Sunsets and Comets
Last couple of days we had this fairy big snow storm in our area. All the snow that melted during last few weeks of nicer weather, came back with a vengeance. Dan Jurak, a great local landscape photographer, whose writings I follow regularly, was stating that we are in that transition, where the winter landscapes are not very good to photograph. I completely agreed with him, and then we got dumped on by mother nature. So the first chance we got, my wife and I headed out to Elk Island. First was because I wanted to get a particular shot, second time we wanted to see the Pan-Starrs comet, of which we completely forgot the first time. Knowing our luck, the skies clouded over, which gave us a beautiful sunset, but obscured the comet.
Lens woes
Since we were in the park, and it was getting dark, we wanted to do a few night shots. This is where I run into problems. I currently shoot with Sony NEX, and Fuji cameras. The normal lenses on these cameras are great, if you have enough light in the scene to focus on something. They are absolute utter crap for night photography. I was expecting this going in, but I thought I could over come this somehow. Not a chance. The problem is that these lenses, have an electronic focusing system, so the focus ring does not have limiters at infinity and the closest focus point, like normal lenses. You can turn that ring and turn and turn and turn. Since I'm taking a photo of the sky, with a wide angle lens, I can't see anything in the view finder or the LCD screen. I have no idea if I'm in focus. At least with the manual lens you could set the focus to infinity, close down the aperture, and all would be great. Next time I will have to bring my manual lenses for night photos.
Enjoy!
