Coming up on land - a view from the Hatteras to Ocracoke, N.C. ferry | Canon 5D Mark II and Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2 ZE lens | Exposed 1/8000 sec. @ f/2, ISO 200.

Together with Elizabeth’s family I spent a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in mid-August.  While I had high hopes of making landscapes of the coastline and the Cape Hatteras Light Station, it didn’t quite work out.  Combining a family vacation with photography is clearly an art that my parents somehow perfected, but I will have to learn to do myself.

That said, I was able to do a fair number of pictorials, particularly on the car ferry that took us from Hatteras to the island of Ocracoke.  I had rented a Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2 ZE (Canon-mount) lens for this trip, and while I didn’t use it as much as I had hoped, I did make enough to get a general impression of how the lens handles and renders its subjects on the sensor.  What I was looking for in my photographs was the “Zeiss look,” defined by strong micro-contrast and subjects that want to pop out of the frame (read: three-dimensional).  I’m not convinced that I found this look in every frame that I made with this lens, but it was there in several of them.  Having experimented with the Canon 35mm f/1.4L a few months ago, I was curious how my experience would differ.

A family returns to their car - a view from the Hatteras to Ocracoke, N.C. ferry | Canon 5D Mark II and Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2 ZE lens | Exposed 1/1250 sec. @ f/5.6, ISO 200.

I will say that the Zeiss lens is demonstrably sharper than the 35mm f/1.4L–the edges hold together better, and even the center is much sharper.  I believe the online rumors that the 35mm f/1.4 is due for replacement and that Canon surely is working on a successor; after all, the 24mm was re-staged with a Mark II designation not that long ago, and with the increase in resolution from the cameras coming down the pike, the 35mm is going to demonstrate too well that it is an older lens design.  That said, the “effect” that these lenses provide is similar–strong vignetting so that the subject of the photo really “pops” when shot wide-open.

While I am still in the process of going through my images from the trip, as well as evaluating two lenses from Canon (the 135mm f/2L and the 14mm f/2.8L II), I would tentatively say that I give the nod to the Zeiss lens over the Canon 35mm because while they do produce similar effects, the sharpness and control of chromatic aberration with the Zeiss is overwhelming to the eyes.  But, the Canon lens has autofocus (the Zeiss being manual focus only) and is a full stop faster, so anyone trying to decide between the two should keep those details in mind.

More to come.

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, photojournalism, pictorial, Reviews, Zeiss 35mm
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Yellow perch spasm on the table while Jeff Zinuticz, center, a fishery technician for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Craig Bender, left, the co-director of Salmon-a-Rama, measure and weigh angler Joe Staszewski's catch on Thursday, July 15, 2010 in Racine, Wis. After discovering that the perch were not prize-winning, Staszewski said that "they were hitting better before, but now Salmon-a-Rama has come." | Canon 5D Mark II and 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ 16mm | Exposed 1/80 sec. @ f/4, ISO 800 (+1.33 EV)

Last night I had a fairly productive evening at Salmon-a-Rama.  I still need a couple of audio interviews, to gather some ambient sound, and to shoot some video, but I have the feeling it will all come together.

Some of the photos are more visual “notes” that I like the idea of an image, but that a given frame is not enough to push it into the final edit.  I’m hoping to perfect all of these frames before the week is out, although the one above may be tough to beat given that the Yellow perch (“Lake perch”) were still jumpin’ on the table!

Please scroll down for the rest of the photos and, as always, comments and criticism welcome! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, photojournalism, pictorial, salmon, sport fishing
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Strong wind led to poor fishing conditions at Salmon-a-Rama as heavy waves crashed against the pier on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at the Reefpoint Marina in Racine, Wis. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 64mm | Exposed 1/2000 sec. @ f/4, ISO 200 (0 EV).

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, landscapes, pictorial
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Adults and children alike cool off from the summer heat in the Dr. Laurel Salton Clark Memorial Fountain on July 13, 2010 in Racine, Wis. The fountain, dedicated to the astronaut from Racine who was killed in the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, was recently re-opened to the public after being temporarily closed being in violation of the health code. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 57mm | Exposed 1/500 sec. @ f/8, ISO 200 (0 EV)

I was on my way to the boat ramp and piers by the Reefpoint Marina in Racine, Wis. yesterday when I passed by one of the city’s summer hot-spots for the past several years: the Dr. Laurel Salton Clark Memorial Fountain.  The fountain was named in memory of the astronaut who was killed in the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 who grew up in Racine.

