Paddy’s Day
Paddy’s Day gives us an excuse to do lots of stuff we wouldn’t normally do: Dress up in ridiculously stereotyped outfits, get unhealthily drunk, pass out on the side of the street, and take candid photos of people without worrying. Usually I’m far too terrified to take photos of strangers, but during parades or festivals it’s much easier because people are expecting it. Here’s one, and there’s more to follow:
Drinking Wine By Candlelight
This was taken with the 85mm f1.2. It’s all ambient light: The blue is glow from the TV and the orange light is from some candles.
Debate
The photo below was taken at a debate hosted by the University of Limerick Debating Union. The debate was on whether or not the West should intervene militarily in Africa. I like covering these events, it’s a great opportunity to practise taking pictures of people, and what I hear of the arguments can be pretty interesting too! It’s amazing what a difference in body language there is between speakers. When you’re taking photos like this, you’re trying to capture people at their most expressive, so I’m more or less concentrating completely on their body language. You really notice the contrast actutely in situations like this – some people are much easier to photograph than others.
This was taken with a Canon 450D, which I borrowed because I have access to an incredible lens – the 85mm f.1.2L. This is an astonishing piece of glass. It feels like a watermelon sized solid block of stone, and it weighs even more. The drawback to this is that it weighs about five times more than the camera body itself, and I’m not exaggerating. I realise, however, that I must be one of the first people in world to pair one of the most entry-level and lightweight camera bodies currently made with one of the most exotic and bulky lenses available. My hand aches after using it for a while because the balance is so bad. Here’s a couple of photos of the lens. It hard to portray the true nature of this monster lens, because it’s heavier than it looks!
It’s worth the pain though. The lens is like night-vision device, and this is on a camera which is very good but can’t go up to very high ISOs. I’d be terrified to see what happens when it’s paired with a 5D MKII!
It’s the perfect lens for events such as this. I can shoot in low light with no flash and it’s also got just about the right reach to capture the action up close. The lens has some kind of photgraphy version of the Midas touch; everything it photographs looks amazing., no matter how mundane. I spent about half an hour the other night just looking at the back of the screen with liveview on, just manually turning the focusing ring while the camera was pointed at some lights from houses. When out of focus the lights make perfect little circles! Yes I am easily amused… At f1.2 the depth of field is teeny-tiny, but the upside of this is that the photographer’s control over what the viewer looks at in the photography is extremely high. This is one of the keys to good photography, and any tool that makes it easier is fantastic.
Well, that was much more of a rant than a technical, objective review, but there’s plenty of them out there. I just wanted to share my opinion!