Carl Zeiss 50 1.4 Review & The Amazing Patrica- Review/Spotlight

Here's an entry I hope you'll enjoy. It's for the lens enthusiasts, LightRoom preset lovers, and those who like a good read with photos of a wonderful friend that I've spotlighted. 

First a review: The Carl Zeiss 50mm 1.4 ZE is an item that I would call a collectors lens. Borrowlenses.com recently posted this on their site and I happen to call at the right time to be the first photographer to rent it from them. I say "collectors" because the lens is solely operated as a manual focus, and who these days want to operate a lens like that on a digital? Apparently, I do. The entire engagement session from Valentine's Day was shot with the Zeiss. The following images are also all shot with this lens. It's mountable on all Canon EOS cameras and if you're wondering, I still use my rockin' 20D (named Micah). Maybe it's silly to name a camera, but it's not silly if gets me to take better care of it because it has a name! You can read more about my past reviews on Borrowlenses.com and Canon's 50mm 1.2 that I've rented the first before the Zeiss. All around I'm pleased with the Zeiss lens and recommend you to give it a try. Just be patient with the manual focusing.

Spotlight: My friend Patricia is one of my roommates that I live with. For the past five years I've had the pleasure of experiencing a one-of-a-kind friendship with her. We both enjoy similar things like the simplicity of living life for the sake of living or how we can bring serious matters to a place of trusting the unseen and having faith to do it. Other than being my friend she is also a single mom with an eight-year-old son named Christian (I've spotlighted him a few months ago). I watch her life as a good example to stand strong and to endure, and while doing it, to laugh and love and to open my life to others so that they may share in my joy, or in the worst of times to help me stand strong again. Honestly, I love her and her extraordinary personality. You may read a little bit about her on her blog.

Lightroom Presets: You'll notice some fun digital processing on most of my images. I've been exploring Lightroom, so that I can discover all the ooohs and ahhs.  I also scored some free presets at Presets Heaven. At the very bottom of this entry I included some wild art shots. Hope you like them!

The Carl Zeiss 50mm 1.4 Lens above two books highlighting a place in the world I love

Here's Patricia showing both her carefree and confident side

and here she is showing her contemplative, serious side

Patricia has a lot of zeal and love for God in her, truly amazing

She wears two rings everyday: One is her promise ring and the other is her purity ring. 

Jonas Brothers got nothing on her!

God is her biggest inspiration, as mine

Here's a "mint tea" preset I used to bring out the

shadows on the back of this light stand.

I used a "7-Up" preset to add an interesting tone to the dimly lit walls