Earlier this summer, the city closed the fountain to the public because its plumbing couldn’t handle the chlorination of the water any longer, and was therefore in violation of health code.  The city went as far as to post a guard in front of the fountain to deter people from cooling off in it, but it was recently brought back up to code–at least in a temporary manner–in time for the summer heat.

There’s one image I liked quite a bit from this afternoon, but I cannot decide on a crop for it! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, photojournalism, pictorial
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Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 50mm f/1.4 lens | Exposed 1/640 sec. @ f/11, ISO 100.

Who says you can’t make a good picture in the middle of the day?

Over the weekend Elizabeth and I found ourselves in St. Louis for Independence Day, partly thanks to a hotel deal through Hotwire.com.  While I’ve been going to school at the University of Missouri for two years, and have spent some time in St. Louis in that time, I haven’t actually gone up to the Gateway Arch since a seventh-grade field trip back around 1997.  Frankly, I can’t even remember if I took a camera (taking a 35mm SLR was something I was never too keen to do back when I was in middle school).  But I do remember going up in the arch and feeling the structure sway back and forth in the wind.  Fun!  But it’s still standing there.  Unfortunately, getting up to the top of the arch is harder than I can recall from all those years ago: you have to go through a magnetometer, your bag through an X-Ray, and rangers are standing by to pat you down.  We actually tried two days in a row to go to the top, and both times the line for tickets was either painfully slow or, on the second day, not moving at all because the eight (eight!) employees behind the ticket counter weren’t selling tickets.  C’est la vie. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: architecture, EOS 5D Mark II, pictorial
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Rock Bridge Memorial State Park boardwalk to the Devil's Ice Box, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 34mm; exposed 1/2 second @ f/16, ISO 400.

I took an excursion–albeit brief–to Rock Bridge Memorial State Park in the early evening hours tonight.  A sudden thunderstorm that passed through Columbia this afternoon had left the colors saturated, and the boardwalk to the Devil’s Ice Box (an extensive cave in the park) was slippery.  As I turned back to see the way I came–taking a cue from Dewitt Jones’ sappy, but helpful mantra “Look around, Dewitt”–I saw the sun bursting through the tree canopy.  Normally, for a scene like this, I wouldn’t worry about stopping down beyond f/9, possibly f/11, but for maximum sunburst without risk of image deterioration due to diffraction, I chose f/16.  I prefer to avoid a lens’s minimum aperture–you can test the theory yourself, and you will find that your lens becomes less sharp, not more-so, at its smallest aperture.

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, nature, pictorial, Rock Bridge Memorial State Park
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Lightning over Discovery Lake, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 30mm; exposed 6 seconds @ f/8, ISO 800.

Last week, my friends Jakob, Calin, and Jamie called me up to join them on a small lake near Discovery Parkway in Columbia, Mo. to fish.  Well, they fished.  I fished for lightning photographs.

Unfortunately, while the picture above is tack sharp, it’s not quite satisfying.  Later in the evening, I made another image that is far more pleasing–great color, great lightning strikes, including one on a cell phone tower–but is way, way out of focus when viewed at 100%.  Interestingly, when sized for this blog, it’s hard to tell that it’s soft, so I’ll share it here:

Lightning strike on the cell tower, Discovery Lake, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens @ 43mm; exposed 2 minutes, 36 seconds @ f/8, ISO 100.

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, landscapes, lightning, nature, pictorial
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Storm over the water tower, Columbia, Mo. | Canon 5D Mark II and 70-200mm f/4L IS lens @ 135mm; exposed 10 seconds @ f/7.1, ISO 800.

Last night a line of thunderstorms tracked through Columbia, Mo., changing the hot and humid air for the better, leaving much cooler temperatures in their wake. Before the rain came, I set up my tripod on the balcony of my apartment to try to get some lightning strikes.

Lightning was plentiful, if far away–I counted out the seconds between the light and the sound, lest I be caught outside with my own personal lightning rod–but I had little to no success at capturing a bolt across the frame.

However, I did get one image that was almost surreal: the city’s water tower encircled by the light from the lightning strikes and the clouds as they sped past overhead.

I’ve added some contrast to the image, but the colors are how the camera saw them. A fun, if a bit surreal landscape.

Next time I’ll get lightning bolts.

That said, if anyone has a suggestion for how to capture them, I’m all ears!

Tags: EOS 5D Mark II, landscapes, nature, pictorial, weather
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