February of this year my wife and I went to Wisconsin to visit my sister and family. We’ve never traveled to Wisconsin and never realized how hilly the landscape is. I didn’t have time to take too many pictures but we were driving around and found this barn only feet from the road. The sun was setting and thought it would be a great picture opportunity. I love the sun rays coming through the branches. Enjoy.
Repost June 2011
I recently posted pics of our baby girl on our couch at nine months. The picture posted was taken with my Leica M9 and Noctilux. I also took a few pictures with my Sony NEX-7 and Zeiss 24mm. Because, Aperture does’t process NEX-7 RAW files currently, I’m using Capture One Express and finally got around to processing them.
I have to say the images in my opinion are comparable to my Leica M9. The sharpness is dead on and the colors are great. I even noticed that the Leica M9 output causes some red tones in her skin that is not seen on the NEX-7 (I’ve heard others comment about these red tones but I never really noticed other than when shooting at high ISO’s). Let me know your thoughts?
P.S. If you want to see the full size images let me know and I can email them to you. Last, even though I speak very highly of the Sony NEX-7, I still love shooting with my Leica. There is something I find fascinating shooting with an all manual camera (I suppose I like the challenge).
ISO 100 1/200 f/1.8 24mm zeiss
ISO 100 1/200 f/1.8 24mm zeiss
ISO 160 1/1000 f/.95 50mm
Last July 4th the family and I vacationed in the Outer Banks. We were always told it had nice beaches and was very family friendly. I have to agree with that assessment. We stayed further down near Avon, NC which is away from the tourist stuff. It was a much more rural area with local shops and restaurants. Typically when we vacation we are on the go trying to see as much as possible but this time our intention was to relax and bathe in the sun. There are definitely picture opportunities and probably one of the more famous areas to take pictures is at Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. I was hoping the clouds and sun would cooperate. Fortunately, the sun came out for only a few minutes and I was able to get this shot.
Repost June 2011
I was wanting to catch the rain drops as they fell off the pedals. The sky initially took a lot away from the flowers. I used Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 to improve the sky, this definitely help with making the flowers stand out.
Repost from May 2011
As I’ve stated many times in the past, I always enjoy taking pictures of old churches. I’m starting to have a good collection of them (maybe I’ll post them all together some time).
This church is near my home town and was taken early evening. This is always a great time to capture landscapes because the shadows are not contrasty and you can often times get great exposure of both the foreground and background.
P.S. I may start reposting some of my post from early last year. I have a lot more followers and think many will appreciate some of my early pictures (don’t worry, I have plenty of fresh pictures also).
ISO 160 1/1500 f/1.4 50mm summilux
Here’s a shot I took at the Lincoln Memorial. I was fortunate to get this picture amongst the crowd. Also, the sun had set and was shooting handheld without a flash (my preference).
ISO 500 1/45 f/1.4 50mm summilux
Here is this months picture of our baby girl. I know I keep saying it but it’s getting more and more difficult to keep her on the couch for the shot.
Our Future @ 9 months ISO 160 1/1000 f/.95 50mm
Our Future @ 9 months 2 ISO 160 1/1000 f/.95 50mm
Our Future (birth) ISO 160 1/360 f/2 35mm
About 10 weeks ago, I got an email from Dale Photo telling me that a Leica 90mm macro-elmar with the adapter was available and I was next on the list to have the opportunity to purchase it. I had the 90mm summarit which I think is very nice and under appreciated. I opted in buying the macro-elmar because I wanted a telephoto (for a Leica it’s considered telephoto) lens that could be used for portrait and also close-up (even though it’s called “macro” I don’t consider it one) photography. It’s also collapsable, making it easier to fit in your bag.
I don’t consider my self an expert and I’m definitely not a “specs” guy. If you do a google search, you will probably only find 1 or 2 reviews of this lens. It’s hard to find any real world pictures though (flickr has a few).
In the few weeks having the lens I’m extremely impressed. I don’t consider it a true “macro” because you can’t get any closer than 0.5 meters (0.7 meters without the adapter). The amount of detail and sharpness at such close proximity to your subject is simply amazing. My only wish is that it had a lower aperture (lowest f-stop is 4) so that I could shoot at higher shutter speeds and not need a flash or tripod.
P.S. All images are un-cropped. If you are interested in seeing the full-size image let me know. Also, eventually I’ll shoot a few with it attached to my Sony NEX-7. I’m pretty sure these images will also be amazing (the 35mm equivalent will be 144mm).
ISO 2000 1/90 90mm without adapter
This will probably be my last post in regards to showing the capabilities of the NEX-7 & Zeiss 24mm. I typically leave these types of post to other bloggers but since there are not too many of us that have this camera, I felt that I should post some initial pictures and thoughts.
The Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 can focus within 6 inches of it’s subject. I’ve had other lenses in the past that had this capability but since using my Leica lenses I’ve grown accustomed to having to be about 3 feet from my subjects.
These shots were all taken within 6-12 inches from my subject. I’m truly amazed on the quality, detail, and sharpness when looking at these pictures at full resolution. I definitely think Sony has a winner, my only hope is the next one will be a full frame sensor.
I’ve posted the original picture and a 100% crop of my subject.
ISO 160 1/60 f/1.8 24mm
ISO 100 f/1.8 1/60 24mm
ISO 320 f/1.8 1/60 24mm
Just want to say Happy Valentines Day to my lovely wife and baby girl!!!
