For the 4th of July we headed home to see Jazz's parents in Houston, Texas. We rarely leave Chicago for the 4th, so it was a nice change. Now that Jazz has finished her MBA, these short trips will be a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable.
Usually a trip back home means work. Work in the yard. Work in the house. Clean, mow, garden, rake, walk the dogs, etc. Well, due to a consistent 3 inches of rain, work was put on hold. In between the showers I tested out a new lens and managed a few more shots of the backyard flora and fauna. We sympathized with the guy to the left, as that was our typical state throughout the weekend as well.
I'll let the photos emphasize the mood of this trip. It was a wet, damp weekend, but we enjoyed it none the less. As always, click on an image or the Flickr link to the right to view more images related to this post. For photo enthusiasts, read on...
I used the 135 mm f/2.8 AI-S telephoto often throughout the weekend. It's small and lightweight but requires manual focus. I bought it as a companion to the larger, modern 70-200 mm f/2.8 for traveling. I was concerned about manual focusing, but I'm comfortable that it'll do well for stationary objects and even action. I really enjoyed the size, feel, and image quality of the lens. The first two and the last images above were taken with the 135 mm, while the middle three were taken using the 70-200 mm with the 1.4x teleconverter. The image of the butterfly in the Mimosa tree was taken with a Gitzo Traveler tripod and Markins Q3 Traveler ball-head. Both are fantastic tools. I went with the Markins over the slightly more expensive Really Right Stuff brand because of cost and aesthetics, since both seem to be well designed and manufactured.
