Glass and the new vision

October 23, 2021  •  Leave a Comment

Hey guys!

 

I'm back! I've decided to explain what's been going on with me in the last little while. As you well know I have been struggling with my inspiration, not as much lately as I had expected though. I have decided to muscle through it no matter what, I wouldn't say that it's been completely successful. But I've continued to go out no matter what.

 

So, you can understand my “new” direction, in the day, along time ago, I used to be an Olympus SLR shooter. I also shot many other different brands of cameras as well but, I'm not going to go through and explain each and every one of them. This is my way to prevent the elitism that has become an element of photography {just say what ever you have shot I have shot better so there 😊 }. They use a fancy name called “fanboy’ISM” now, and some of those people are infuriating, I will attempt to avoid this reality. I have other names for them, but I want to keep this blog somewhat polite.

 

When I was an Olympus shooter, I did not possess of their zoom lenses, because it was the 80s and they sucked. So, I did a thing they called “zoom with my feet”. I've always thought of that statement as inane because you're not really changing anything other than your compositional vision. So, you're not really “zooming with anything”. I had a lot of fixed focal lenses [they call them primes now] Because we're sharper, and substantively lighter. What I did lately, which might find some people thinking I'm strange and odd, is get rid of my zooms! Not all, yet, I still have my EF 70-200mm F4L IS,  just because it is light, sharp, and cheap. I kind of love the lens so it isn’t going anywhere right now.

 

The first lens that I got rid of which would shock many people, was Canons’ excellent EF 24-70mm F2.8 Mkii. I mean this lens was super sharp, excellent all-around fantastic lens. But I wasn't satisfied, I found it boring, heavy, and totally uninspiring. I sold it for a decent price as it is a high-quality lens and replaced it with, [the dramatic pause shall be taking place here] Canon EF 50 mm F 1.2 L. I am in love!

Mt. Peskitt   Drew May PhotoMt. Peskitt Drew May Photo© www.drewmayphotography.com

I know there are people out there that are going, why would you get that old ancient lens, so and so makes something so much better, I respond….whatever! The lens has character. I'm a landscape photographer, and it's fully weather sealed at Canons level. Short of a hurricane this lens should be able to take the abuse and it's fully compatible with every camera body that I put in front of it. I find it so pleasant to shoot with the fixed 50 millimeter, which is what we used to call “the prime lens”, because it was the lens we used most often. And it's Uber sharp at F8!

Medicine Lake  Drew May PhotoMedicine Lake Drew May Photo© www.drewmayphotography.com

I find myself having so much more fun photographing a scene as I see it! The lens that's on my camera mimics my vision, there is no replacement! This lens almost lives entirely on my camera now! With the beauty of Photoshop and the ability to shoot panoramas I can stitch together multiple images taken with the Uber sharp 50 millimeter and create fantastic images without having to zoom or suffer the consequences of any form of optical distortion. I've put a couple of pictures in here just to show you what it looks like just using one lens and what you can do with it it's truly astounding, freeing for another word.

Horse Thief Canyon  Drew May PhotoHorse Thief Canyon Drew May Photo© www.drewmayphotography.com

Then came the next lens! In perusing through the sales on Facebook and Kijiji, I noticed a truly spectacular deal on the lens that I have dreamed about for a long time. At that moment, I didn't have the funds, but I have friends and this one particular friend helped me beyond measure. I was able to obtain the gold standard in lens manufacture. It is a Zeiss 15MM F 2.8 Distagon t*. This thing has unbelievable micro contrast, astounding sharpness, and a build second to none! I mean if you hold it in your hand and turn the focusing ring and realize just how buttery smooth it is you realize why the price is so high! Suffice to say I'm not telling you how much I got it for because that's not really fair and you'd be jealous if you found out.

Sunset Number 50  Drew May PhotoSunset Number 50 Drew May Photo© www.drewmayphotography.com

After almost two months, I decided the other zoom had to go and it was another excellent Canon zoom! It was the EF 16-35mm F4L, the lens was beautifully sharp and wonderfully weather sealed but I found myself not pulling it out of my bag and only dragging it around. Now the Zeiss is not weather sealed, but I'll learn to deal with that.

So now I'll be looking for only one more lens to fill the only gap that I have in my system. Presently everything below my EF 70-200 F4L [which I don't think I'm going to replace] is all manual focus. And as the reality of being a landscape photographer I can shoot slow, and put my camera on a tripod so focusing isn't that important beyond the reality that it needs to be correct. I will be looking for a decent 28-35 millimeter to fill that one gap. It's going to take time because I'm thinking it might be nice to get something that is truly good because I will tell you my lowly 5DSR is a lens killer. If there are any defects in a lens, this camera heightens the reality and makes it glaringly obvious, but when everything is perfect man does it sing!

 

A little bit of the excitement has come back because I have chosen a different direction, I've decided to go back to my roots use manual focus single focal length lenses, and compose an image using those limiting factors that allows me to be creative. One could say that what this does is it makes it possible for me to see the world again the way I saw it when I was a younger man, uncomplicated by having the best zoom lens so that I could be like the “Joneses”. I have decided to follow my own path ignore mirrorless cameras, retain my old DSLR and make it work because what really matters in the end is the print that sits in front of you for the rest of your life. It doesn't suffer from the vagrancies of the blue screen of death.

 

I'm going to add something to my ending statement, instead of just being shut up and shoot it's going to be shut up and shoot and print, because it's the print that really matters!

 

So...

Shut up and shoot and then print it!

Till next time, Cheers!!

 

 


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