50mm One-Lens-Day Kinkakuji, Kyoto 金閣寺, 京都

One Lens Day

Time to practice the nifty 50mm f1.4! Bokehlicious pictures~

I have to admit I am not a big fan of the 50mm but because of this trip, have kinda grown a liking towards its flexibility of producing bokeh when you need it

As a proud owner of the trinity f2.8 series (16-35, 24-70, 70-200), the only downside to using this combination is when you need bokeh that can only be shot with f2 and wider

As with shutter speed, the 5D3/6D's ISO capabilities, its no longer a problem when you shoot in dim situations. Of course one may argue that using a 50mm will give faster shutter speeds, use lower ISO, and less noisier photos

Sometimes you just have to live with it

Zoom with your legs

Regular use of the wide 24mm lets you see everything and crop when needed. 50mm makes you think on the composition!

• Saturated out the building, leaving the sky blue

Luckily the Kinkakuji was pretty far away and was able to squeeze its reflection into the 50mm. Not to mention sharpness from the prime!

Interesting perspective, these are actually really mini steps. Got really low, extended my arms into the bamboo barrier and shot without looking

f1.4 Bokeh. Didn't manage to find a view without trees in the background. The resting area behind would have looked a lot better with its red benches and umbrellas

Taking a break, eating an ice-cream. Saw the umbrella above, and just reached my camera inside for the shoot-and-pray. Turned out to be a pretty photo, minimal LR adjustments made.

Prime sharpness!

A bird was seen flying away from the temple picture above and decided to do a quick focus on it, missed, reached home, did a 100% crop to see whether the bird was clear and found the following:

At first I thought it was dust, but after further inspection, there's another bird riding above it!

Waited for the plane to give me a longer trail

ND Filters

All the shots above were taken without ND filters. I had actually ordered a ND4 and ND8 just for this day as summer in Japan can be really bright. Somehow managed by using L ISO on the 6D