Guy Collier Photography » Wedding Photographer covering Hampshire, Surrey, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, London and the UK

I don’t normally blog about kit because it’s very dull for a lot of people, but a new lens has arrived that is just spectacular. I was using the oldr Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR Mark I., and this was superseded by the Mark II late last year. It turned up yesterday after a wait for the price to fall away from the initial release which sold at RRP (ouch). That said, anyone buy did buy on day 1 is unlikely to regret it.

This is a spectacular lens. Just first-class. The handling is a little better for me – with the lens being shorter and fatter and less of a reach forward. The AF is noticeably faster and more confident. No question about it. It is reminiscent of the 14-24mm and 24-70mm’s in terms of colour, contrast and rendering (a good thing) and it has a clarity that the old VR1 can’t match which may well be down to the Nano coating that’s being used now. If there is a 24/1.4 coming next week it promises much. The first shot is included because this is at 200mm wide-open. Magnificent clarity. Jaw on floor. I cannot wait to use this with Andy and Debbie at their pre-wedding shoot next weekend!

You’ll also notice that the layout of the 4 images above is a little different to normal. It’s another excellent feature of the ProPhoto v3 blog tool. Clicking on each image/thumbnail will show it and you can navigate between them using the ‘PREV’ and ‘NEXT’ icons on the top edges of each image. It means you won’t have to scroll down loads of images away from the text. Lovely.

Disclaimer: Nicky is away skiing so I’m house-sitting 2 6 year-olds– hence the indoor subjects on another bittetly cold day. . Obviously in the first photo Jess has not had her hair brushed yet.

A quick update on progress towards l’Etape du Tour….

Training is going well. I’ve already lost 1 stone since 1st January due to training and a radical change of diet (which has had the bonus of making me feel incredibly ‘well’). I’ve cut out the usual suspects like crisps, chocolate, cake, biscuits and so on, and switched meals away from anything that includes refined or processed foods, to wholegrains, rices, pasta, noodles, oily fish, white meat and so on. The sort of stuff you’d expect, along with Hi-5 and ZipVit training and recovery drinks. I’ve masses of energy, sleep far better and just generally feel very different. Lighter, nimbler, more agile. Like an antelope. Sort of.

Anyway, I’m plugging away on the turbo trainer 4-5 times a week, and, where possible with the continued wintry weather, get out on the road tackling hilly routes in the local area. I’m aiming to drop another stone before the July 18th epic and that should be easy enough. My max heart-rate is now 198bpm, which seems good for a 40 year old, and resting pulse sitting happily at 50bpm. I’m using specific heart-rate zones for my turbo sessions and they’re paying off.

Rob and I have today entered 2 warm-up events in May which will really give us an indication of where we are fitness-wise. Firstly, on 9th May, the Hampshire Hilly Hundred, followed by the King of the Downs Super Sportive on May 23rd. This is another hilly route, albeit over a slightly longer 113 miles. By way of reference the 9th May event climbs 2390m (7847ft) over it’s 100 miles, with the 23rd May ascending 2770m (9100ft). The former has 20 climbs with the latter having 10. l’Etape itself climbs over 4700m (15500ft+).

That’s a lot of uphill stuff.