After a deep freeze and large snow falls in early March, we finally got a nice sunny day over 10C. All winter long I’ve be champing at the bit to go out for a ride on my motorcycle and this was the first ride of 2021. As the back roads are still sandy, I played it safe and rode on the TransCanada highway to the wonderful little town of Victoria by the Sea. During the summer, this town is crammed with tourists, not so much this time of the year. The town almost seemed deserted and seasonal businesses are boarded up.
I was also eager to try out a new vintage lens for my Sony A7III: the radioactive SMC Takumar 50mm f/1.4. The rear element of this 45 to 50 year old lens has a component of radioactive thorium oxide (up to 30% by weight). The lens is safe as the radioactivity is extremely low. So why buy and old radioactive lens? Well, mainly because it has a unique look since thorium causes the lens to yellow over time and this means warm looking photos with rich and saturated colours. Getting correct white balance in the camera is tricky and I got it wrong on this first outing. I set the camera’s white balance to Daylight and the output was too warm for my taste, so I had to make adjustments in post-processing. Lesson learned for next time.
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Doncha hate when the weather doesn’t cooperate with your plans, let’s get the weatherman!!