In need of a spare or new body and having little or no cash is a pain, but during a visit from Gordon Brown after some serious flooding in the area (West Cumbria 2009) I had been lined up to try and get some photos of the PM at one location while the official new tog went to get into position at his next port of call he handed over his D2hs for me to use while he went off with his personal kit. OK so the HS is a bit of a dinosaur now but the shot to shot speed is still incredible and 7fps not to be sneezed at. I managed some photos of the PM and like the sheer heft of the D2hs, it was a big chunky heavy solid monster of a camera.
Bear in mind I had stuck my 28-300mm Sigma onto a body I had never used before and went of it, in the grand scheme of things not a bad effort and I reluctantly went back to the S2 pro, but I knew that I had to get a big body next time, they felt right. I was out of work for a little while about then and worked a few shifts for the local paper, they had their usuals and I was the emergency reserve photographer but it got me out and put me into situations that I hadn't been in before so I carried on learning.
Obviously this also forced me to become at least semi proficient with the Fuji, lets face it without things like Auto ISO, or stabilisation, or more than 9 focus points LOL But if you haven't got it you need to learn how to work without it.
Onwards and upwards my darling wife bought an experience day for me at a fairly local falconry centre where a pair of experienced wildlife photographers would host a small group 12 or so of us to take photos of some beautiful birds of prey.
Bear in mind I had stuck my 28-300mm Sigma onto a body I had never used before and went of it, in the grand scheme of things not a bad effort and I reluctantly went back to the S2 pro, but I knew that I had to get a big body next time, they felt right. I was out of work for a little while about then and worked a few shifts for the local paper, they had their usuals and I was the emergency reserve photographer but it got me out and put me into situations that I hadn't been in before so I carried on learning.
Obviously this also forced me to become at least semi proficient with the Fuji, lets face it without things like Auto ISO, or stabilisation, or more than 9 focus points LOL But if you haven't got it you need to learn how to work without it.
Onwards and upwards my darling wife bought an experience day for me at a fairly local falconry centre where a pair of experienced wildlife photographers would host a small group 12 or so of us to take photos of some beautiful birds of prey.