THE AMAZING LANDSCAPES OF ARRAN, SCOTLAND

Here I am, back to the living and to the blogging! As I mentioned in my last post before disappearing taking a break from the keyboard, last July I have been traveling and shooting around the fantastic landscapes of Scotland; in particular, I spent a week in the island of Arran - a place previously unknown to me - and I absolutely fell in love with it. Such a fantastic location, with such amazing geology! Now I am back home, and I just finished preparing the first batch of prints for VIERI BOTTAZZINI FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY, all dedicated to my ARRAN'S IMPRESSIONS.

Impression Nr. 5, Arran

You can see all the images from this portfolio HERE if you are interested; as always, from my website you can order your favourite images in your favourite size, paper and finish as well.

Impression Nr. 27, Arran

On a technical note, for my one-month tour in Scotland I decided to leave my Nikon and Nikkors at home and travel with my Sigma SD1 Merrill (see HERE for my first impressions about it and HERE for a comparison with the Nikon D800E), to put it through its paces in the field. I also brought with me a few lenses that I was curious to try; the Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 HSM, Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 HSM, Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM, Sigma 50mm f/1.4 HSM, Sigma 85mm f/1.4 HSM and - last but not least - the new Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 HSM, which made it just in time for the trip.

Impression Nr. 11, Arran

As far as the SD1 Merrill goes, I have to say that I was pretty happy with its performance on the field, except - no wait, I need a bigger EXCEPT - for the dinosaur-era file writing speed; battery life was good enough (I had a spare, but I never had to use it); AF speed was OK. AF accuracy, on the other hand, didn't make me particularly happy: the SD1 Merrill locked focus quite quickly and decidedly, however not always perfectly so (especially, as it is expected, in lower light). After acquiring focus, a second tap of the AF-ON button will have it lock somewhere slightly different that the first time, and a third tap again differently, and so on; this, without showing any consistent pattern such as "the second time is right", or so. It could be good the first, second or third time, it could even be needing a fourth tap, and so on. In this respect, the Nikon D800E's AF is definitely more consistent. For this kind of work, I generally use MF anyway, after maybe a quick AF tap to get in the ballpark, so this was of no big concern for me. However, if you use primarily AF, I suggest to check focus visually in the viewfinder before pressing the shutter (or after the fact, magnifying your image on the LCD) to make sure you got it where you wanted it.

Impression Nr. 1, Arran

Lenses I used for this portfolio are the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 HSM, the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 HSM and Sigma 85mm f/1.4 HSM. I ended up not using the Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 HSM due to the difficulty of using filters with it; I devised a DIY solution to use my usual filters with it, but a small accident in the field to the contraption I created made it impossible to use filters after all. To have the extreme WA covered, I ended up buying a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 HSM after leaving Arran, which did the job surprisingly well (but I'll talk about it in a future post).

Impression Nr. 18, Arran

Optically, all lenses performed very well - including the 17-50mm f/2.8 HSM, despite its reputation not being so great online. Of course, I tend to use my glass well stopped down to maximise depth of field, so performance wide open was not of concern for these images. However, performance right into the corner is definitely important for me, and here I wasn't disappointed by Sigma's lineup - with the exception of the 50mm f/1.4 HSM, which is a great lens for portrait but not one I would recommend for landscape, no matter how much stopping-down you do with it. The 85mm f/1.4 HSM, on the other hand, turned out to be an amazing performer - both for portrait work and for landscape duties.

 Impression Nr. 7, Arran

For those interested, I will teach a Fine Art Photography Workshop in Arran in 2014 - just SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER to get all the info as soon as I will have it up and running!

So, that's about it for today; don't forget to check the remaining images from Arran on my ARRAN'S IMPRESSIONS gallery on VIERI BOTTAZZINI FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY!

 Impression Nr. 12, Arran

Plug: if you like beautiful, hand-signed Fine Art Prints, printed masterfully in-house on Hahnemuhle Fine Art paper, want the security of my unique 6-POINTS WARRANTY and of my CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY, then look no further: artworks featuring Fine Art prints of my Arran images are available for sale HERE!

Now for the technical stuff: all images in my Arran gallery have been shot with Sigma SD1 Merrill equipped with the 17-50mm f/2.8 HSM, the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 HSM and the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 HSM. For support I used a Gitzo tripod equipped with an Acratech GP-s ballhead; last, but certainly not least, I used Singh-Ray filters, including a polarizer & various ND filters. Photos have been developed in Sigma Photo Pro 5.2.2 and finished in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Thank you for reading this far, and stay tuned for more!

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