Landscapes, Nature

Hiking With a Single Lens

Normally when I go out to combine my hobbies of hiking and photography, I load up a backpack full of gear,  a tripod a Clif bar, a water bottle and head off somewhere.  In that bag is my usual landscape kit consisting of a Sony A7iii with multiple lenses such as a 15mm and 50mm primes, 28-75mm f/2.8, and even a big 100-400mm just in case I see some wildlife.  Add to this bag batteries, remote shutter, cleaning supplies, various ND filters and all of the other random stuff and that bag gets rather heavy.  Not this time however.

After a day in the office, I stopped on the commute home at Laurel Mountain State Park and then Linn Run State Park.  These are great places for hiking, mountain biking and even swimming in the creeks.  Knowing I was coming from my day job, I brought along only a single camera and lens on a strap.  No bag, no tripod, no filters and no accessories.  I brought along a Sony a7iii with an attached 7Artisans 35mm f/2 manual lens in a Leica M mount adapted with a Haoge LM-NEX close focus adapter.  Simple.

Having only a single focal length was great.  It really helped me compose my images with care, made the process of shooting a joy and my back was happy not to be lugging around all that gear.

Gear, Vehicles

Airshow with the Sony setup

This afternoon was spent at a local airshow and I brought my Sony A7iii and some lenses with me to capture the sights.  This was my first true test of the Sigma 100-400mm (Canon EF mount) telephoto lens attached to an MC-11 adapter and mounted on the A7iii.  I can say with certainty that it passed with flying colors.  Focus was very quick, the camera locked on and the focus box tracked the aircraft all through the frame.  I could have used some more reach, but it was my fault for not buying the 150-600mm instead…

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