from the bakery series. Croissant and Female Hand.
Rolleiflex 6008i
150mm Lens.
film: Agfapan APX 25
lighting: Profoto
Why: Just for fun.
9.14.2012
Bravo. DP Review finally reviewed one of the best values in a DSLR. Or should I say DSLT?....it's a Sony.
I know I can sound like a broken record when I get all infatuated with a camera but today I'm reprising my assessments of the Sony a57 only to commemorate the day that DP Review finally got around to recognizing what a very good camera this one is for well under $800...with a lens.
DPreviews assessment of high ISO performance, handling and image quality is so close to what I wrote many months ago that they could have just directed their readers to the series of experiential reviews I wrote and saved themselves the time and money. :-)
In case you missed the Visual Science Lab rambling reviews of this camera you can find them at these links:
Verbose and in-depth. That's the way we do it here. But we also get to the really important cameras first... (tongue in cheek, implied).
So, skip Photokina and just pick up an a57....
Untitled still from a recent photo assignment.
Taken on location with a Sony a77 camera and a medium range zoom lens.
Lit with an enormous, diffused umbrella, powered by a Profoto 600B acute flash system.
I posted this because I liked the light and wanted to remind myself to stop using too much fill.
9.13.2012
practice might not make perfect but it sure makes for a joyous and fluid rendition.
This is pianist, Anton Nell, on the new stage at Zach Scott.
This post is the 1,200th blog post written by me on The Visual Science Lab. I've been sharing my thoughts about life and photography here since 2009. I plan to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Some of you are new to the site and some of you have been visiting regularly since nearly the beginning. I thought I'd catch up and let you know, at this milestone, what I've learned, what I want to learn and where I think photography, in general, is going.
First of all here is a recent image of your host and writer, Kirk Tuck:
It was taken in robot mode with one of my Sony a77 cameras set to smile detection. Honest. You can set these cameras to recognize when your subject smiles and then shot a frame. Or a ton of frames. Just keep smiling and then frowning and the camera will keep blasting away. All silly business all the time...
While the photo business has been challenging over the last three years 2012 is finally feeling stable and, in my market, seems to be returning to a more natural rhythm of more and more assignments with less down time in between. In the last month or so we've had good, substantial assignments from healthcare, technology, publishing and hospitality clients. I have my fingers crossed that we'll return to the smoother and more profitable times we enjoyed before the big bust hit in late 2008.
The business has changed. More and more stuff may be going to the web and in that arena the competition is fairly brisk but contrary to the predictions of the experts there is a growing resurgence in print production and direct mail and what this means it that images that will be sloshed large on nice paper, with good ink, have to meet certain quality standards and color reference standards that have all but left the curriculum studied by many newcomers to the market. We're seeing an uptick in requests for images that will go on trade show displays as well as in nice brochures and, for the first time in three or four years we're seeing lots of demand for images that have to be lit well. Really well.
I'm happy everyone has run off and done the off camera, battery flash thing to the exclusion of all traditional lighting because it means clients will pay for stuff that needs to be lit up with large, +1000 watt second studio flashes firing into big softboxes and then massaged by light sucking modifiers and what not. I did a job yesterday and in the old times it would have been considered a very straightforward thing: Make a photo of a group of 25 business people in an interior location.
Last year the photographer the group hired showed up with a shoe mount flash and a belief that ISO 3200 solves all problems. One bounced flash off grey acoustic tiles on a 24 foot ceiling isn't quite the same look as 3,000 watt seconds of state of the art flash gear banging through three Chimera Lanterns, each hanging up over carefully designed groupings to make a dynamic shot. Cutters to keep reflections off back walls and nets to tone down foregrounds in pre-post-production (actual) shooting. The results? Ecstatic clients with big time budgets.
I'm feeling a pendular swing back to more production and away from "good enough." I think that means companies have money again and they are starting to lose the fear of investing it on their brands.
But the change also means that more and more clients are really asking for video content. Interviews, product demos, stuff to stick on the web, stuff to play in meetings and presentations, and all the rest. I enjoy delivering the content but I enjoy even more working in collaboration with good editors who can and want to take care of the back end. This probably explains my current attraction to the Sony cameras I've been using, the a77's. They may not be as good as a $10,000 production video camera but for a hybrid tool they are pretty darn good. And if, going forward, half of my billings are coming from leading clients through simple but very well lit and well crafted interviews then when choosing my shooting cameras I'll be weighting more and more of the buying decisions around not only their ultimate image quality but also their ability to help me make profitable motion content for already happy clients. If I were a hobbyist I would not give a crap about the video potential of a camera but as a working stiff I can't see how it helps me to be a purist and turn down synergistic and good paying work, just because the images move and people talk.
