Last Sunday was an exceptionally warm day here in Southern Ontario (10 c) and even though I was not feeling so great, I wanted to get out there and enjoy the pleasant weather and take a few photos. My destination was the Lynde Shores Conservation area, just 10 minutes away from home.
Normally, I would take a kit bag consisting of a camera, a bunch of lenses, filters, etc. After a while it’s all overkill and it can just get in the way. This time around I decided to go the KISS route and take only the camera and two small prime lenses. This is a very simple kit that harkens back to the days of 35mm film photography with a fixed prime lens. No fancy zooms, if you want to change perspective, just use your legs and walk. Reminds me of my first SLR camera that I got when I was a teenager, all I had was the camera and two simple prime lenses.
I grabbed my Pentax K-5 and the two small lenses: a 35mm prime and a 21mm pancake prime. One lens was left on the camera and the other in my pocket. It made the whole venture fun and I was better able to enjoy my walk as I was not toting around a big shoulder bag. One of the reasons I got into Pentax is because they are one of the few DSLR manufacturers who offer small, high quality primes. As an added bonus, I was able to smoke a tasty Cuban Cigar because both hands were free thanks to KISS.
I took the photos near sunset in the hopes of getting some nice light. However, the lighting was so dull and flat I opted to auto-bracket most of my exposures and merge them using HDR software. One of the nice things about the Pentax K-5 is I can do this at the touch of a button. The camera quickly fires off five shots ready for processing. I guess the post processing did not quite follow the KISS principle, but I had fun talking the shots, enjoyed a brisk walk. Besides, playing with HDR software is fun too!
