Two Days, Two Events, One Great Lens: Viltrox AF 85mm f/2 EVO.

The lens.

Viltrox AF 85mm f/2 EVO: The “Premium” Lens Distinction Has Been Blurred Beyond Recognition.

For a lot of words going on for quite a bit why I like this lens check out the post above. That is the tell. This post is about the show. So on to the show.

Event 1. Day 1.

A baby shower for my first cousin and his wife.

Whenever I want to feel old, I remember that at some point I babysat this gentleman.

I was the first… first cousin in my family. When I was thirteen my first two first cousins made an appearance. One of whom was this young man’s older brother.

I had a solid thirteen-year run as a solo grandchild of my Grandmother. And when I started college near my Uncle and Aunt many years ago, I greatly enjoyed visiting them. Once or twice I was actually trusted to watch after these gentlemen. It has been great watching them grow up into the great men they have become.

So when I was invited to a celebration of a new chapter in their lives, in the form of a little one, I was in. My chorus was performing the same day, and we were to sing a song I led, but family first. There is no way I would miss this event.

Just in case a portrait opportunity might break out, I brought along a small kit, including this new favorite lens.

Setting up lights like I did for a recent family portrait session with this lens…

…was not an option since this was an event. So I scoped out the area and chose the shadow of a pillar in front of the venue, which had a background that should blur nicely. My thinking was that I would use the shadow of the pillar to:

Keep the sun out of their eyes.
Make the on-camera flash with a bounce card more effective.

Then to tame the bright background, I topped out the shutter speed to keep it from blowing out since I was using ISO 200 to keep the image clean and opening up the aperture all the way.. because of course I would open the aperture all the way for a two person portrait.

Sidebar: One reason I like the EVO is that it has a sensible aperture of f/2. This counters my obsession with using all lenses at their maximum aperture. When I joke, “I hear tell you can adjust the aperture on this lens.”, I am not really joking. Sure. I could just be a grown-up and stop down bright lenses… But if I stop a lens down… Why not use another lens, even a zoom perhaps? But that is what I like about this lens. Just that much faster than a zoom while still offering subject isolation on par with faster, but larger and heavier primes… I could go on, but I will stop here. And we are back in 3, 2, 1…

That was the plan anyway. And it worked out.

From the first portrait, it delivered.

This lens focuses so swiftly that catching candid moments is quite easy.

Which also came in handy during the lullaby over trap beats contest…

…that my table, representing the Father of the baby’s family, happened to win. No trophy. We do it for the love of music. Also no pictures of that since… I was nominated to sing the lullaby as my family danced. Great fun.Other games were played as well.

A perfect lens for a wonderful event. Congratulations to my cousin and his wife.

Event 2. Day 2.

Our director called on me to take headshots of our chorus.

Gladly.

Brought my Lowes cart out for this one…

Lowe’s 4-cu ft Steel Folding Yard Cart as a Camera Cart

…since I wanted to do right by my chorus and set up a full lighting kit.

Softboxes powered by my favorite lights…

New Strobe, Who Is This?: Neewer Q4.

…and trigger.

Gear RNF: Neewer Has Silently Taken Over As My Primary Ancillary Camera Gear Brand.

Settings.

I wanted to dim the lights in the hallway for a more dramatic effect that would emphasize the pattern of the ceiling lights to make for a nice backdrop. So I used a shutter speed of 1/1,600s, ISO of 200 again, and f/2. Before trying out flash power settings I tend to give TTL a shot first to see if it gives what I was looking for. So a youth member helped me out with test pic as he arrived…

…and we are good. TTL it is. My only adjustment was moving the rear strobe further away and back to lessen the wrap around on the left. And then we got to it. Here are a few of the pics.