrise from the beach produced one of the more interesting cloud photos I have ever shot.

What would a trip be without some bird photos.

Not a good photo, but apparently eagles enjoy seagull snacks.

Fox Sparrow

Yet another bad photo of an oyster catcher.  I will get a good photo one day.

Driftwood on the beach.

What would a family trip be without some family photos.

The last night of the trip I shot a couple black and whites.

Nikon 70-200 f 2.8 vr lens review.

A few months ago I purchased a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR. This is a professional quality lens and certainly the most expensive lens I have ever purchased. It is a heavy lens, but not so heavy that I have to leave it at home on all of the backpacking trips. I have carried it above tree line on Mount Baker, and I did not find it so heavy that it is not worth carrying. Most people will claim that it is not really a long enough lens for shooting photos of birds, but with patience and a little luck even 200mm can produce some pretty good bird photos. None of the photos here were shot using a tripod. It is just not realistic for me to use a tripod for most of my photos since I am usually hiking. A tripod would make these photos sharper, but these are still pretty sharp. The VR makes on this lens allows me to shoot hand held photos like this while i am hiking.

In my experience the varied thrush is one of the most reclusive shy birds around. They tend to sit high in the trees and not make themselves visible very often. This bird is very common in the forests of Washington, and I have still never seen one there even though I hear them on almost every trip to the woods. Yesterday while walking with my dogs in Tofino, BC I scared this one that was sitting on the trail in front of me. I had the Nikon 70-200 on my camera and was able to shoot this photo.

This eagle photo was shot as I was walking to breakfast. This is one place where 50% more zoom would have been nice.

A couple of months ago I took this lens up to the north side of Mount Baker on a work trip. I was hoping to shoot photos of ptarmigan. Conveniently upon getting to camp a group of ptarmigan showed up. Unfortunately I did not have enough time with this lens in hand to get perfect photos, but this one was pretty good.

I have also used this lens at a political fund raising event and was fairly happy with the photos even though I am still in the process of learning the ins and outs of shooting indoor flash photos. In this case the lens far exceeded the photographer.

In the next couple months I will continue to post photos from this lens as I get more comfortable shooting with it.