Little River and De Soto Falls
We left early and got to Little River Falls around 0900. There were already quite a few people playing on the rocks above the falls, something that the signs warn against but that seems readily ignored. For the day, I had a Lumix S9, a Sigma 35mm f1.4, and the Lumix 85mm f1.8. My tripod is some cheap carbon fiber travel tripod from amazon and it was my first time using a variable ND filter (more on that later).
First photo of the day. Didn’t notice the dark blue band on the left from the ND filter. There were quite a few people here but I removed all but the guy near the falls. This was with a user profile from Ross and His Jpegs called Fujicolor C200. I ended up not liking the grain intensity and have moved away from using grain in camera, but there will be a lot more like this in this photo set.
Yeah, this is from that cheap variable ND. Not a terrible effect but not something I would want to use often. Learned my lesson, buy fixed NDs.
Some more examples of this effect in the photos below.
So far, every shot including this one have been shot on the Sigma 35mm f1.4. I have not decided whether or not I like this lens yet. Tons of pro features, yes, but probably a bit big for my purposes. The build quality and controls are excellent, and what from what I can tell the IQ is sufficient for my needs. I have a 1/8 black mist filter to cut down the sharpness a bit.
I am using the Portra 800 Lumix Look from Ross and his JPEGs here and I am really not liking it. Every shot was way too warm. I ended up having to cool down each image in post. Per his instructions, I am using Daylight White Balance and have it shifted warmer, but I think that I would’ve been better off using the warm shift with AWB or using Daylight with no shift.
The photo to the left and the four above are all with the Lumix 85mm f1.8. I really like this lens, its light and resolves in a pleasing way. It makes me consider selling the Sigma and buying the Lumix 35mm.
The lighting and composition on this photo sucks. This was a 3sec exposure and I just don’t really like the way the S9 handles long exposures. Maybe if I shot it in RAW it would be nicer but I don’t shoot RAW anymore and I doubt that will change anytime soon. I genuinely hate editing photos.
I learned a lot about my current setup on this trip.
I hate camera straps; I much prefer a wrist strap and putting my camera back into a side bag when not in use.
I still like the S9 and I still don’t miss a viewfinder.
The Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art DG DN is big and heavy but adequate for my needs. I am excited to do some nighttime urban landscapes with it.
I really really like the Lumix 85 f1.8 and with the recent firmware update where you can use the focus ring as an aperture ring, I find the lens more than sufficient for my needs.
Cheap variable NDs get you weird results.
Cheap tripods are rarely worth the headache.
Blundstones are adequate for trail use when the trail is easy to moderate terrain.
Thoroughly test Lumix Looks before you go to shoot for real with them. I think I will go back to just using Real Time Luts and adjusting them to my taste for the day/subject.
It was a good day of shooting. I finished the Jade City series last week, one of the better fantasy series I have read in a while. Lots of intrigue and did a great job endearing its characters over a long period of time. Got some news at work on Friday that has me very stressed about a meeting on Monday (tomorrow) so I plan to take this Sunday to relax. Three day weekends really should be the norm: one for what you must do, one for what you want to do, and one for nothing at all.
Thanks for reading.