The First Four Months.

When I first started taking photos five years ago this month I decided to go for a mid range camera.  This camera was the Canon 40d and I got some great photos from it, like this sunset over Buchaille Etive Mor.

This June I decided to upgrade my camera and was split between the Canon 5d Mk 3 and the 6d.  In the end I chose to go for the 6d and this is the result of the first four months of using it.

I received the 6d on a wednesday and had to wait until the friday night to get out and use it properly.  Unsurprisingly my first trip was down to North Berwick to get a sunset shot (I really need to do a sunrise shot one day).

The next day I was off to Linlithgow to take photos of the Leon Paul Junior Fencing competition that was organised by by fencing club ( www.wallacefencing.org if you want to give it a go).  Luckily for me the hall is very well lit as flash photography is not allowed, however I did have to crank the ISO all the way up to 25600 ( the 40d went up to 1600 and had lots of noise).

All of the photos shot at the competition were at f4.5 - 6 and around 1/800th - 1/1000th of a second so I could capture split second  action.  To be honest I was amazed with the results.

My next photographic trip was down in to the Scottish Borders to shoot Smailholm Tower and then head back up to Dunbar.

After these photos I had to wait for a bit to get out again for a variety of reasons, luckily for me I was on holiday in Exmoor and I really got to try the 6d out in a new setting.

I was staying between Porlock and Lynmouth, so had a lot of lovely scenery to play with.

This photo was taken at the end of the car park in Lynmouth at the end of a day that had seen lots of rain followed by broken cloud leading to an amazing sunset.

I was also close to The Valley of Rocks which is an amazing place to visit ( the cafe there is also worth a visit).  As you will see I have one or two photos from here.

Due to lots of cloud cover I missed the Perseid meteor shower, however the sky cleared on the night after their peak so I thought I would do a star trail shot.  I will admit tight now that I was 100% lucky in getting North Star in to the photo giving the fixed point in the left of the shot.

 Watersmeet is another lovely place to visit and I was happy to get this shot below.  My shot on the other river ended up with me ripping my new Fat Face Rip-stop ( My arse!) shorts down the right leg when I was getting out the way of a photography tour.

The shot below was taken just after sunset at Porlock Weir and it was my fall back location to shoot as I could not get to my first choice.  I am so glad I went there instead as I love this shot.

 And, these two shots need no introduction.

When I got back to Edinburgh I had to have a minor operation so wasn't able to get out for any shots.

I did book a shoot with the lovely Zara Watson at Pavilion Studio in West Lothian.   I would love to shoot with Zara again.

As I have been unable to fence for the last 5 weeks I was asked to go out (well I was told nicely) and shoot the foil 48'er competition at my club.

Shooting the 48'er was good as some of the best fencers in Scotland were fencing and It allowed me to capture some great shots in a restricted environment and I am now hoping to be allowed to shoot at the Commonwealth Fencing Championships next November (fingers crossed).

So that has been the first four months shooting with the 6d and I am very happy with the shots it takes.  Here's to the next few years with my amazing camera.