From a hobby point of view (and yes, I still consider photography my hobby as well as my vocation...) I see the gear getting more and more interesting now that companies have figured out how to make most stuff work well. But I am unsettled by one trend that I think plays against our enjoyment of the work as art and that's the scarcity of opportunities to come together and share work face to face. I'll admit it, I like shows of prints. The bigger the better. And I want a chance to meet the artist.
Sure, we can put stuff up on Flickr and Google+ and just about anywhere else but that's hardly a serious venue for serious efforts. And so many in your hoped for audience are looking at the images you sweated bullets to get on little cell phone screens and iPads and older laptops. It doesn't do justice to most people's vision. And this kind of virtual sharing is so disconnected. So ephemeral.
What I'd love to see in every city and in as many neighborhoods as possible would be venues where interested artists could stage actual, real, physical shows and invite friends, family, colleagues and competitors to experience your work just as you intended it to be seen. A while ago I did a show of prints from my favorite black and white negatives from Rome. As you probably know if you've been reading the blog for while I shot most of the images on medium format films. One of the benefits of doing that is you can scale up prints to really large sizes without losing the integrity of your photographs. My show was in a small venue. A restaurant owned by a dear friend. We covered the walls with thirty by thirty inch images, surrounded by ample white mats in 48 by 48 inch black frames.
The images were big and crisp. I hand painted on some of them. I made patterns around the edges of others with oil paints and other media. You could get up close. We served good wine at the opening and made appetizers like bacon wrapped scallops and prosciutto wrapped melon. We did rustic pizzas. The party/opening attracted 250+ people over the course of a four hour evening and everyone paid at least glancing homage to the large prints around them.
More of that should happen. Not just for me but for everyone with a passion to make photographic work. The commitment of doing the show pushes you as an artists and the chance to come see someone else's work, made large, helps you bust out of some self imposed boundaries and opens your perspectives about what is possible and what is fun.
I highly recommend shows and a good way to stick your toes into the water is to put together a group show where everyone has the opportunity to put in up to three cohesive pieces and to share the cost of invitations, food and other gallery goodies.
When I'm not shooting and writing I am swimming and eating. The eating is boring to read about but fun to do. Ditto with the swimming. I have a set of swimming goals. I have someone in my age group that I want to beat in a 50 meter butterfly race in October. I want to keep improving my times and my skills but in the end I really just want to stay as fit as I can so I can beat my 25 year old assistants up the stairs with a case of photographic gear in both hands.
As we live through an interesting Photokina month it's important to remember that when I write about equipment that's coming out of Cologne and onto the web I'm doing it out of fascination not out of some misguided belief that we should own all of this stuff or use it all. No one who is shooting with a currently good Nikon or Sony camera really needs to run out and replace it with the newest toy (unless they want to). So when you read stuff about new products here don't get all bent out of shape and think you have to defend your personal choices. There's so much good stuff on the market already just about any choice you make will be a good one. It's okay to marvel at innovation and progress.
But the most important thing for an artist it to practice and play all the time, just like pianist, Anton Nell. Doesn't matter what piano he practices on what matters is that he practices. And the practice makes music. And the music makes joy. And it's no different for photographers.
I may want a Sony a99 but there's not much I can't already to with an a77. Either way I go I'll still need to practice.
The bottom line is that I want to be a better photographer. Not a better technician but someone who can see clearly what it is they want to say.
9.12.2012
Laughing it up on Second Street.
Just wanted to see a person instead of a camera staring at me from the top of my blog page... KT
Sony RX1 Brings Back the Compact HiQ Camera we Loved in the 1970's. Only better?
Sony RX1
Do you remember the Canonet Rangefinder cameras from the 1970's? Gorgeous little metal machines with just enough control to make you feel like you were in charge. Small and unassuming but fitted with a great, single focal length lens that had some speed to it. I loved my Canonet III QL 17 as much as some of my friends loved their Olympus RD's. The cameras uniformly had leaf shutters which meant we could sync flash up to their highest speeds. They had real, live hot shoes and they were rugged enough to bang around in the basket of a bike or in the pockets of an old, faded, green army field jacket.
You'd whip the camera to your eye, fast focus the bright line rangefinder and fire away knowing that your Tri-X film would look good and sharp and that it would take care of you if your exposure was just a bit off.
