A decision had been weighing on me for quite some time. I wasn’t happy with work, it didn’t fulfill any kind of purpose. It was just day to day more or less the same thing over and over.
I finally found something fulfilling, but in order to pursue that I have to put in the time, effort and money. One of those I’m more than willing to do. The time is hard because the majority of my time is spent working. And money, hell money is always troublesome. I watched my dad fall into a depression after my mom left and he racked up literally tens of thousands of dollars in debt buying stuff on eBay.
So I’ve tried to be somewhat cautious with money. Not going all out extravagant on things I don’t need. I fail this many times, especially with smaller purchases that I make a lot of. Like collecting comics, or funko pops. Or Star Wars figures.
So the thought of dropping serious cash I always have reservations about. I’ve talked about it quite a bit on here before. It’s always on the other side pushing against this hobby. Can I really afford to spend that much? Shouldn’t it be more responsible to save it, or pay off debt with that money. Or not put more debt on.
Eventually I work myself up so much with it that’s it is just easier to buy the thing and damn the consequences. It puts my mind at ease at that point. And I don’t regret the purchases, I’m happy with the results and glad I did.
For this purchase the majority of it came from savings. I had been putting aside every bonus I received at work and extra money out of each check. Slowly crawling towards some goal I was realizing I didn’t care about. I’m not ready to buy a house, I don’t know where I want to live for a longer period of time. And they are so fucking expensive.
So I pulled 2 grand out of savings and bought the Canon 300mm 2.8 IS L.
And it is amazing, but it wouldn’t come in the mail for a while yet, I had been watching the Amazon used listings for a while looking for a good deal. Most of them were crap and overpriced, or the really old version without the IS. Which isn’t what I wanted. I knew I really couldn’t afford the mark II, that was and still is over 4 grand for a used lens.
To go along with that, a new lens is great but I knew that 7D I got was just a placeholder. And to be fair since that point both the 7D and the Tamron lens I’ve been shooting with all of this summer I’ve now sold off to recoup some of my cost. That is a bit of the cornerstone that puts me at ease for spending. I can typically get back most of my purchase cost.
So to go with the new lens, a faster body. The Canon 7D Mark II. Which is a beast of a camera body. Many significant upgrades from the mark one. More FPS is really useful for wildlife, fast moving objects are a tough subject.
It also handles low light and ISO much better. I had a tough time with that before with the mark one, really just want nice clean crisp profiles of wildlife. But of course that’s not within my control most of the time as you’re not in a studio with lights and the time to change settings to get it just right. So the better technology is welcome for sure. Also two memory card slots makes me feel better about the eventuality of an failure.
But enough about the camera itself. Onto what I pointed it at. Outside the window on this particular day I saw another woodpecker.
Canon 7D Mark II w/70-200 - 1/320 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 400
Canon 7D Mark II w/70-200 - 1/320 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 400
Even though I missed the focus and only had a brief few seconds, I’m still pleased with what came out of it.
And just for fun I was playing around with the reach of the 70-200 with a 2x tele-converter. Managed to get this great moment of a Blue Jay being a bit greedy.
Canon 7D Mark II w/70-200 and 2x tele-converter - 1/320 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 1250
How are you going to crack those open to eat both of them at the same time? Hmm?