Showcase Zeiss Sony Alpha 85mm f:1.4 on NEX-6

Thanks to the generosity of a colleague who has an enormous collection of cameras and lenses, this weekend I have the loan of a Zeiss 85mm f:1.4 lens in Sony Alpha mount. I have been shooting with it today on on my NEX-6 with the aid of a LA-EA2 adapter, mostly (so far) at the weekend event of an organization of re-enactors of the US Civil War.

I plan to post some of the shots from that event in another thread, but in this thread I am posting a shot that is my tribute to this lens.

To get a shallow depth of field, this image was taken wide open at ISO 100, which required a shutter speed of 1/3200 second.

The result was:



- Tom -

 

On a vaguely related subject - Have you noticed the seeming schizophrenia of the three Civil War statues in front of the West Virginia Capital building?

- Tom -

 

No big thing - although some people might think so.

As you stand on the front steps of the Capitol building, looking toward the river, there are three life-size statues in view - all related to the Civil War. At the front corner of the grounds on your right will be a memorial to the 26,000 men of West Virginia who died fighting for the Union. In the center, just inland from the Blvd, is a statue of Abraham Lincoln - the President of the United States whose signature created the State of West Virginia in 1863.

At the front corner of the grounds on your left will be a memorial statue of . . . Stonewall Jackson.

(For those not familiar with US history, Jackson was one of the preeminent Generals of the Confederacy, considered by many to be second only to Robert E. Lee in ability. Many historians believe that if Jackson had not been accidentally killed in the dark at Chancellorsville by one of his own sentries, his presence at Gettysburg as one of Lee's subordinates would have resulted in a crushing victory for the Confederacy that might have ended the war at that time. Instead, Gettysburg was a Union victory and is considered a turning point of the war, even though it actually dragged on for almost two more years.)

The reason for the presence of the statue of Jackson is that he was born and raised in Clarksburg, West Virginia - although it was actually listed as Clarksburg, Virginia until 1863, when West Virginia officially became a separate state. Many years ago, the W. Va. Legislature decided to recognize the genius of "a native West Virginian", even if he did fight for "the wrong side".

FWIW, I have photos of all of those statues - although they were taken before the NEX cameras were introduced. Ironically, the specific locations of the statues happen to result in better composition for the image of Jackson.

- Tom -