In the same time frame we also had those little jewels from Rollei called the Rollei 35S. No rangefinder but wonderfully small (but full frame) bodies coupled with "guess focus" Zeiss designed 40mm Sonnar lenses of extremely high sharpness. Full out quality in a shirt pocket (the lenses were collapsible).
The two attributes that most of these cameras shared were these: 1. They were beautifully designed for quick and intimate shooting. 2. They had permanently attached lenses that were a great complement to the bodies. Really sharp, well designed lenses.
I wasn't paying attention when Sony announced the RX1. I was too busy waiting to see what was going to finally be introduced in the DSLT space (the a99) and the Nex space (the Nex 6 and some lenses). I finally took a deep breath and stood up and looked around.
My first glance at the RX1 made me think that Sony had dropped the ball on this camera. I liked the look of the basic body configuration and I really liked the lens choice but I was kinda bummed because I didn't see any mention of an EVF and I refuse to part with more money than I paid for my first car to have a camera that I'd be restricted to using in the "stinky-baby-diaper-clueless-hipster" hold. "Minus one for Sony and plus one for my aching checking account." I mused.
Today I saw three things that changed my mind and made me nostalgic for the kind of camera I started out with (the Canonet G III QL-17). The first was an image of the RX1 made with a dedicated 35mm bright line finder in the hot shoe. I'd relegated bright line finders to yesteryear rangefinder cameras even though I'd always loved them. Then I saw that the RX1 could be used with the EVF that was originally introduced for the Nex 5R. And that the EVF (an outstanding EVF to boot) was available in matching black. Finally, I started researching the sensor which, according to early appraisals by people who've talked extensively with Sony, is shaping up to be one of, or perhaps even the best full frame sensor made for the consumer market to date. And the same one that will be delivered in the Sony a99. Now Sony has my attention.
I'm anxious to play with one. Not sure I'll buy one since I'm committed to the a99 in the short term but it certainly captured my mindshare.
After seeing the Sony a99 introduction specs, the new full frame interchangeable lens camcorder with the same a99 full frame sensor (for around $3K=amazing), having shot extensively with the a77 and really, really enjoying the Nex 7 camera I think I'm starting to see a fun pattern. Sony has finally stopped floundering and started making products that aren't just good, they are products that photographers are starting to crave and lust after. And I haven't even starting looking at the RX100 yet.
If I were competing in the same spaces as Sony's cameras I think I'd start getting a little nervous. It's almost like the PC world a few years back where the market was dominated by Dell and HP. And now......
Things change. Transformation happens. Markets evolve. Everything is starting to get interesting.
Oh Yeah. Now this is what I'm talking about.
Here's a great video about the camera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjEwsnwbwbs
A while back I wrote a "wish list" of things I wanted to see incorporated into the new flagship camera from Sony. They did everything I wanted except for the carbon fiber construction. But I wasn't 100% serious about the carbon fiber anyway so let's let that drop.
What Sony has done with the a99 camera is to effectively and decisively leapfrog over Nikon and Canon and deliver a next generation imaging solution for photographers who are not mired in place by concepts of what constitutes a camera based on old traditions and metrics. While the curmudgeons may not want video or an electronic viewfinder or some of the bells and whistles you'll find on this and other Sony cameras (a77?) that contingent of photographers is not necessarily the future of professional, commercial photography. They represent the past. And the past is already gone. All around me I am keenly aware that the generation of image makers who are in ascendency are more and more comfortable slipping back and forth between video and stills. They are looking for cameras that create movies fluidly, unhampered by antiquated live view adaptations and legacy viewing solutions.
This is why I predict that Nikon and Canon will come stumbling after Sony in a year or two with cameras that have electronic viewfinders. The movie creation aspect may seem meaningless to someone who does photography as a hobby but for someone who earns their living mixing stills and motion (and that will constitute, more and more, what successful photographers do to make a good living) the video capabilities of a camera are as important as how quickly it focuses and how nice the still image files look. I guess you just have to separate the markets when you look at new products.
So, from the press releases and the intro on DPReview we can make a list of all the things Sony got right:
-full frame sensor with the promise of great dynamic range and good high ISO noise performance.
-innovative and state of the art autofocus. With both PD on a chip and above mirror PD sensor.
-the use of a proven and easy to master body style and control interface.
-electronic first curtain shutter for fast response and lower noise.
-focus range control. Let's you set a min and max focus range for faster lock on.
