August came and went without much ado. Life continues as normal with work, photography, picture framing and tinkering using up much of my time.
I have been dabbling in lenses again - this time with 3 FD lenses (35mmF2, a 20mm F2.8 and a 17mmF4). They will be converted to EF mount at a later date. I have to finish the Vivitar 28mm F2.5 and the 20mm F2.8 that I started a couple months ago.
I also made the foray into Zeiss lenses with an 85mm F1.4, a 50mm F2 makro and a 35mm F2. Not their most expensive lenses (I would be sleeping in the chicken coop and alone if I did that) but enough to be able to try them out and see if it is addictive as they say.
My personal comparison between the Zeiss 85mm 1.4 and the Canon 84mm 1.8 places the Zeiss above the Canon. Same for the Zeiss 50mm make against the Canon 50mm F2.5. They might be manual focus, but the Zeiss images just plain look better right out of the camera.
If I was to keep the images under 8x10, their is mainly a difference in the colors and that can be readily rectified by a saturation increase in Photoshop. But go larger, and the Zeiss just plain looks better by my in-house testing family.
I also did a bit of traveling - the island fever thing. I went back to Grenada for almost 3 weeks in September taking lots of pictures. The one thing I noticed in that when comparing Cayman to Grenada (both are similar in size), there is so much variety down there and lots more photo opportunities - whether in the towns for the old French and early British architecture to the wildlife, flowers, birds, rivers and landscape. Living in a flat place is not always good!
I was also in Mexico this week for a seminar and took a few photos. Mainly of the ruins at Tulum. When you are in workshops from 8AM to 6PM, it leaves little opportunity to explore. But such is life!
Hurricane Sandy affected Cayman and Miami while I was away. I did catch the tail end of it in Miami but it was mainly rain and clouds. While it is not affecting us much, I am still monitoring it as it heads north wondering how it will affect the northeastern US.
The usual chickens, fruits and lawn care continue.
For gardening, I managed to get two shoots of a root crop called dasheen
which a relative of taro. The leaves (which are quite large) are used
to make callaloo soup which the wife likes and it tastes good too. They
like water so I am keeping them moist and they are growing. The plant is
considered toxic if eaten raw but edible when cooked.Bye for now
