A bit of something nice ...

Kowhai, 35mm f1.4G wide open.

Preparing for a session with Cat Tunks at Titirangi's Hardware cafe I've managed to borrow to lovely Nikkor 35mm f1.4.  I'd taken a few shots in the Toolroom at the Hardware cafe a few months ago as part of the Titirangi music festival.  Light was a problem then.  Well, light and the somewhat cramped environment in which the musicians performed.  I'd used my 50mm f1.8 last time, but this time fancied something a little faster, and also something that would be sharp with the lens open.  My 50mm f1.8 is a great lens, but isn't the sharpest at f1.8.  The 85mm f1.4 I was playing with last week was quite lovely even wide open, but would be a little long for the cramped environment of the Toolroom.

So there you go, that's why I've got the 35mm f1.4.  I intend using just this one lens at Cat's performance tonight at the Toolroom, but will it be as sharp as I hope?

Off into the garden again to have a little play and come to terms with the lens.

First shot in this post is of the kowhai blooms at the top of my driveway.  Really quite lovely flowers and the setting sun has given a wonderful golden glow to the flowers.  Nice and sharp, quite shallow depth of field and the bokeh effect isn't too bad.  For me, not as pleasing as with the 85mm f1.4, but that's OK.

Weeds!  35mm f1.4G, wide open

Still keen to see how sharp this lens is wide open, curious about the bokeh and intrigued by how close I could focus we now get the second shot.  These are some weeds in the lawn by the garage door.  I was quite pleased here.  I can see the hairs on the flower stems, but there's some quite nice blur both in the foreground and background.  This shot was focused manually as I was having a few problems with the autofocus whilst so close to the weeds.

Right, now all I need to do is get something to eat, have a wash, get changed and drive over to the Toolroom.  I'll post some more photos of Cat and the band later today or tomorrow ... depends how much fun I'm having!