-dynamite video !!!
-a headphone out jack for monitoring video sound.
-manual level controls in 32 steps for video sound levels.
-an interface that allows for the connection of XLR microphone connectors (another industry first).
-high level, unprocessed video out for highest quality.
-dual card slots that are configurable in the ways I suggested.
-true 14 bit raw files.
-the promise of performance, performance, performance from the new sensor.
-weatherproofing and long life shutter.
AND THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF ALL.......they're using the same battery as in the a77.
When I get one in my hands I'll write a long review but for right now I want to discuss why the Sony camera is a superior video production tool. The a99 can shoot at 1080 at 60 fps with 28mps throughput and that's very cool but not nearly as cool as the three major things that are, right now, Sony exclusives in the full frame, high end DSLR camera/video market: The electronic viewfinder, the phase detection auto focus (full time) and focus peaking.
I was outdoors shooting video footage yesterday of a very famous athlete swimming a fast workout in our pool. It was bright, direct sun light coming from straight overhead. In the days of shooting with a Canon 5Dmk2 the ambient light would have rendered the rear screen useless for shooting video without the addition of a cumbersome finder attachment like the expensive and heavy Zacuto finders. The optical finder, in the video mode, is locked off and vacant. The camera's slow contrast detect AF would be useless in tracking a fast moving swimmer. We'd need a focus puller holding on to the front of the lens while I followed the action in the aforementioned expensive and kludgy finder strapped to the back of the camera like a goiter.
Not so with the a77 (and soon with the a99). I was shooting yesterday with the a77 and the Sony 70-200 2.8 G lens. Since the ambient light was too bright to use the rear screen I did all the set up stuff using the menu in the EVF finder. When I was ready to shoot the image in the EVF was perfectly isolated from the ambient light and worked well. I was able to judge both exposure and color temperature while I was shooting, both on the screen, and in the case of exposure, with an on screen histogram. Shooting at 60 fps gave me a smooth set of video clips of the fast action and the higher frame rate allowed me to work at 1/125th of a second without getting a jittery look that can come from raising the shutter speed beyond 2x of the fps.
If I switched to program or aperture priority I would lose control of the shutter speeds but I would gain full, DSLR speed AF with my video footage. Even through a variable ND filter the camera locked on to my athlete at 200mm and wouldn't let go. It was better AF performance than I've gotten with any video camera or hybrid, ever. If I wanted exacting control over shutter and aperture I had to go to manual mode which, with the Sony, means I lose AF. No sweat. The inclusion of focus peaking makes manually tracking focus easy as pie. And the entire time you're seeing the exact results, via the EVF, that you'll see when you head in to edit.
Since the a99 uses nearly the same video system it will crush Nikon and Canon's current DSLR video production capabilities as expressed in the D800 and 5Dmk3.
There's a lot more to the a99 but when people (fellow photographers) ask me why I switched systems to the Sony I can truthfully say it's because this is where the future of professional photography is heading. I didn't want to be left behind. And my experiences shooting video between the Sony and the Canon 5D2 is night and day. The gap has just widened. And since Canon and Nikon did their prosumer refresh and pro camera refreshes this year it will be quite a while until they even have a chance to rebut.
If the high ISO performance and the touted 1.5 stop increase in dynamic range over the Sony a900 is accurate then this camera will be the hottest pro tool in the market for at least the next year. And in the current state of the commercial photography field that's almost a lifetime.
9.11.2012
Another shot taken with the Sony Nex 7, an adapter, and a Sony SAM 35mm 1.8 DT lens. What's the deal?
35mm 1.8 on an adapter.
I've decided that most people who talk about the performance of cameras and lenses have never shot with cameras and lenses or, what they've shot are flat, ugly and useless two dimensional test charts. I've been looking a PhotoZone.de's reviews of different lenses on the Nex 7 and they speak as if there is a known sharpness issue with the Sony Nex 7's sensor. According to their numerical results you should be seeing a sharp center surrounded by a sea of optical jello in the image above. But the image above was shot hand held, without the benefit of image stabilization and at a fairly wide aperture. To make matters "worse" it was used near its close focusing limit which, for a lens not blessed with floating elements, should be its worst case scenario. It was even a manually focused lens hanging off the front of an adapter ring. And yet, to my eyes the bowls in the center seem sharp where I've focused on them and the bowls in the bottom left hand corner of the frame seem to be sharp as well.
Could it be that I'm just lucky at picking out specific cameras and fortunate lenses while all the review sites are getting rejects? I doubt it.
