Tag Archives: prime lens

November 15, 2022 · 3:14 am

Trivia Tuesday 11-15-2022

It’s Trivia Tuesday folks!

Morning Glory Pool in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park is indeed a glory to behold, no matter what the season. But, if you’ve seen (and photographed) this hot spring in different seasons, under different lighting conditions, you’ll notice that the colors don’t look quite the same – in the cooler months, they tend to be a little less bright and a little more murky.

When this pool was first discovered it was a brilliant blue, hence the name after a beautiful morning glory flower. People throwing trash, coins, rocks and logs into this pool over the years have caused a change in the water temperature (cooling it because all that trash has piled up around the vent and reduced hot water circulation) which in turn has caused the colors to change, allowing orange- and yellow-colored bacteria to thrive within the water. Add to that the subfreezing temps of the winter season (when this photo was captured), which in turn cool the surface water of the hot spring, and you get a murky look like you see here. It’s still a beautiful little spring, but the change in colors is mainly due to the extreme short-sightednes of humans. Sigh.

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Filed under Geology, National Parks, Trivia Tuesday, Yellowstone National Park

Tagged as 23mm, fujifilmgfx100s, geology, gfx100s, hydrothermal, medium format, morning glory pool, photography, prime lens, Trivia Tuesday, upper geyser basin, where the trails take you, wide-angle, winter, Yellowstone National Park

February 22, 2020 · 8:03 am

Where Will The Trails Take You?

It’s the weekend! Where will the trails take you? Will you be hiking into adventure or staying closer to home. Wherever you will be, have fun, stay safe, and, if you *are* out hiking, then pack out what you pack in.

This image was captured at the beginning of my walk through the Hall of Mosses Trail in Olympic National Park during my August 2019 visit. The boardwalk made a perfect leading line, and I was hurrying with my camera and 14mm lens to get a nice, wide-angle shot of the boardwalk, the trees in the distance, and the couple on the trail before they disappeared within the shadows of the forest. I thought the two people made a nice bit of scale and reference to the scene.

Summer is a nice time to visit this park, believe it or not. There were lots of people, but nothing compared to the masses I encountered when visiting Yellowstone National Park the previous August of 2018. If you get out early enough, you’ll escape the crowds that appear later in the morning and afternoon.

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Filed under 5DS, Canon, Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II, Canon Lens, National Parks, Olympic National Park, Photography, Seasons, summer, Travel, Washington State

Tagged as 14mm, 5DS, Canon, Hall of Mosses, hiking, Hoh rain forest, leading line, National Park, Olympic National Park, prime lens, rain forest, trail, travel, Washington State, where the trails take you, wide angle

February 28, 2016 · 4:24 pm

Canon 14mm & 24mm Lenses and A Trip To Brazos Bend State Park, Texas

(Note: this is not a full, thorough, pixel-peeping review of either lens. If you are looking for that, you won’t find it in this post).

A 14mm View of Creekfield Lake, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas (Canon 5DSR body)

I recently purchased a Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II lens from Lensauthority and wanted to try it out at Brazos Bend State Park, here in Texas. I live about 25 minutes away from the park and this was the perfect venue for some super-wide angle shots. I loaded up the Canon 5DS and 5DSR camera bodies with these lenses and hit the road.

You might not think there is much difference between a 16-35mm and 14mm lens, but there actually is. It’s not huge, but it’s still a difference. And, in retrospect, what I should have done was take along the 16-35mm lens to show that difference. Maybe next time.

I like prime lenses. I know that many reviews say the newer versions of the zoom lenses are just as sharp as the primes. But I still think prime lenses are a teeny bit sharper (although I do love my 24-70mm and 16-35mm lenses which I travel with exclusively).

I like the 14mm lens for the interesting perspective such a super-wide gives. It’s perfect for landscapes and for architecture (interior views, especially). This lens is going with me on my late March Big Bend National Park trip to photograph the cactus blooms.

