Dublin to Belfast and back

andrewdoeshair · May 31, 2017

My wife and I are laying in a castle right now (yes, you can stay in an effing CASTLE! Check airbnb) just south of the Ireland/Northern Ireland border and I guess I just can't wait to post these. The stuff I'm about to post is all realllly quick edits, all done on my phone on the fly. When I get home to California in a week I'm going to look at all the raw files on my desktop and have a proper go at editing.

I brought three lenses on this trip for my 5Diii, a 16-35mm F2.8L ii for those epic Irish landscapes and to fit a whole castle in the frame, a Canon 50mm F1.8 because it weighs nothing and fits in my pocket, and a Rokinon SP 85mm F1.2, which has great image quality but it's a big heavy manual focusing beast. I've been using the 85 more than anything. Here's just a few I got along the way. Some are more staged and planned to be "good" photos, while some were snapshots on the fly with a Guinness in the other hand. Like this first one of my wife in Dame Court (Dublin) was a random quickie that has a lot to critique but it was one of those moments where I was like "man, this 50mm is the best $120 I've ever spent..."

This shot was in a very dark pub/restaurant in Newry with some friends of ours. Last year if somebody had asked me to get this shot I would have tried three times and said that it couldn't be done because the faces on the ends were too dark. This time I had Ryan and Kerri hold the matte white menus in a way that they reflected light onto my face and my wife's face. What I didn't catch until too late was Ryan's face being out of focus. Again, I edited this in a hurry on my phone, so I also didn't catch that ugly blown highlight on the table and how desaturated it became when I pulled all the highlights down. Please don't judge me by the editing of this photo, I'm just proud of the menu reflector idea.

The rest of these were done with the 85mm. I haven't even taken the 16-35 out of my bag on this trip. Last time I came here it was all I used.

I'll update the thread in a week or two with a link to the final edited photos of Ireland, you all don't mind. Thanks for looking!

BrentC · May 31, 2017

I am really liking that 3rd photo! Very nice.

BananaRepublic · Jun 1, 2017

Why is Bill Paxton in the second photo :popcorn:

Dean_Gretsch · Jun 1, 2017

BananaRepublic said:
Why is Bill Paxton in the second photo

Looks like he is having a meal with Adam Lambert!

I like the entire set.

andrewdoeshair · Jun 9, 2017

I just finished editing the whole trip. I took about 2,000 photos in 2 weeks, most of which were drunken snapshots. I kept 300 images and am proud of about a dozen. Things I learned on this trip: I think I can sell my 16-35mm and not regret it. I didn't take that thing out at all except for one day at Dunluce Castle, and even then I preferred the shots I got of the castle from further away with the 85mm. Another thing I learned is that it's reallllllllly hard to manually focus an 85mm at F1.2 at further distances, I missed so many otherwise great shots and didn't even realize it until I was at home. I couldn't tell on my little LCD that my subject was out of focus, at a glance it looked fine so I didn't bother to zoom in and double check (I will certainly do that in the future). I did try to use live view and zoom to focus a few shots, but it was really time consuming and the wife didn't want to wait all day for me to get my stuff right. The last ting I learned is to stop giving away my Canon 50mm F1.8 lenses. I have a sigma 50mm Art so then I go "I don't need this little 50 anymore" and basically donate it to a friend learning photography. I've done that TWICE now, then I buy another one before a trip so I don't have to lug the Sigma along. That stupid little lens is killer for the price, and the size and weight make it more valuable to me than many other pricier lenses once everything is strapped onto my back. Anyways, here's a few more random shots from the trip. I think these were all done with the Rokinon SP 85mm F1.2

andrewdoeshair · Jun 9, 2017

Attached above is also a more heavily edited photo of my wife on the bridge. I've never tried to edit something quite as far as I took that photo, it was kind of an experiment. Also, the shot happened somewhat quickly and organically, I saw it and got it, but if I could go back in time I would have taken the camera out of her hand first.

Shafty · Jun 9, 2017

Cool shots.
If you had time to change all these little corrections like a camera in the hand etc, you don't capture the moment, its more rehearsed I find and not like a moment.