Gorgeous Fall Color in Lundy Canyon: Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM in the field in Eastern Sierra
Related: Eastern Sierra, health, Lundy Canyon area, peak bagging, Populus tremuloides, Sony, Sony FE, Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM, Sony Lenses
See my Sony mirrorless wishlist.
Status of Eastern Sierra
Health-hazardous forest fire smoke kept me away from the Eastern Sierra until October 25. There was some haze as far north as Bridgeport, but not bad, and by Sunday morning the air was its refreshing clean October self. Forest fire smoke intruded over the high peaks by mid-day on Sunday, but never made it down into Lundy Canyon (no odor, minimal haze). Things improved even more today (Monday), but it does look like the smoke is holding near the Tioga Pass region, possibly being pushed off by late today—haven’t been there yet as I have no need to reduce my health (I actually brought my IQAir Multi Gas air purifier with mes so that I could breathy healthy area all night)—because I have seen AQI range from 0 to 420 in the same place in 24 hours (e.g., White Mountains).
So I’m delighted to have made it to the Eastern Sierra with some fall aspen fall color still lingering in Lundy Canyon on Sunday. There was a goodly amount of aspen color on Sunday. While it is rare to see this much color this late, it has been very warm till now. Saturday’s overnight temps were cold (maybe 25°), which left Sunday looking spectacular. But last night’s 15°F temperatures are late October with a vengeance, coating the beaver ponds with ice (some of which did not melt). The season is coming on cold with a vengeance. It’s darn hard to shoot at 17°F without getting painfully cold hands, and boy they ache when warmed up, and the sun doesn’t even hit this meadow until 11 AM.
Today’s (Monday) pleasant but brisk wind set to work on the remaining leaves, and sadly I watched most trees go bare or nearly so today—in just one day! Well, I got my one-day reward and for that I am grateful. The overnight deep freeze also shifted some aspen from brilliant yellow to a brownish-yellow.
Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM
Shown below is one of many images I’ve made with the Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM. The Sony FE 12-24/2.8GM is proving to be a spectacular performer when attention is paid to focus placement that takes into account focus shift. At about $2998 it is expensive, but so far it looks like I can dispense with every lens in its range, including prime lenses—comparisons will prove that out.
I’ve not had time to process more examples as my total functional time* is still limited, so most time so far has been making images—heck it took 90 minutes just to organize work from two days of shooting.
This page kicks off some examples, just this image so far as I write this:
Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM Examples: Lundy Canyon
Includes images at up to full camera resolution.
* My ongoing saga as a COVID long haul patient continues—my physical ability on many days is 10% of what I had last fall or this spring. Exceeding my energy budget overdrafts my account big time, and it can take a week to get back to zero, so I have to be very attentive to stopping short when I am feeling the “sag” and take two naps a day most days. I can’t tell if EBV is still active and/or how much Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is involved. I seem to be getting about 1% better per day.
Sony A7R IV + Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM @ 12mm
ENV: Lundy Canyon, altitude 8000 ft / 2438 m, 32°F / 0°C
RAW: Enhance Details, LACA corrected, push 0.33 stops, +78 Shadows, -65 Highlights, +40 Whites, +15 Clarity, USM {8,50,0}, vignetting corrected (100), diffraction mitigating sharpening
[low-res image for bot]
