September 27, 2012
Mears Peak in the Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado, and Lenses Used For The Blog Images

Mears Peak (13441 ft, 4097 m) is in the Sneffels Range of the San Juan Mountains and is one of my favorite subjects in the fall because of the compositions with yellow aspens that are available from Dallas Divide. This image was created from two captures in order to retain detail in the very bright sunlit areas of snow even though I also used a 2-stop soft graduated neutral density (ND) filter to balance the bright sky and snow-covered mountain with the darker foreground. I had set up the 1D X to make two auto-bracked images so I could easily capture paired images as the clouds moved by and the light increased and decreased on the foreground so I wouldn't miss the best image.

Lenses Used For The Blog Images

Someone asked me the other day which tilt/shift lens I used most, and it was a no-brainer to say the TS-E 24mm f3.5 L II. I find that the angle-of view with the 24mm lens is great for landscapes with a dominant foreground element, and the tilt motion lets me get that foreground element and the distant background in focus.

That question got me thinking about how much I use the TS-E 17mm f4 L, so I worked up this table that shows the percentage of images in the blog, through today, that were taken with various lenses. It's not truly representative of how many images I take with each lens, but it is a fairly good representation of the best images I take with each lens.

I'm not surprised that the 500 f4 comes out on top because that's my go-to lens for practically all wildlife images. I was surprised that the 70-200 f2.8 came out second because I haven't had the lens that long. However, I have been using it and the 180 Macro exclusively so far for my current fall colors photography. I was also a bit surprised that the 180 Macro was my next most-used lens — I thought I used the TS-E 24mm more than that. The TS-E 24mm line includes both the Mk I and Mk II versions of the lens. I'm also not surprised that the 100-400 comes in last because I had practically stopped using it by the time I started the blog.