As a birthday pressie to myself, I bought the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art Lens.

Most of my portraiture is shot at 50mm, either with my f/1.8 or f/1.2 Canon lenses. I’d thought about getting an 85mm for a while now but the price of the Canon versions made me baulk. Then, along comes the Sigma, highly rated in reviews and I only have to sell the one kidney to buy it ~ RESULT!

When it arrived, I was struck by two things: first, how well made it feels, easily comparable to the silky smoothness of Canon L-series lenses. And secondly…. boy, is it made out of fucking neutronium or what? This is not a light lens (although it is a light lens as it’s a f/1.4… hehhhh). The 85mm on my Canon 5D Mk 4 is untenably heavy, I would want to use at least a monopod if I was shooting for longer than ninety minutes, preferably a tripod. Mounted (via the Sigma adaptor) on my Sony A7R3 and it’s lot more heftable, though the Sony looks slightly ridiculous hanging off the back of it. Like a chihuahua shagging a hippo. If I was tripod mounting this combo, I’d definitely want it to be via a lens ring rather than the camera body.

Luckily, my mate Nat was free to do some test shots and this is some of what we got:

Enjoy! 😀

I recently got an LX15 to replace my trusty Sony RX100Mk3 which, sadly, has been dropped one too many times and is a bit grumpy and temperamental, like a certain R2 unit.

So far, I’m loving the LX15. It’s rocking the same 1″ sensor that all the high-end compacts have been forced to move to by the success of the RX100 line. But it has pluses like a very usable touch screen and a slightly wider maximum aperture.

I just took the above shots after clubbing one night, expecting them to be blurry, fuzzy, hideous messes. But, with a little tweaking, I got something quite lovely and a little spooky.

I’ll try to post some more average test shots soon! 😀

First shoot with Fran, had loads of fun and she’s an awesome model.

Hopefully we’ll work together again in the future.

Click the pic to see them properly!

Hugo and Nat - 01

Hugo and Nat - 02

Hugo and Nat - 03

Hugo and Nat - 04

Hugo and Nat - 05

Hugo and Nat - 06

Hugo and Nat - 07

Hugo and Nat - 08

Hugo and Nat - 09

Hugo and Nat - 10

Hugo and Nat - 11

Hugo and Nat - 12

Hugo and Nat - 13

Hugo and Nat - 14

Hugo and Nat - 15

Hugo and Nat - 16

Hugo and Nat - 17

Hugo and Nat - 18

Nat’s new puppy, Hugo, came to visit and he had a great time running around my garden, sniffing things and generally being loveable.

Of course, he’s totally in love with Nat, as you can tell by this pic:

Click here for more Hugo! 😀

Paris 2013 - 01

Paris 2013 - 02

Paris 2013 - 03

Paris 2013 - 04

Paris 2013 - 05

Paris 2013 - 06

Paris 2013 - 07

Paris 2013 - 08

Paris 2013 - 09

Paris 2013 - 10

Paris 2013 - 11

Paris 2013 - 12

Paris 2013 - 13

Paris 2013 - 14

Paris 2013 - 15

Paris 2013 - 16

Paris 2013 - 17

Paris 2013 - 18

Paris 2013 - 19

Paris 2013 - 20

Paris 2013 - 21

Paris 2013 - 22

Paris 2013 - 23

Paris 2013 - 24

Paris 2013 - 25

Paris 2013 - 26

Paris 2013 - 27

Paris 2013 - 28

Paris 2013 - 29

Paris 2013 - 30

Paris 2013 - 31

Paris 2013 - 32

Paris 2013 - 33

Paris 2013 - 34

Paris 2013 - 35

Paris 2013 - 36

Paris 2013 - 37

Paris 2013 - 38

Paris 2013 - 39

Paris 2013 - 40

Paris 2013 - 41

Paris 2013 - 42

Paris 2013 - 43

Paris 2013 - 44

Ahh, I miss it so much!