South Coast Plaza photos
So I'd rented a Canon 85mm 1.2L lens to take some pictures of the RockHarbor Christmas service, which I did until Aida kicked me out :( [I just can't help my tendency for guerilla shoots]. This lens is one picky animal, due to its extremely narrow depth of field when wide open. I had a hard time focusing, it would look focused but when I'd check by zooming in on my display I'd see my "subject" wasn't sharp. After double checking a few in a row I switched to manual focus. That was a mistake because then my focus was completely off, which I can't explain. So back to autofocus. Then I realized it might be the focus setting, I had it really narrow, so I broadened it. Anyway I got some in focus some not and some in-between. This lens is not really tailored to action shots in the dark, but what lens is? I'll post the pictures after the Christmas services are finished. So I have this lens and since I got interrupted in my shooting, I thought I'd get some more practice with it by going over to the mall and get some candids and whatever caught my eye. Well I'm really not enjoying a fixed lens. 85mm proved to long or too short. Too short for real candids. I also managed to mess-up my exposure comp settings and I can never remember how to fix it. It literally took me five minutes of trial and error before I got it corrected. I also need to change my focus back to a center pinpoint as now I could at least see what I was focusing on. Still needed it pretty much wide-open as I couldn't very well use a flash. Again the lens was not suited for this setting. I'd really like to get a chance to use it for portraits which is where it excels once you master the DOF. Anyway the best photos were of the miniature train set.
