*** This Week Through Your Eyes 2023.12.02 ***

"Meltdrown"

"Falling in the Ocean"

I've seen you using this technique before. It' was good then and works well here too.
Nice combination of moving train and static people!

Great set. I can feel the cold!
You mentioned your 4 wheel drive car. Do you use Winter tyres too?
Here in Austria you are required to change your tyres each year to your second set of Winter tyres on the 1st Nov. They grip much much better on snow and even ice.
If you have an accident with summer tyres in the wintertime the insurance won't pay, and you could be fined too.
A few years back there was a lot of snow in England while I was visiting and I asked them to make sure my rental car had winter tyres fitted. They had never heard of them !

Falling in water in those conditions sounds terrible! I've had a boot full of water before and, after a while, it seems to warm up, but wet trousers sounds very uncomfortable :-(

The shots you got are wonderful, despite or perhaps because of those conditions.
I also have the Z24-200 on my Z7 but don't use it much at all now since I got the Z24-120/f4. The latter has a bit less range, but with it's "S" quality badge the results are quite a bit better, especially the chromatic abberations in the corners and also sharpness.

They're not a common thing here in the UK, well, certainly not in most parts of England, maybe more so up North and in Scotland, but I suspect most people I know here in North West England haven't heard of them either and they're certainly not mandated in any way.

I have previously considered getting a set as they'd massively improve traction in these sorts of conditions, but I rarely see much snow or ice, so it's not really worth the expense. As it is, the all wheel drive on the X3 improves things to a point where I'm unlikely to get stuck in the sort of conditions I'm prepared to drive in, although it's no help when it comes to stopping (but being able to stop more sharply would probably put me more at risk of someone piling into the back of me).

Yeah, I was a bit panicked about that to be honest, but quite surprisingly didn't suffer too badly. It wasn't a particularly deep brook, shallow enough to walk through with walking boots on had I not slipped and I ended up with a knee, elbow and hand in the water for a few seconds while I gathered myself together before trying to stand up again. Both of my gloves were soaked, but I always carry at least one spare pair, so that wasn't an issue once I'd dried myself off enough to actually put the replacement pair on, and my Paramo jacket did an admirable job at not soaking through. The knee to lower leg of the trousers that went in the water was pretty soaked, but they're a decent wicking fabric that dried out relatively quickly. It was a good thing the abandoned building was right next to the brook, so there was at least somewhere to shelter while I sorted myself out.

Thanks, I think that's the thing, you only get these kind of shots by being out in these kind of conditions. If I'd known the weather was going to turn like this, I'd probably have stayed home. A few years ago (pre pandemic, when I was fitter) I'd have been heading out because of these conditions (to a point at least) with spikes and an ice axe, nowadays, I'm far more cautious because I get exhausted a lot more easily.

Yeah, it's not my favourite lens, with its mushy corners and purple fringing that C1 can't remove, so it hasn't had a lot of use since I got the 24-70 f/2.8S, which is an amazing lens.

For moderate (by my reduced standards) levels of ascent, I'd prefer to take the 24-70 f/2.8S and the 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 VR S which are a stunning, if quite heavy pairing, but for our planned walk, we were looking at around 2,500ft over the day, which is a lot for me, so low weight and flexibility trumped IQ in this instance.

Given the conditions we ended up with, the superior lenses probably wouldn't have improved the images in any quantifiable way (the lovely rendering of the 24-70 f/2.8S is going to be wasted in a blizzard). I would also have been a lot more gutted had I dunked my 24-70 f/2.8S in the brook as those things aren't cheap (I wouldn't have been too happy if the 24-200 had actually got wrecked either, but if one of them's got to be taking a plunge, I know which one I'd prefer to risk).

I've often wondered about getting the 24-120 as I hear many good things about it, but I suspect it's still going to fall short of the 24-70 f/2.8S and now I've got my additional even more expensive camera system to feed with lenses it's probably not going to an acquisition I'll be making any time soon.

Possibly, but then it would at least be "his fault" and he has to pay for the damage ;-)
The winter tyres also help when going around curves on lonely roads, so you don't skid off the road and land in a ditch.

It looks cold outside where I am right now. :-) Good time to go for a walk in the snow around the little village. Looks great when the street lanterns turn on with some blue still left in the sky

I'm sometimes missing the long end. I tried the Tamron Z 70-300. It is smaller and lighter than the 100-400 , not to mention a lot less expensive.
But I sent the Tamron back. It didn't live up to my expectations of IQ despite good reviews.

"Split & Bent"

Technically yes, but with the way insurance (or as Terry Pratchett used to call it, "in sewer ants") seems to work in this country, your nice, well maintained, but a few years old car will still get written off for the slightest bump and you'll receive a princely sum that's nowhere near enough to cover the cost of a like for like replacement. Also your insurance premiums jump significantly, even if it's not your fault. Sadly, fairness doesn't seem to be part of the T&C's.

The tyres would definitely help on bendy roads though. I saw a picture on one of the Lake District Facebook groups of a car inconveniently parked part way up a dry stone wall due to the snow, taken just a couple of miles from where we'd parked.

Sounds lovely. Unfortunately an evening walk around Chorley comes with far less charm and an apparently increasing chance of getting mugged these days.

Yes, I've never had much luck with third party lenses. I've had a couple of Tamron and Sigma superzooms and they've certainly earned their reputations as unsuitable for any sort of critical work, with soft focus and most importantly, really terrible contrast.

Even first part can be a bit hit and miss as I found when I purchased Nikon's previous F mount 24-120 f/4, which I only used once and then offloaded to one of the 2nd hand chains, it was pretty awful.

The 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 VR S is a stellar lens though. It's a bit heavy, but reasonably compact and nicely complements the 24-70 f/2.8S in terms of IQ. It's pricey, but if you want great IQ and reach in a relatively compact lens I'd recommend it. I got mine the last time Nikon had a sale on, so it was a few hundred quid off and I part-ex'd my Fuji XF50-140 f/2.8, which I'd never got on with at all, which all went towards softening the financial blow.