It's been far too long since I last wrote something in my journal. Things have been rather busy the past few months, mostly with non-photography commitments unfortunately. Now, in mid October is my favourite time of the year for getting out with the camera. The warm light of autumn, with the low-positioned sun, accompanied by the beautiful foliage colours makes this time of year magical. I hope to spend a lot of time in the next few weeks in the forest. The crisp frosty mornings also provide new opportunities for different light and atmosphere. The dilemma, with limited time available, is to find the right locations. I'm sure a lot of my time will be spend in places familiar to me, such as Belvoir, Minnowburn and Scrabo Tower.

The big excitement for me recently was buying a new camera over the summer. I have upgraded my Nikon D80 to a Nikon D300s. It is a brand new model, and while I love having the latest technology, the downside is that the software I use frequently (DxO Optics - which I highly recommend) is not quite up to scratch yet. This is disappointing, but not surprising. D300s support is due some time in the next few months, and I am missing this software a lot. No amount of trying to "trick" the current software into processing my new shots has paid off

I am impressed with the D300s. Apart from better build quality, it features more rapid shooting, lower noise levels (apparently), higher quality photographs, a better LCD, quicker and more accurate focusing, mirror lock-up, 9 bracketed shots and many other things which no doubt will prove useful once I learn how to use them. The D300s also boasts a HD Movie function, which seems quite good, but I will have to spend more time with this.

On the downside, it seems the remote control I used with the D80 does not function on the D300s. I will have to invest in a cable release. Also, the RAW photos which the D300s produces, look on first glance rather disappointing compared to the D80 RAWs. However, I understand that these shots require some additional RAW processing, e.g. in Capture NX, to boost the colour levels and bring them to life. I have not quite yet mastered all the changes I need to make to post process these, so currently I am not quite as happy with the final results as I was with the D80. However, half the enjoyment of photography for me is trying to turn the RAW into something I'm happy with.

I was initially excited by the new "Active D-Lighting" feature on the D300s, and it does seem to boost the dynamic range, adding detail to shadow and highlight areas, however I have noticed that it appears to degrade the image quality and add noise. So for the moment, I am using it very sparingly, with caution.

In other news, I have bought a replacement circular polarizer for the one which shattered a few months ago. I have missed having one of these. I cannot recommend strongly enough getting one of these for outdoor photography. It is one filter which no amount of Photoshop wizardry can replicate.

I am looking forward to the next month or so, and hope I can do this magnificent time of year some justice with my photographs.