Liam's Space

Biography

Mark P. DiLallo of Sterling VA is an avid Nature Photographer, husband, and father of two.  His travels have taken him to Africa, Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, Colorado, and the Desert Southwest.  He shoots extensively in Northern Virginia Parks.  He leads a comprehensive series of workshops on nature photography.  His images have been published in Loudoun, Money, and Nature’s Best Magazines.  He was Loudoun Photography Club’s 2002/3 Photographer of the Year (LPC, Ashburn, VA).  Mark presented workshops at the Meadowlark Nature Photography Expo and was a guest speaker on a local Public Television Photography Program.  

 

 

 My Boys and My Toys:

Cameras:

•   Canon EOS 5D Mark II (35mm, 21 mega-pixel Digital SLR )

•   Canon EOS 40D (35mm, 10 mega-pixel Digital SLR )

•   Canon EOS 10D (35mm, 6.3 mega-pixel Digital SLR)

•   Vertical Grips for both camera's above

•   Nine UDMA Compact Flash Cards (51G total)

•   Canon RS80N3 Remote Cable Trigger

Pro-sumer Lenses:

•  Long Telephoto Zoom:  SIGMA 50-500 f/4-6.3 APO EX  -- A great safari style lens and my all purpose workhorse.   Its huge zoom range keeps you ready for anything.  At just under $1000 bucks, I call it my "poor man's" birding lens.  Sure, I'd love Canon L-Series glass.  I just hope by the time I can afford a 500 f/4, my back can still haul it plus a fast medium to long zoom!  Canon, Nikon, and Sigma offer 100-400 5.6 zooms with IS/VR that are also good "safari" choices.

•  Standard Zoom:  Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM              ($1,200) -- A quality L series short zoom, only f/4 but lightweight, affordable, and Image Stabilized.

•  Ultra-wide Zoom:   SIGMA 12-24 F4.5-5.6 DG ($850) -- A good and affordable ultra-wide zoom, capable of full-sensor imaging without vignetting.

•  Macro:  Canon 180mm f/3.5 Macro USM ($1,450) -- A top grade Canon L-Series Macro Lens.

• Tilt-Shift Lense:   TS-E 90mm f/2.8  ($1,300)

•   Tamron 2X Tele-converter -- Not the best, but Canon's tele-converters have protruding glass that conflicts with non L-series lenses.

•   Kinko Extension Tubes -- ($160) Used for increase close focusing for any lens.  No glass in light path means no loss in quality.  Does result in a longer exposure but auto metering still functions normally.  Usually means focusing manually which I do anyway when shooting macro.

•   Cokin P-size Filter Holder -- 72mm and 77mm adapters.

•   Singh-Ray & Cokin Polarizer and Neutral-Grad Filters for the cokin holder above, plus a screw-in polarizer for my 50-500 Zoom and its 86mm odd-ball filter size.

My Original Starter Lenses:

•   Canon 75-300 f/4.0-5.6 III USM  ($180)

•   Canon 28-80 f/3.5-5.6 USM  ($100)

•   Canon 20-35 f/3.5-4.5 USM  ($350)

•   Canon 28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS USM ($420) -- A handy short zoom, slow at 5.6 but lightweight, affordable, and Image Stabilized.

Flash:

•   Canon 550EX Flash & Off Camera Shoe Cord

•   The "Better Beamer" FX-2 Walt Anderson Flash Extender

•   Canon MT-24EX Macro Flash Unit ($650)

•   Canon Transistor (Battery) Pack E ($140)
   

Tripod & Mounts:

•   General/Macro Rig -- Manfrotto 055MF3 MAG Fiber 3-Section Tripod ($360) with 
    Arca Swiss Monoball B1 modified with Really Right Stuff Quick Release   Z1 is the latest equivalent Arca-Swiss

•   Heavy Duty Bird Rig -- Gitzo G1325 Carbon Fiber Tripod with
    Wimberly WH-101 gimbal -style Tripod Head (See Gitzo GT3531 & Wimberly WH-200)

•   Window/Roof Rig -- L.L. Rue Ground/Roof/Window (Groofwin) pod mount with Kirk BH-3 Monoball  (also consider Kirk Window Mount)

•   Kirk & Really Right Stuff Arca-Swiss style "L" Camera Bracket and Lens Mounting Plates

•   Bogen Super Clamp modified with Arca-Swiss Mount

•   Two PLAMPs (Articulating clamps to secure without damaging flowers/branches in wind)

Back Packs:

•   Heavy Pack -- Lowepro Pro Trecker

•   Light Pack -- Lowepro Street & Field Rover Light

•   Air Travel w/Dolly -- Temba P262 Backpack & Dolly

•   Light Bag -- Tamrac 606 Zoom Traveler 6

•   Camera Pouch -- Lowepro S&F Top Loading Pouch 50 AW
   

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Digital Darkroom:

•  Self-Built PC--ASUS P5K64WS Motherboard
  • Intel Core2 Duo CPU E6850@3GHz
  • 2GB DDR2 RAM, 100GB App Drive, 500GB Image/Doc Drive
  • CD/DVD RW
  • Pro CF Card Reader  (Lexar UDMA 800 Firewire)
  • Dual Monitor LCDs 24” & 17”, 128 ATI 9700 Video Card
  • Spyder 3 Pro  (datacolor)
  • WACOM Intous 3 6x8” Graphics Tablet (Wacom)
  
  • Windows XP (Microsoft)
  • Microsoft Office Pro 2003, Front Page 2003 (Microsoft)
  • Downloader Pro  (BreezeSystems)
  • BreezeBrowser Pro  (BreezeSystems)
  • Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Bridge (Adobe)
  • Nik Software: Viveza2, Sharpener Pro 2, Silver Efex Pro...get the compete collection if you can afford it! (Nik)
  • Photomatix  (HDRsoft)
  • Panorama Maker 5 Pro  (ArcSoft)
  • Helicon Focus  (HeliconSoft)
  • Noise Ninja (PictureCode)
  • Photo/Graphic Edges, Dream & Suite (Auto FX Software)
  • Flypaper Textures & Edges
  •   Flood, Flexify, and Mr Contrast (Flaming Pear)
  • Fractalius (Redfield Plugins)

• Blurb Booksmart (Blurb)

• Adobe Acrobat Standard 7.0 (Adobe)
 

•  Nikon Super CoolScan 4000 Slide/Film Scanner (Nikon)

•  Epson Stylus Photo 2880 13” Carriage Inkjet Printer (Epson)

•  Linksys Wireless Router (Linksys)

•  Sharp XV-Z2000 Projector (Sharp)
   

My Upgrade Dream List:

New Cameras:

•  Canon 7D

Pro Lenses:

•  Super Telephoto Bird/Wildlife:  Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM    ($5,500)

•  Long Telephoto Zoom:  Canon EF 100-400mm f/5.6L IS USM       ($1,410)

•  Medium Telephoto Zoom:  Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM    ($1,650)

•  Tilt-Shift Lenses:  Canon TS-E24mm f/3.5L and TS-E 17mm f/4  ($1,100 each)

•  Tele-Extenders:  Canon Extender EF 2x II and Extender EF 1.4X II  ($280 each)

Other:

•  Astro Auto-Tracking Mount/Telescope:   tbd

•  Lightning Trigger

• Underwater Housing (tbd)

•  Remote Trigger (Pocket Wizard) or ()

•  JTL Portable Light Stands

•  Speedlite 580EX ($380)

Da boys & Grandpa D!

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