The Daily Blog #66
Passing a Protest with a 35mm
Protesters, led by a farm workers coalition, marched up High St. Sunday, to protest Wendy’s treatment of its workers. For the back story on this protest check this and this out. I just happened to be passing by in a car, and had no idea what was going on. Not unusual for me. I try to always have a camera on me, and this time I had the Nikon D610 with the Tamron 35mm f/1.8 Di VC lens.
I didn’t have much time to think about exposure, so I put the camera in aperture priority mode and made sure I stopped down a bit to make sure I didn’t miss focus too much. In hindsight, an aperture of f/11 would have been better. The camera was already set up to shoot at ISO 1600, which was perfect since I was in a moving car and the fact that the Nikon D610 has no problem with ISO 1600. The high ISO on this overcast day allowed my shutter speed to be very fast, ensuring no motion blur at all (although, since the traffic was moving slowly, I would have been okay with ISO 800 and f/11).
The Tamron 35mm VC may be the best value on the market for this focal length. It is light and compact next to the Sigma 35mm art lens, even with the VC or Vibration Compensation (image stabilization). It has premium coatings. moisture resistance, circular aperture blades, and fast, quiet AF. This is a new lens that is worth taking a look at.
The 35mm lens is, in my opinion, one of the most versatile focal lengths. If I could only shoot with one single lens forever, I would choose a 35mm. The 35mm lens renders the scene pretty close to what the eye sees, which allows for very intuitive framing and composition. Because of the natural feel to the focal length, it can be a lot of fun to shoot in many different situations from street photography and photojournalism, to editorial and wedding photography, most shooters will tell you that this is one focal length that should be in your bag.
Gear used:
