I just returned from a tour of the Normandie in France, where I visited the D-Day landing beaches. These are apart from their historical background natural beauties in their own right. These are pictures from the most eastern part of the landing zone – Sword Beach – where three British divisions landed on June 6th, 1944. Take a look at the new Normandie Gallery.
There is a new lens kid on the block: The Samyang 3.5/24mm TS – a tilt-shift lens. I settled for this piece of glass because I didn’t want to spend close to 1800 Euros for the the Canon eqivalent plus the 400 for the Metabones adapter to put it on my Sony A7 bodies. Is it inferior compared to the Canon lens – certainly! But see for yourself -stopped down to f 8 on the Sony A7r – no sharpening applied in Lightroom. Certainly good enough for the enthusiast who doesn’t have to make a living out of architectural photography…saving more than 1000 bucks compared to the Canon rig and no adapter needed….
I’m trying to integrate photography into my daily life. I commute close to two hours – 5 days a week. Great time space for great pictures. Haha – most of the time I’m staring into my smartphone. New experiment. How do I crank pictures out of things I’ve seen a zillion times….especially when you are looking at the greyish semidarkness of a Berlin winter. Let’s give it a try.
Today we were able to visit one of the last Red Army bases in Brandenburg that have not yet been converted or torn down. As they stand they are places of history and a great trove for us decay photographers. Please let us take some more pictures before everything is gone forever…
Anyway, while doing this I realized that my Swiss army knife in terms of a travel lens – the Sony FE 24-240mm – not the fanciest of the new FE lens array – is a very decent piece of glass already wide open. Stopped down one click the results are pretty convincing even at the far end of the zoom range. I also noticed that when using a camera with a high end sensor, HDR – with all its hassle – is getting less and less attractive. If you know how to expose against the sun the dynamic range of modern full frame sensors opens up a wide array of post production choices without sacrifycing quality. Sunrise – the 1st large picture – was shot with the Sony 7r. Sunset was shot with the Sony 7r II using 3 exposures merged to HDR in post.
Happy New Year to everyone! May the sun shine down on a world that doesn’t get any worse…Gutes Licht….. Good Light to all my fellow photographers out there!
I just got my Sony A7 rII. Whilst this camera has been hyped a lot, I must say I am impressed – without defying the Canon and the Nikon tribe with their impresssive array of great gear. But let me say this: Mirrorless has come a long way and is here to stay.
The Havelland is a county west of Berlin and part of the state of Brandenburg. The county is flat and a mixture of heathland, bogs, forest and farm land. Once you leave Berlin and its surrounding suburbia the population density drops quickly to one of the lowest you can find in crowded Germany. So you can really find great motives for landscape photography – if you stay away from the numerous wind wheels…
