During the month of April, Zeiss USA generously loaned me 2 lenses, the Carl Zeiss 28mm f2 ZE and 35mm f2 ZE.  I tested them in Death Valley National Park, Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve, Carrizo Plains National Monument, and Olympic National Park.    I needed a static subject with even light so that I could effectively compare several lenses at once.  I found this scene for my tests during my recent Olympic National Park Photography Tour.  This is my favorite image.

I’ve generally been content with my Canon 17-40mm f4 lens, but have always wondered about the benefits of sharper glass.  While investigating my options, I learned about the Zeiss lenses designed for Canon.  I contacted Zeiss USA about borrowing a few of their lenses and was pleased that they agreed.  I requested the 28mm f2 and 35mm f2, because they are the focal range that I most often shoot.

The Zeiss lenses are manual focus and designed to fit directly on a Canon EOS mount.  I liked the smooth action when adjusting the focus barrel, but especially liked the hyperfocal focusing scale on each lens.  Ever since I switched over to shooting digital landscapes, I’ve missed my Pentax 67 prime lenses which had hyperfocal scales.  On my Canon 17-40mm f4 lens there isn’t one since it is a zoom, so I just bump the ∞ mark to the right slightly of the focus line to accomplish the same effect.  I typically push my depth-of-field more than a lot of photographers.  I don’t mind the foreground being slightly soft as the viewer enters my composition, but it quickly becomes sharp throughout the majority of the image.  I make sure that my background subject is always in focus by reviewing my images at 100% and adjusting my ∞ mark if necessary.

A lot of photographers prefer to shoot landscape images backed off from the foreground so that they can shoot closer to f11 to avoid lens diffraction.  I prefer my compositions to be super tight and down low, so I compromise by using smaller apertures to get more depth-of-field.  At f16-f22 lens diffraction occurs.  It is clearly visible in my results, but I prefer it to losing depth-of-field.

When reviewed on my Canon 5DmkII’s LCD, the images I took with the Zeiss lenses appeared bolder than the images I had taken with my 17-40.  When I downloaded them to my laptop, I could clearly see that the images were much sharper edge-to-edge than when I had used my zoom.  Whereas my 17-40 only felt in focus in the middle 60% of the image, the Zeiss lenses were sharp throughout 90% or more of the image.

I also compared the Canon 16-35mm f2.8 II and Canon 35mm f1.4 to the Zeiss lenses.  My test results are available on my blog.  Please feel free to download any of these sample images and view them side-by-side.  All of these test images are from my un-adjusted RAW files that were created in real world shooting conditions.  I took the same image using the same settings.  I also used a Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer on all of my test images to reduce the glare on the leaves.

My biggest surprise was that my Canon 17-40mm f4 lens created images that were not as disappointing as I would have thought compared to those created with the Zeiss lenses.  However, now that I can see the difference I don’t care for the barrel-distortion created by my zoom.  I was not impressed with the Canon 16-35mm f2.8 II.  Perhaps my hyperfocal approximation was slightly off since I was unfamiliar with this lens?  However, I was conservative in my hyperfocal focusing in that I barely moved the ∞ mark to the right of the focus line.  I was totally disappointed with the Canon 35mm f1.4, which was the least contrasty of the lenses I tested and nowhere near as sharp as the Zeiss lenses.

I am so impressed with the Carl Zeiss 28mm f2 ZE and 35mm f2 ZE that I am purchasing them (with a modest discount from Zeiss USA).  They cost $1283 and $1004 respectively.  The 35mm f2 is a significant improvement and the 28mm f2 is a slight improvement over my Canon 17-40mm f4.  This corroborates the general buzz that I have heard about these lenses.  My test results convinced me that the Carl Zeiss lenses are a better investment than upgrading to the Canon 16-35mm f2.8 II, especially if one doesn’t require auto-focus.  For anyone not in the market to upgrade their lenses, I think that the Canon 17-40mm f4 is still a great value.  I will continue to use it to shoot super-wide landscape scenes until I can test/afford a better lens.  However, if you are in the market to upgrade your lens arsenal, you won’t be disappointed with these Carl Zeiss options.

Last weekend I lead 2 clients on an Olympic National Park Photo Tour.  The conditions were challenging, but conducive to instruction.  Anyone can shoot the sunset at the iconic beach locations, which we did, but my goal was to help them see the world more creatively and refine their composition skills.  Four afternoons in the chaos of the rainforest followed by overcast conditions at sunset tested even my proficiency with a camera.  I created this dramatic image during one of our sunrise shoots on First Beach.  You can see that there was not much of a sunrise, but the ominous rain clouds on the horizon still yielded effective pictures.  Whenever I photograph waves, I anticipate them crashing against the shore and then shoot an exposure of 0.5 second or longer as they recede in order to capture their turmoil in a artistically pleasing manner.  This involves a lot of trial and error since I do not know how any individual image is going to result, but when reviewing them I look for the same strong lines and overall presence that I photograph in a non-dynamic scene.

I created this image during a private photography tour last July.  The weather was overcast with a light drizzle all 5 days, which made for perfect rainforest shooting conditions.  We spent each afternoon visiting the Quinault, Hoh, & Sol Duc Valleys and ended each day by shooting sunset at Ruby & Second Beach.  The fastest way to improve your composition skills is to shoot in the chaos of the rainforest.  If you are interested, you can join my upcoming Olympic National Park Photography Tour.  My tour groups are small & exclusive so that I can provide my clients with personal attention.  I accept a maximum of 4 photographers & have still 2 openings available for my April 22-25 tour.  To sign up, please email me at jon@cornforthimages.com.

