Scotland Holiday 2009

Two and a half weeks driving around in Scotland. The weather was extremely good, which we didn't anticipate, so we didn't have enough t-shirts etc. Who would have thought that over two weeks of sunshine was possible in Scotland?

Saw lots of ruins, castles, sheep, churches, sun, beer, whisky, ruins, castles and stuff. No need to get bored when you're over there. Only downside to the extremely good weather was that I wasn't able to shoot many of those typical cloudy/rainy Scotland photo's.

The trip started with the ferry IJmuiden-New Castle. After that it was Dumfries, Oban, Spean Bridge, Struan (Isle of Sky), Ullapool, Thurso, Ballater, Glenrothes, and back to New Castle. Basically a trip covering the best parts of Scotland (we did miss the Orkneys though).



Also available on my flickr page or here.

New York City 2008

Last monday was the day of my return from the Big Apple a.k.a. New York. It was a 7 day (5 nights) trip the the wonderful city of New York. The weather was great, and the company was even better :-P .

The holiday had a bit of a slow start, because we missed the plane (my bad), but, with a four hour delay, we finally got underway. As usual, plane trips suck bigtime. Cramped seats, and no sleep.

When we arrived we got our NY City Passes + 3 day bus tickets. This way, we got discounts (or even free entrance) at sightseeing. After all, we're still Dutch ;-) .

During the 6 days we saw it all (well, almost....);

• Empire State Building
• Central Park
• The Financial District (Lower Manhattan)
• Rockefeller Center
• Fifth Avenue
• China Town
• Little Italy
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Brooklyn
• Chrysler Building
• Grand Central Station
• Tudor City
• United Nations Building
• B&H Photo and Video :-P
• Saint Patrick's Cathedral
• Saint Thomes Church
• Trinity Church
• New York Police Museum

We even visited the theater on Broadway. The show we saw was a comedy (not a musical!!!) on 48th street called 'The 39 Steps'. A play by 4 actors playing over 150 characters.

During this stay I shot nearly 500 photographs. Some of those can be found on my flickr page.

Rent a Lens

For my trip to New York City I need a (zoom)lens with a wide angle. My current 24-70 (which is a great lens) doesn't give me the wide angle I need on a crop-camera. So I was looking for a zoom lens with a bit more wide angle.

The 17-55mm f/2.8 AF-S DX (etc) would suit my needs. Enough wide angle and a bit of zoom. No need for 100* zoom lenses because it's New York. Everything is cramped on top of each other. If I need zoom, I can always get a 1.7TC @ Adorama or B&H Photo in New York.

The 17-55 is bit on the expensive side (>1000 euros), so I rented it for the week @ Kamera-Express. Not that expensive, and now I got a decent lens for exploring New York. I just hope that the lens isn't that good, otherwise I need to have it ;-).

NYC in Prime

In a couple of weeks I'm off to New York for a couple of days. This time I'm packing a DSLR instead of the old Canon IXUS V. And to save my back (and neck), I'm not taking any of the regular zoom lenses with me. It's just gonna be me and a couple of prime lenses. These lenses aren't as flexible as a zoom lens, but they weigh a lot less Three primes approx. equals 1 nice zoom lens (nearly 2 pounds), but you mount only 1 lens at a time on the camera.

Currently I've got a 35mm f/2D and a 50mm f/1.8D prime for my D300. The lack of zoom capabilities will force me to be a little more creative while strolling the streets of NYC.

It would be nice to have a 24mm f/2.8 (or 20mm f/2.8) as well for a little more wide angle. Downside is that those are relatively pricey, or not available. the biggest photo/video store in NYC sell those at low prices, but they're out of stock.....

UPDATE: first images of the Nikon 35mm f/2D looks promising. The lens is a bit larger than the 50mm f/1.8, but image quality looks better (contrast, colors).