Another 14mm View of Creekfield Lake, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas (Canon 5DSR body)

I also purchased a Canon 24mm f/1.4L II lens from BH Photo. It’s not the super-wide angle that the 14mm lens is, but it’s a gorgeous lens nonetheless which produces wonderfully sharp images, and I find that I use the 24mm focal length quite a bit for my landscapes. As I mentioned earlier, I do like the primes (although the zooms are far more practical to take on a trip, I admit).

A 24mm View of Creekfield Lake, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas (Canon 5DS body)

So the 24mm lens is going along with the 14mm lens to Big Bend National Park. As is my Canon 100mm macro lens and my Canon 100-400mm lens. Aside from the telephoto, this next Big Bend trip is going to be a prime lens-kind of trip.

Another 24mm View of Creekfield Lake (cropped just a little to make it more panoramic-ish), Brazos Bend State Park, Texas (Canon 5DS body)

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Filed under 5DS, 5DSR, Brazos Bend State Park, Canon, Canon 14mm f/2.8L II, Canon 24mm f/1.4L II, Canon Lens, Equipment, Landscape, Parks, Photography

Tagged as 14mm, 24mm, 5DS, 5DS-R, 5DSR, Brazos Bend State Park, Canon, landscape, landscape photography, photography, prime lens, Texas, TX

May 20, 2013 · 6:09 pm

A Wedding In Galveston: The Gear

Originally, I had written a 2800-word blog post (give or take). Yikes! Way too long! I think the human attention span tends to get a nervous tic over anything past 1200 words (which is the length I try to stick to but oftentimes never successfully manage). I personally can’t stand reading uber-long posts, no matter how helpful they may be; I tend to skim over them and just look at the pictures. I’d forgotten about this, though, in my 2800-word zeal to get everything down about my experience photographing this wedding. Then, I started reading some short but neat blog posts by Scottseyephotos about his photographic trip to Hallo Bay, AK, and I realized I was far more interested reading his numerous, interesting short blog posts than I would have been had he combined all of his bear articles into a single post. So, I’ve separated this original post into several shorter ones.

Here’s the First Post, which I hope whets your photographic-blogospheric appetite for the next post:

I had the great fortune to photograph Josh & Maegan’s wedding in Galveston, Texas, back in late April (2013). The venue was the San Luis Resort. I reserved a room for the weekend and prepared for the event.

What I took with me:

Canon 1-DX body + 3 spare batteries
Canon 5D Mk III body + 4 spare batteries
A rented Canon 6D body (go read my previous blog for my take on this body)
Canon 85mm f1.2L lens (which I absolutely loved but never used for this event)
Canon 50mm f1.2L lens
Canon 24-70mm f2.8L II lens
Canon 70-200mm f2.8L II lens
A rented Canon 14mm f2.8L lens (go read my previous blog for my take on this lens)
A 7’ parabolic white umbrella
2 Canon 600 EX-RT flashes (one of them was a rental)
Canon ST-E3-RT transmitter
Gary Fong flash head diffuser dome
2 lightstands (of which I only used one of them)
One 500-watt studio light (which I did not use but now wish I had for the groomsmen shots instead of my flash – that way I could have seen right away how the lighting situation would look).
Induro 8X CT314 tripod legs and Induro BHD3 ballhead (I only used it for the HDR shots of my room interior and balcony view, believe it or not – all of the wedding shots were hand-held)
42 memory cards, both CF and SDHD in 4GB and 8GB capacities
15” Laptop
2 portable hard drives
2 memory card readers (in case something happened to one of them)
Battery charger for each type of battery
My portable MiFi (never used it since the resort had free WiFi)
All the assorted cords and connecters needed to power up the other items listed
My LowePro Slingshot AW 202 camera backpack
My Think Tank Airport Commuter camera backpack
My Photoflex Transpac to carry all my lighting equipment (it turned out to be rather large and exceedingly heavy, so I plan on ordering something smaller to take with me for my next gig)

I’ve written a TripAdvisor review including photos of my room and the resort. Suffice to say that I enjoyed my stay, liked my room, loved the view, but wished they had provided me with a different type of coffee maker . A small complaint, but coffee is a mainstay for me when traveling and working with photos on my laptop. I usually pack my own coffee and filters with the assumption the room has a 4-cup coffee maker. It didn’t work with this particular room.