Happy Monday to all!  Today is an exciting day here at the blog, because a new schedule of sorts is going to start, both to make reading more enjoyable, and to make writing more planned and easily executed.

The reason behind the new flow is due to many listener questions asking a wide variety of questions, ranging from hardware questions to software questions, technical questions, work flow questions and the like.  So, in the interests of providing answers to each of the wide subject matter areas, here’s the new schedule:

• Monday: Hardware – I’ll take a look at hardware components, ranging from lenses to bodies, attachments and accessories.  This could come in the way of a review, a summary, or other commentary.
• Tuesday: Software – many elements of photography involve using software, whether it be organizing your library of images, to managing that library, and editing idividual photos.  Here is where I’ll take a look at software reviews, editing tips and tricks, considering work flows,and other similar subjects.
• Wednesday: Composition – As with anything else, you only get better when you practice what you preach.  We can only learn so much from reading – and today I’ll focus on the “doing”.  How to take better pictures, what elements of composition work, what elements of composition don’t work, what to look for, what to avoid… things of that nature.
• Thursday: Free-for-all – Who knows what may happen – I’ve been doing the “Thursday Thoughts with…” series, and this may happen from time to time – I’ll keep everyone on their toes with this post! (This will probably also be the post that includes show notes for the weekly podcast hosted over at Personal Life Media, Learning Digital Photography.)
• Friday: Weekly wrap-up – news and events of the week, notable items of interest to photographers, and the occasional note with blog announcements, and other administrative types of things.

So, in kicking things off, here is the first installment of a look at some of the hardware in my own gear bag (since many of you dear readers have asked about that stuff specifically).  This week, I take a look at the 10-22mm lens from Canon.

This lens has been the premiere wide angle lens for quite some time, as the widest non-fisheye available on the market.  Only recently have Sigma and now Nikon added this specific range to their inventory of available lenses.  I absolutely love this lens and have used it for everything from landscape work to architecture work, and even some portrait work when I am going for a unique look.  In general you won’t use a wide angle lens for portrait work because of the distortion that can occur when you get up close.  This distortion can work to your advantage if that is the look you are going for though.  Alternatively, if you have a larger group of people, a wider lens may be required to fit everyone in the scene.

Fitted with the well-regarded USM feature for Canon lenses, I also love this lens for it’s whisper quiet and fast focusing.  You almost can’t even hear it as it locks in on your point of focus.

On the downside (if this can be considered one) – because it is an EF-S lens, this will not work on the full frame cameras.  So, shooters using the Canon 1Ds series (Mark II or III).  While full-frame lenses may be the future of digital photography, there are enough people out there with the Rebel series, and the family of 20D-50D bodies that can really take advantage of this lens.  I have to give this lens two thumbs up!

ETA:  Update:  I had inadvertently made the notation that the 10-22mm is an “L” lens from Canon.  This is not the case – thanks go out to Bill for detecting this.  While it was a typo, the disctintion is an important one because Canon designates their high end glass with the letter “L”.