I was hoping to get up to the area this weekend but may not make it now. I'm still trying to get a good handle on the new Canon gear and want to make sure I'm getting consistent results before making a major trip. Plus I still need to sell off some Minolta gear to round out the Canon setup. But anyway, I do want to get up there sometime in the next couple of months to shoot some winter wildlife. Despite only being about 4 hours away I've never been to either place. Locations to shoot and a good but cheap place to stay would be appreciated. I figure I can an overnight trip there to give me about 8 hours in two days to shoot. Any insight from those that have done winter shooting there would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jim

"Despite only being about 4 hours away I've never been to either place."

Wow. I find this hard to believe. I think you are in for quite treat. I understand that it has been a relatively mild winter, so hopefully you will have plenty of great photographic opportunities.

As to tips for cold weather shooting, I have not really had to suffer some of the conditions that others here have had to. Heck this year, it has been obscenely warm here in NY (over 20 degrees, on average, than the normal temperature recently, and some days it has been close to 40 degrees over). Perhaps David or Tony (when he gets back) will be able to be helpful with some tips here.

Good luck - I am very excited for you. Visiting Yellowstone in Winter is a definite plan of mine.

James

I wouldn't mind living 4 hours from Yellowstone. Heck, I can't even get there in 4 hours by commercial airline.
Check out the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole and all of Grand Teton NP. You might find more wildlife in this area during the winter than in Yellowstone.

Almost got away this weekend to go up there but still having problems with the new gear. I think it's time to box it up and send it to Canon. What I consider routine bird shots at the house feeder are just terribly soft. Seeing the same thing with both the 400 f/5.6 and the 70-200 f/2.8. This despite being tripod mounted and shooting at around f/8 with shutter speeds exceeding 1/1000th. Unless I suddenly forgot how to shoot simple bird shots I've got a problem. From the get go I thought I had a noise problem but I realize I've just been sharpening way too much trying to compensate for a focus problem of some sort.

sounds like a focus issue for sure. have you done any standard new print tests? You should.

I'd shoot a prime or another high end zoom and then an equivelent. Manual focus from a tripod, use a cable, shoot low and high shutter speeds and then compair. I'll bet your jpg's comprssion has somthing to do with it.

You said new canon gear - that right there may be an issue. If you have a new digital body, you may not have it dialed in yet, or, the files may not be as sharp as you like but have you tride printing them? What about your monitor, maybe somthing is haywire with it.

Todays digital photography, more than ever, is a system and any one aspect that off can make a huge difference.

Post a few of your best shots that you think are soft so we can see them. . .

Tony

Weird, I go from totally junk pictures yesterday to perfectly fine quick snapshots today. Can't think of anything I changed but I must be spacing on something.
Best test shot yesterday, tripod mounted:
http://www.pbase.com/jhuddle/image/73082092.jpg
Typical test shot today, hand held:
http://www.pbase.com/jhuddle/image/73138205.jpg

Both images shot in RAW and these are just full size crops of the main image. You'd think I was new to this but it does have me scratching my head.

Hey Jim,

That is really odd. Are you having the exact same problems with both lenses?

James

Hey Folks out West,

You guys are throwing cold weather our way. What is the deal? I heard it was -38 at Old Faithful this morning and this weather stream is turing our unnatural 50 degree heat to normal. It is about time. Maybe now there will finally be some snow.

James

It was happening with both lens which I why I was ready to pack up the body and send it to Canon. But, yesterday everything worked fine. The only thing I changed was the RAW + jpg setting. I just changed it to larger high quality jpgs from small jpg so that I could use the quicker opening jpgs to evaluate my tests vs the RAW shots I had been using.

Out here in Utah we are really lacking in snow. This time last year were had about 18" throughout the whole yard, right now it's just maybe an inch. But, it is cold. It been around -15 to -20 everymorning. I was shooting outside last Saturday in this weather and it was cold. No mechanical or power issues with the 30D though in that cold weather. I just had to pay attention to where and when I exhaled. You don't want to breathe onto your gear at those temperatures.

Is it still happening when you switch BACK to shooting RAW plus small jpeg?

James

PS It finally happend out here. The Winter has come. It is beautiful.