JHP Newsletter - 2005, No. 9, 14 December

Equipment: Canon EF 24-105 f4 L IS USM

I recently purchased a Canon EF 24-105 f4 L IS USM lens to replace my Canon EF 28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS USM lens. I had been unhappy about the chintzy feel of the 28-135 for quite a while, and had more recently been bothered by some softness in the corners. The 24-105 solves both of those problems. The "L" construction makes the lens feel solid, and the corner sharpness is noticeably better than with the 28-135.

Travel: Grand Teton National Park

I took a really cool trip to Grand Teton National Park last week. Well, "cool" is putting it mildly because I was out shooting in temperatures ranging from -31°F (-35°C) to -3°F (-19°C), and I don't think it ever got above 0°F (-17°C) while I was there. Let me tell you, that's cold!!! Fortunately there was usually no, or only a very slight, breeze, so that made the cold temperatures much easier to handle. It was so cold one morning that a good layer of frost formed on my camera body when I was shooting moose for about half an hour with my face continually near the camera, and after I had been shooting the sunrise on the mountains for about 45 minutes before that to cold-soak the camera.

The main reason I headed into the bitterly cold temperatures was to shoot the landscapes. I had never been to Grand Teton National Park before in the winter, and my collection of winter shots as a whole is considerable smaller than shots in more reasonable conditions. The weather (read clouds and fog) was generally favorable for landscape work, and I had a ball exploring the winter wonderland.