The last few weeks I’ve been busy with the Bellevue Arts Fair & our family vacation to Whistler, BC.  I am also going back up to Alaska on the 16th for two weeks, but before I go I wanted to post a few new pictures and stories.  This image is from Daniel Stainer, my photography workshop client who came out last month to spend a week with me in Olympic National Park.  We had some great days together.  Rainy afternoons spent in the Hoh & Sol Duc Rainforests, followed by interesting sunsets at Second Beach.  Here is what Dan had to say about working with me,

“If you’re looking for someone to just drop you off at some iconic location for a few hours of casual shooting, then Jon’s probably not your guy.  If you have a strong desire to push your photographic skills to greater depths while getting inside the head of a seasoned landscape pro, then Jon is exactly the right person!   From proper use of graduated neutral density filters and creative scene extraction techniques to aligning shooting opportunities based on a thoughtful interpretation of weather trends, Jon’s proven insight and deep explanations will help you master and fine tune your own photographic vision and approach, no matter what your current skill level.

While Jon is always sensitive to the physical capabilities of his participants, don’t expect to be sitting around for too long or hanging around some scenic overlook off the side of the highway, because Jon will have you hiking to that magical location at the perfect time of the day in search of epic light and unique dramatic landscapes.  As Jon likes to humorously say, “you’ll have time to eat and sleep later.”  Probably the two biggest lessons Jon taught me, were that the best shots require a tremendous amount of patience and often involve multiple visits; the second lesson is that you should not rule out shooting because of inclement weather, because things can always change for the better on the fly-which we learned firsthand when socked in gray and rainy skies made way for a brief sun break.    Aside from Jon’s superb hands-on teaching style, Jon is a great guy with an excellent sense of humor and laid back demeanor.    If you’re serious about your photography, then I cannot recommend Jon’s workshops highly enough.  You’ll be a better photographer because of them!” - Daniel Stainer, July 2009

Thanks so much for your kind words, Dan.  I had a great time, too.  I also want to share some of the video that I shot during our trip with my visitors.  For those of you that do not know, my new Canon 5D mkII has the ability to shoot 1080p video.  I’ve been dabbling with it this year.  Here is some of my footage.

I am super excited to be participating in the Bellevue Arts Fair again. It has been 5 years since I last participated, and though I have done a number of art shows around the country since then, none has generated the enthusiasm I received at Bellevue in 2004.  My booth location is I-12, which you can find on this map. The forecast predicts weather in the 90′s for later this week, which guarantees that the fair will be busy.  I look forward to seeing you there!

This image is another one from my recent private workshop that I lead for a client of Olympic National Park.  it was only 2 weeks ago today that we were out on the coast getting rained on.  We took advantage of the gloomy weather to focus on rainforest compositions.  We certainly got our fill of green, mossy pictures.  This photo was taken along the Spruce Trail in the Hoh Rainforest.  I created it with my Canon 5D mkII, 17-40 lens, f16, 1 sec, ISO 100, Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer, Gitzo Basalt tripod, & Acratech Ultimate ballhead.  Oh, yeah, and a lot of patience waiting for the decisive moment when the leaves were perfectly still from a total lack of a breeze.

This is another beautiful green temperate rainforest image that I took last week while leading a private photography tour of Olympic National Park.  This image is from the Sol Duc Valley on the way up to the iconic Sol Duc Falls.  About 1/2 way to the falls is a very scenic little stream covered in green moss that is often photographed.  About 3 winters ago, one of the big storms caused a terrible amount of flooding in the area, and a lot of the moss that covered the boulders was washed away.  I was out there last year and did not even take a picture while leading a private workshop.  This year, I decided to walk up hill to scout for better photo ops.  A good 10-15 minutes above the bridge that crosses the stream, I found some much more pleasing mossy boulders than lower down and proceeded to spend several hours taking pictures.

This is my favorite image.  This vine maple overhung a nice section of moss covered rocks and had some really cool delicate branches.  Even though there was no wind blowing, this image was incredibly difficult to photograph as the leaves were ever so gently bouncing, making long exposures blurry.  I was trying for the largest depth of field possible by shooting within 2 feet of the foreground leaves while trying not to fall into the stream on the slippery rocks.  I finally got one image while shooting at f16, 3.2 sec, and ISO 400.  You gotta love the backlit leaves during a photo shoot in the rainforest!  Also, you better like the color green.

I just returned from a 1 week private photography workshop/tour that I lead for a client of Olympic National Park.  The trip started last weekend with a sunny 80° day in Seattle.  We drove down to Mount Rainier National Park for the first night with ambitions to photograph Reflection Lake at sunrise.  The weather changed while we were sleeping, and when we woke up it was cloudy and 40°.  So after getting skunked, we started our drive out to our main destination for the week in typical NW crummy weather.  I kept telling Dan, that this weather was going to be great for our ambitions to photograph in the rainforest, but that it might not be great for photographing beach sunsets.  Over the next 4 days, it mostly drizzled or poured on us, but we took advantage of the weather to photograph the spectacular greens of the temperate rainforest.  I spent a lot of time walking around looking for patterns and unique mossy things to photograph.  I really felt like I pushed myself photographically in a way that I have never done before in the rainforest.  It is not an easy place to see the pictures through the chaos of branches and leaves.  I was especially drawn to backlit leaves that just glowed green.  I had fun, but it is again sunny and 80° here in Seattle.  I’ll be outside working on my tan this afternoon.

A few weeks ago, I lead a private photography workshop for Mark & Ross from Minnesota. We had a very busy 3 day trip photographing the rainforest in the afternoon and beaches at sunrise and sunset. I had not been out to Second Beach for several years, but it was as spectacular as ever. I think that we all agreed that this sunset image was the nicest of the whole trip.

Please visit my Nature Photography Workshops page to learn more about my private photography workshops or visit my Olympic National Park Photography page to see more of my images from the Washington coast.