Walking around Gunwharf on a sunny day

I was walking around Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth last Saturday, I had to take my sister down there to shoot a roll of film for a college project. She was using my Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 lens on my new EOS 3000N body, so I decided to try out my new Canon 50mm f/1.8 MkII and shoot only with that. It was kind of nice to see what the Sigma looked like on a full frame body……Guess I’ll just have to save up for a 5D……Unless someone wants to donate one.

I think there is a certain elegance shooting with prime lenses, it limits your ability to zoom, but I think it forces you to become more creative with your shots. So, I will try my best to describe exactly what I was looking for in each shot.

The Shot of the reflection of the crane and building, I've seen shots kind of like this in the abstract section of photo mags. I would say this is more interesting to me than shooting a car tire or something like that.

Sadly it looks like the colour is different when I upload, so some of the vibrance is gone.

 

As it was a beautiful sunny day, I thought I would try my hand at some silhouette shots, I thought this picture of the two boys running alone the promenade made for a wonderfully contrasted shot.

I have cropped this shot to get rid of some of the other people and objects so that the focus of the image is on the outline and shadows of the boys running. For this shot I had to switch to my kit lens 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 EF-S Canon lens, only because a 50mm prime on a cropped sensor is not wide enough for this kind of shot. As you can see, this picture would’ve been nicer if shot through better optics, but I still think its a good shot none the less.

With this shot, I was back to my 50mm prime, and loving it. OK, with this crop it could be any crane anywhere, but I suppose in some instances the subject doesn’t necessarily need to be in location context.

OK, so the Canon 50mm f/1.8 Mk II doesn’t have USM or Canon L glass….But to be honest, for right now, I don’t care, its a brilliant lens, it’s very light, and the quality even when wide open is excellent. I think I shall be shooting allot more with this lens, I’m sure it will come in handy for weddings.

Hopefully you all won’t have to wait such a long time before I post another addition to my blog.

Until next time…..Keep on shooting (Pictures people…shoot pictures)

MJ Matsen