Ankeny Day Trip/Lens Test

This weekend I took a day trip to Ankeny Wildlife Refuge just west of Jefferson and took some photos while trying out a new lens I got for my Sony A7. The new lens was a Rokinon 35mm f2.8 full frame auto focus lens I picked up for traveling as it is very small and lightweight. I wanted to test it out before a vacation to see which camera/lens combo I wanted to take with me.

• 

  Pre-dawn shot of Willamette Valley Vineyards.

• 

  Spring time between the vines.

• 

  Black and White silhouette.

• 

  Sunrise.

• 

  Ferns in the marsh.

• 

  Black and White pathway.

• 

  Willamette Valley Vineyards.

Overall the lens performed well and I enjoyed shooting with it. I think for my trip I will travel with my A7 and two lenses; 50mm and 35mm, and of course plenty of batteries. I will also have my Sony RX100iii and my GoPro. Look for photos from that trip coming soon!

Starting to Take Some Portraits

The last couple weeks I have been playing with portrait shots and using my son Jake as a model.  I took my him to an Oregon State basketball game and before the game we stopped at a spot on campus to take some pictures.  I wanted to take some shots with fall colors in the background.  This was a very quick shoot with my new to me Sony A7 with the 50mm f 1.8 lens.

This one was taken by a gate with a brick post I thought looked kind of cool.

I edited a couple in black and white, it eliminates the fall colors, but I have always liked the look of B&W.

This was couple days later with the same camera setup.  I really like the eye autofocus system that the Sony cameras have.

I took this one in front of the Christmas tree also with the A7 and 50mm.  This was shot at f 1.8 to blur the lights on the tree.  I also used a Rotolight Neo shot through an umbrella camera left to light his face a little.

Portraiture  is fairly new to me, but I am enjoying learning and working with light to get some different looks.  Thanks for reading!

Fun at the Beach

Took a trip to the beach for a few days earlier this month, stayed at the Looking Glass Hotel in Taft, just outside of Lincoln City.  We booked this trip in July so weather was going to be a crap shoot, but we got about as lucky as you could get with weather in the 70s all three days we were there.

The first night we walked down on the beach from the hotel and were treated to a great sunset.  Played around with a couple shots from the iPhone X using the live mode to get some long exposures.

The next day we drove down the coast to Depoe Bay to look at the whales and then on to Newport for lunch and beers.

Later that evening we went to Fogarty Beach and my wife and son let me play around with a flash trying to get sunset family pictures.

Had a great time at the coast and look forward to going back again!

Silver Falls, Fall Colors, and Checking Out a New (to me) Camera

Went for a little hike this weekend at Silver Falls State Park.  We started at the North Falls  Trailhead and hiked to North Falls and then down the creek for a mile or so.  The parking lot was pretty full and there was quite a few people on the trail for the end of September.  We got to the North Falls and took a few pictures of the falls which looked pretty good with the Autumn colors just starting to show.

This was a chance for me to get out hiking with the family and also a chance to try out my new to me Sony A7 that I picked up used from Adorama.  I decided after years of using my Sony A6000 it was time to venture into full frame.  I picked up the A7 with a 50mm f1.8 full frame lens both used for what I thought was a pretty good price.

I really enjoyed shooting with the A7, it is not as fast as the a6000 focusing, but I was shooting landscape shots where slowing down is typically a good thing.  The menu system and setup is very similar so the learning curve wasn’t bad.

Used the eye autofocus to shoot a couple of portrait shots and this works as well as it did on the a6000.

I still like the a6000, but for landscape and portrait shots I think I will mostly switch to the A7.  The next step will be to sell a few of the APSC lenses I have for the a6000 and replace them with full frame lenses.

Thanks for reading, time to get out and shoot!