It finally dawned on me. I must be doing something wrong. I must have forgotten some esoteric technique that allows me to really see these optical combinations in the eery light of their inadequacy. Oh well, I'll keep testing. Something will come to me.
9.10.2012
How do you know when you've gone far enough with your post processing?
You don't. So you keep experimenting until you don't like it anymore and then back off.
Book Defies Amazonian Gravity and sells at near cover price!
Earlier today my first book (above) Minimalist Lighting, was selling at $33.95. About a dollar off the cover price and way above the historic price model at Amazon. Was it the Hunt Brothers trying to corner the market in books about small flashes or just some sort of algorithmic glitch in the clouds? Who can know. As I've chosen not to go through the process of revising the book it may become a collectible oddity. If you haven't already snapped up a copy now might be the time to pounce.....
Do you ever go back and re-work images that you've taken a few years ago?
I've spent a few fun hours reworking some of my images of Jana in a program called SnapSeed. This one started life as a color image from a Canon 5Dmk2 but now it's taken on a life of its own as a black and white image.
I like the idea of letting images "rest" for a couple of years. Like aging cocktails in an oak cask. Then you get to like them all over again and you start to get a feeling for the threads of continuity in your work and it makes you understand that the art you do is a building process and that time is a critical element...
Sometimes, when you are photographing a model, it helps to create a small story to share...
Not always, but sometimes, when I work with a model to create images for our mutual portfolios it is helpful to both of us if we come up with a narrative or a short story that helps us imagine what the images are about. In this case the story was about a young woman who'd come to town to meet her old boyfriend only to be stood up. These images are from the originally intended rendezvous. We made other images outside, downtown, as she searched for her boyfriend in all the usual places. Needless to say, this was self assigned.
The venue for these images was Little City Coffee House on Congress Ave. A very early, independent coffee house in Austin which closed at the end of last year. The model is Jana and the camera was a Canon 5D mk2 fitted with an 85mm 1.8 lens.
Creating little stories seems to be more effective than lumbering around hoping something interesting will happen....
9.09.2012
Okay. I surrender. I'm using the built in HDR feature on both my Sony a77 and my Sony Nex 7. And it works.
I don't like a lot of the HDR stuff that I see on the web. In fact, I hate the flattened look and grainy, clarity overkill that I plainly see in so much of the work. But my friend, ATMTX, seems to have a light touch with it and he's always pushing me to stop being such a curmudgeon and try doing things like using the concepts of HDR to improve my work as well as using the rear screen of my cameras to compose with. "Use the force!" He says.
After a recent post I read about throwing away a lot of stuff I knew I knew I decided to shelve my prejudices about photography and just go out and respond willingly to the stuff I saw. No big agenda. Just like moth to flame or a child to colors. I gave up some control by putting my ISO on auto. But I gave up a lot of control when I decided to turn on the in camera HDR in my Sony Nex 7. This will seem old hat to some of you but in the Sony Nex there is a menu in which you can select HDR and then make a second selection for how many stops difference you want between each of the three shots that the camera uses to combine into one final frame.
The camera shoots the frames really fast and then micro aligns them and processes them into pleasing HDR files. For the uncertain it's nice to know that the camera also gives you a separate untouched jpeg that is the "correct" or center frame of the the three frame bracket.
All of the images in this particular blog post were done with in camera HDR and at ranges from 3 stops to 5 stops. I think they look darling and I didn't have to buy a book or go to a workshop in order to get them. Which makes me think that Sony is making a pretty damn sophisticated camera to be able to do exactly what I want it to do without any intervention from me....
All but the last image in this series were taken at the Austin Hilton Hotel, just across from the Austin Convention Center. I was out test shooting with the Sony LAEA-1 Alpha to Nex lens adapter, the 35mm 1.8 DT lens and the Sony Nex camera. I like the combination very much and I can see using the Nex 7 as a primary shooting camera for professional work. I think mirrorless has come, now, totally of age and it's ready to compete with traditional camera paradigms. The Nex cameras, the Olympus OMD and the upcoming Panasonic GH3 are/will be capable of delivering nearly everything a typical, regional working pro needs in order to supply clients with professional images. There will always be exceptions to this statement. I freely admit that micro four thirds and mirrorless Sony aren't ready to tackle high end architecture photography. Not because the sensors aren't ready but because there are no tilt/shift optics available and adapting the ones out there that are made for other formats isn't a solution because they are too long...
