Dolomites // Black & White Portraits
A few years back we were invited to the Dolomites (mountains) in Italy by the local tourism board.
During these few days we did a lot of trekking and of course took a lot of photos since this is what our hosts were after… photos we’d take and share with our followers to show the beauty of the place.
That particular day after hours walking through rugged terrain we stopped at a little mountain refuge where we all had lunch. The place was a little farm isolated from civilisation and was run by a few old ladies who no doubt were in better physical shape than us urban tourists were.
This is one of the ladies who cooked the typical mountain feast for us.
I went in the kitchen and they all saw my camera and hid behind whatever they could find to avoid my lens.
After a few smiles and messing about, I eventually got this lady to stand still for me so I could take the shot.
One of my favourite portraits.
It was shot using a Voigtlander Nokton 50mm 1.5 lens which is my favourite for its visual qualities. Paired with my camera it produces a rich range of black and grey tones, a rich contrast and a divine bokeh / shallow depth of field. One of those lenses which gets the shot you want and never requires editing once out of the camera.
The only difficulty with that lens is it’s a manual focusing one, so it requires speed and accuracy from the photographer so not to miss the shot or end up with the nose in focus but not the eyes… not what we want is it!
If you are curious about this beauty of a lens, I wrote a full review with more black and white examples here:
VOIGTLANDER NOKTON 50MM F1.5 ON SONY A7 SERIES
I hope you all have a wonderful week.
Until next time,
Nico