What I Did On My Summer Vacation: The New Rig...

Yeah, I get it. 

There's a big chunky block of nothingness smack dab in the middle of my blog. A vast void, filled with emptiness and tales of, well, nothing. One could easily get the impression that, after June, I did nothing of note. The opposite, actually, is true. I had a pretty eventful summer, and I tried to shoot as much of it as I could. In fact, the summer was so busy that I wasn't able to update the blog regularly. So there.

Now, get off my cloud.

I'm going to do my level best to get caught up with the madness that was my summer. There was a lot to see this summer, and I shot a lot of it.

Before embarking on the summer, though, I needed to upgrade my gear. I'd been shooting with the Canon 5D for a few years, and I was becoming less and less enamored with it. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine rig. I was just acutely aware that there were more capable bodies on the market and, seeing as it had been a while since I'd done a gear upgrade, I decided it was time. I vacillated between the 5D MKIII and the 6D (both Canons), and finally opted for the 6D. It's an insane rig, and my research told me that it would handle low light/high ISO shooting like nothing I've ever seen. 

So, I put it to the test.

It started on the 4th of July, on board "Charley's First", which is a 51' Morgan sailboat owned by a friend of mine. We sat in Matanzas Bay and enjoyed the sun and water, waiting for night to fall and skyrockets to fly.

During the day, I used the 6D as it should be used for the first time:

My buddy Cliff, mugging it up for the camera. He's actually "Captain" Cliff, owner of "Charley's First"...

A more normal photo of Cliff, which will be used in a magazine article I'm writing about sailing in St. Augustine...

Fireworks, shot was handheld, on a moving boat, at night. ISO was set at 25,600 for this...

More fireworks fun...

Probably my favorite shot of the fireworks...

It's difficult to put my finger on any one aspect of the new camera that, in my opinion, sets it apart from what I'd been using. Like I said, the 5D was (and remains) a fine rig. But the 6D really does enjoy a number of improvements which make it take center stage in front of the 5D on my photographic stage.

Sunset in St. Augustine...

My friend Tony enjoying the north Florida evening...

After taking a long, hard look at these photos in Photoshop, I came to understand that shooting this summer was going to be very different than what I'd experienced in the past. Yes, the equipment I had prior to this was good. But this was a whole new level, and I found myself eager to get started with the summer...