JHP Newsletter - 2005, No. 5, 23 July
Equipment: Sigma 120-300 vs. Canon 28-135
On my recent trip to Norway, I shot architectural subjects for the first time since switching to Canon. I was really disappointed by the performance of the Canon EF 28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS USM because of the pincushion distortion, and tried to shoot as much as I could with the Sigma AF 120-300 f2.8 APO EX IF HSM which has no discernable pincushion or barrel distortion. So, I'm starting to like the Sigma 120-300 even more, and starting to really dislike the Canon 28-135, a lens that had been driving me nuts because it feels so chintzy.
Travel: Norway
Well, the Norway trip didn't go according to plan. The plan was to go on The Polar Bears and Wildlife of Spitsbergen photo trip for ten days to get great shots of polar bears, and then do a self-drive on the mainland for 16 days to get great shots of the fjords, but it turned into a nice vacation and I only got a few great images.
The vacation started when I arrived in Oslo the day before the photo-tour part of the trip. I arrived early to give me time to adjust to the jet lag, and also to make sure that my luggage made it to Norway before I boarded a ship and it wouldn't be able to catch up to me for the photo trip. Oslo, the largest city and also the capitol, is a wonderful place. The very light traffic and pedestrians strolling on the sidewalks provided a great environment to relax and unwind. I was also exposed to two things typically Norwegian. First, wireless credit card processing machines are common, and are particularly useful for dining at sidewalk cafes. When you're ready to pay, the waiter/waitress brings out a small handheld unit with a card reader, keypad, and printer, and the whole transaction is conducted at your table. Second, bathroom facilities are unlike any that I've ever seen before on land. Most bathrooms don't have a tub or shower stall, and instead have a curtain for a shower area, and the whole floor acts as a catch basin for the water. The doors have a lip to keep the water from running out of the bathroom, and some of the places provided a long-handled squeegee to help dry off the floor after showering.
The polar bear photo shoot by Joseph Van Os was a ship-based trip around the Svalbard Islands, of which Spitsbergen is the largest island in the archipelago. They're located between 77 and 80 degrees north, and provided a true arctic experience. It's the furthest north I've been (Deadhorse, AK, on Prudoe Bay is at about 70 degrees north), and the sun won't set there until August! The trip was a bust. While we saw 15 bears altogether, only one mother and two cubs provided some acceptable shots. Most bears were a mile or so away, and some were walking on bare brown earth making them unattractive subjects. I did get to see and shoot for the first time walruses in the wild, and we were able to get some good shots of bearded seals too. However, most of my interesting shots were of landscapes.