What I found after pixel peeping my take this afternoon is a camera that out resolves everything I've used before, handles like a dream and basically-----kicks ass. The other thing I found out is that the Sony DT series of inexpensive prime lenses kicks ass, squared. You can read tests based on flat resolution target bullshit or you can go out and shoot with the optics you are interested in and make up your own mind. I'll take the latter path every time. In my experience the Sony 35mm 1.8 DT, the 85mm 2.8 DT and the 50mm 1.8 DT are some of the finest performing optics I've shot with. But I'll be the first one to tell you that I don't shoot newspapers tacked to the wall or air force resolution charts. And neither should you.
If you want to test a lens you put it on your camera and then shoot the stuff you enjoy shooting. Look at the results and make up your own mind.
So, all of these images are hand held with the camera setting shutter speeds between 1/60th and 1/80th of a second. I am consistently amazed at how the camera is able to align all three of the frames and make such perfect images. If I'd had the camera on a tripod and the ISO set to 100 I can only imagine just how great the images could have been. But would I have liked them any better?
The Nex 7 is turning out to be the camera I really wanted from Olympus and Panasonic. But it's even more eccentric which endears it to me even more. So much performance. So many wild features. So many lens choices. Has there ever been a better time for the actual practice of photography?
Finally, I've spent the last two years denigrating the whole idea of HDR. Do I feel guilty? Was I wrong? NO. The stuff that became known as HDR in common parlance was atrocious stuff. And it was applied to all kinds of inappropriate subject matter. I'm changing my mind and finding that judicious use of a three frame blend adds another tool to my creative and professional tool box. And that's okay. It's only when carpeting steps over the line to lime green shag that we have an aesthetic problem.....
Final note: The more I use the Nex 7 the less I want to use anything else.
Out for a Sunday Afternoon Stroll with a customized Nex 7.
The very next day after receiving the Fotodiox Sony Alpha to Sony Nex lens adapter I found a Sony branded one, the LAEA-1, on the Precision Camera used shelves so I bought that one too. Today I put my LAEA-1 on my Sony Nex-7 and put a 35mm 1.8 DT lens on that. Then I went out for one of my long, Sunday afternoon walks. About an hour into the walk I came across a small group of people at 6th Street and Brazos who were painting each other's faces and I asked them if they'd mind me taking a few photographs. Of course they were more than happy to oblige.
I used the lens and adapter combination in the same way I would normally use the Nex 7, minus the autofocus. I keep describing the Sony LAEA-1 as not having autofocus capability and I keep getting corrected by sharp eyed readers who are quick to let me know that, technically, the LAEA-1 will autofocus with most of the recent and current Alpha lenses. I am here to tell you that while the reader/correctors may be technically correct no one in their right mind would describe the painful process of LAEA-1 try-to-focus as true AF. Let's just say that if you have infinite patience you could use the Sony adapter in the AF mode and eventually you might have a frame creep, with great hesitation, into focus. Of course your chances are better if you are in bright, bright light (say a daylight scene supplemented with an 18,000 watt HMI for fill) and a focusing target with more detail than a ten million piece jigsaw puzzle... But why stress over it when the Nex 7, in combination with the 35mm 1.8 DT lens, does an amazing and quick job of assisting you in manually focusing with focus peaking?
I'm probably just responding to the newness of the process but I'm really enjoying the pleasures of manually focusing my photographs. It seems to also give me back more control over my sense of composition. I'm not always starting from top dead center in order to get and hold a focus lock. The focus peaking works over the entire frame.
So have I found out anything new by using the Sony Nex7 with an adapter and an Alpha lens? Yes. I've found that the Sony Nex 7 becomes the most responsive camera you can imagine because you'll never have to wait for focus lock. The lens info even shows up in the exif info in Lightroom. Just don't think you'll be enjoying laser fast auto focusing. It's not in the cards for the economy model adapters.
A little ambiguity is bad for your anxiety but may be just what some photographs crave.
I photographed Jana downtown. It was a hot, clear day. The kind that makes your eyes see into the colors and the details of everything. We didn't talk much but we did create the outline of a little story and I just followed her around and documented our "story." It seemed a fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.
I hope no one has decided to spend their Sundays indoors with the TV on and some sports team running back and forth on the screen, in between commercials for beer and Viagra. There's so much fun to be had outside. Camera in hand.
The Canon 85mm 1.8 seems to have "Modigliani" bokeh in the background. Look at the way the two people on the right side of the frame make hemispherical slices off into nothingness.
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