Yesterday, we went to Disneyland (surprise). Since my wife was coming, I decided to bring a two-camera combination. Usually, I bring the event photographer's typical combination of a standard zoom (24-70 or similar) and telephoto zoom (70-200 or similar). Specifically, I liked to use the 24-70 2.8G on a D600, and the Sigma 50-150 2.8 (non-OS) on an APS-C body. That combination of zooms covers virtually any situation and perspective, from a very wide 24mm to 225mm equivalent and at f/2.8 all the way. Pretty darn good combination.
However I think the combination falls a little short in some ways. Specifically, the 24-70 is one of my most often used focal lengths, and is probably the lens I would choose if I could have only one lens period but I sometimes find the images from a 24-70 a little too tame. I like images with shallow DOF and to some extent I get that with the 24-70 on a full frame (compared to a 17-50 on APS-C) but it's not shallow enough to really wake my eyes up. Another kind of image that I find interesting is one with zany lines like those of an ultrawide or fisheye. Again, at 24mm the 24-70 can somewhat be used to get those lines, but nowhere to the same extent as a true ultrawide.
As for the Sigma 50-150, yes it does deliver the shallow DOF that I like but at the telephoto focal lengths that I typically associate with shallow DOF. It's what I expect. So even with the shallow DOF, the images don't make me do a double take.
I decided to try a different lens combination: for very shallow DOF, an 85 1.8G on a D600. For the crazy lines and wild angles, the Tokina 11-16 2.8 on an APS-C. Because it was sunny, I decided to use the Fuji S5 Pro. So, no standard zoom. Are there shots that I could miss because of the wrong focal length? Possibly. Fortunately, I'm not an event photographer or a documentarian.
As a footnote, one benefit of this combination is that my gear can all fit into a smallish Lowepro Nova 3 AW camera bag.
Anyway, here is how the shots turned out.
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| I didn't expect the park to be so full yesterday. |
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| With my family in the shade, the sun's rimlight highlighted them nicely. |
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| Photo opp with Pluto. My family was getting ice cream inside so we didn't get a shot ourselves, but I took a shot of this happy kid. Note that the background is definitely blurred even though I was shooting from a distance away. |
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| Come on, Sophia! Why would you be afraid of a 6-foot tall rat? This shot was taken by a Disney photographer who took it with my S5 with Tokina 11-16. |
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| Lifelong friends. I wish I can be as cool as this gentleman when I'm his age. Mickey was created in 1928. I am supposing he has known Mickey all his life. |
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| Ice Cream in January |
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| As my son was eating ice cream, I asked him to sit with the sun behind him to... er... not have the sun in his eyes. ahem. Meanwhile I saw this colorfully-dressed lady a distance away. When she moved into the background, I took the shot. |
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| I liked how the sunlight reflected off the table to uplight my wife. Meanwhile a balloon vendor stood in the background and I took a shot as he moved into the right place. |
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| I liked how the sun added a rim light on everyone. |
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| On the go. I ran ahead of my family to be in a position to take their shot. I looked around and saw the sun would give a nice rimlight, while they were in shadow, and the swoopy yellow line would add some energy to the shot. When they moved into the frame I took the shot. |
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| The rimlight accentuated my son nicely. |
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| World of color As we approached this sign, I saw a balloon vendor far away but coming closer. I got into position and waited for him to move to the left side of the sign. |
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| f/5.6. Just wanted to see how sharp the 85 1.8G could get. |
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| This was at f/5.6 as well. |
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| Shopaholic training. I positioned the shelves on the left to act as leading lines. |
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| Added vignette in post to reduce the distracting elements around the edges of the frame. |
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| There was a fountain show going on as we walked by this ferris wheel. I waited for the fountain to frame the gondola. |
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| I liked the reflection. |
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| The long wait to have pictures developed. I chose a perspective that would have foreground and background elements surrounding the subjects. When those elements got blurred, they acted as a frame around the subjects, surrounding them with blur. |
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| This scene was made for ultrawides. :) |
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| Fireworks in Daylight |
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| Sun flower |
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| Sunny smile. Here, the S5 was exposed +1.3 exposure comp (because I prefer clean shadows). The S5 managed to hold the detail in the sky. |
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| Floating I like how this balloon looked like a sphere hovering in mid-air. The shallow DOF emphasized the effect. |
Something that may be of interest is that a full frame is probably not absolutely necessary here. An APS-C camera with the 85 1.8 or the Sigma 50-150 could also fill the need for shallow DOF.
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