The equipment that I will be using to capture these shots.

The equipment I shell be using are as follows:


A Nikon camera body D200 with a vertical grip, (These are excellent for getting portrait style shots by just turning the camera round.)  A Sigma  50mm Macro lens 2.8,  Sigma 28mm/50mm wide angle lens 2.8, Manfrotto pan tilt head, Manfrotto Mono pod, and Manfrotto Tripod.  All these are essential for stability when taking close up and wide angle shots. The tilt head fits both and I find that it is better on the mono pod as I am able to get into places the Tripod cannot.   Polarizer, warm-up filters I always use on the camera and not in photoshop.


A Sony 450 Camera body, 70mm Sigma Macro lens. (Not used yet, for the spring shots this one.) Sigma 28mm to 50mm Wide Angle lens, again I shell be using the Mono pods and tripods as above plus filters.


All shots taken will be set up using the controls on the camera ( Aperture Priority or Manual control.)  No shots will be taken on the program settings on the camera, it is essential that you setup your controls on the camera manually.  Use the camera and take control of the camera not just point and shoot.

It is fortunate that I have the luxury of having two systems, as I can pick an choose which system to use as one is better than the other for doing various things.  I find that the Nikon system with the Macro lens as a better focusing system, but the Sony as a anti shake system and is better for Landscapes .  It also as 14.2 million pixels were the Nikon as 10.5 million pixels.


Very little will be done in Photoshop.