Couple Portraits in the most famous places of Paris - a day of photography in the city of love

A weekend to make couple portraits in all the most popular place of Paris

My very good friend was on the point to get married, and he thought about making nice portraits of him and his fiancée (now his wife!) to print in A2 format and dress during the celebration dinner. I therefore took the TGV to Paris France and we spent a very nice weekend making portrait photography accross Paris and its most famous monuments: Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, Montparnasse, Notre Dame, Jardin du Luxembourg, … Thanks to the model who were very photogenics!

Hope you enjoy these couple portraits in Paris! All shots were done with Canon EOS 5D MKII, Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L II USM and Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L USM. I’ve also used flash Canon Speedlite 580 EXII, which gives very natural render especially in those conditions. I’ve also made a few black and white edits to give some more depth to it.

The Black and White edits

Panviman Chiang Mai Spa Resort, Thailand 5 stars hotel - 45 photos with Canon 5D MKII

Panviman Chiang Mai Spa Resort - A beautiful 5 stars hotel in North of Thailand

The Panviman Chiang Mai Spa Resort is lovely, and will definitely not let you undifferent. Located few kilometers away from Chiang Mai, it’s a place to get fantastic rest. You can also enjoy the magnificient spa facilities, and touring the hotel resort will already be a nice 1-2h adventure as it’s really big! The hotel is located very close from the Masea Elephant School, and has lots of activities you can enjoy such as cooking class or spa massage.

The staff was exceptionally great, and we’ve even been invited to their year end party, which was really a fantastic moment for us: we had really good time, and we danced with them and enjoyed a few hot drinks all together! Probably one of the best moment from our 2 weeks trip in Thailand! Thanks for all! 

The place is also really nice for making beautiful portraits, thanks to the view and the nice epic swimming pool. Enjoy the view! 

Zermatt & Matterhorn in Fall, Cervin Valais, Switzerland / Suisse - 70 postcard photos of the most famous Swiss landscape scenery with Canon 5D MKII and Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L & 24-70mm 2.8 L

Zermatt are Matterhon (Cervin) are the icons of Switzerland postcards scenery in the Swiss Alps

The Matterhon is not necessarily the tallest mountain in Switzerland but it’s definitely the most iconic thanks to its beautiful pyramidal shape. Its French name is “Le Cervin”, is situated in Southern Valais and it’s the logo of the world famous chocolate “Toblerone”. The mountain is actually one of the most difficult to hike in the Alps. Massive and with some eternal snow on the top (4’478m), it looks really beautiful, especially from Zermatt ressort, one of the most famous mountain village of Switzerland. When coming to Zermatt, you need to let your car in one of the parking of the village of Täsh, and then you need to take the train which takes you directly to Zermatt ressort. 

The town of zermatt is very beautiful, with lot of nice hotels and cafe, and even one Mc Donalds! There are 400kms of hiking tours all around the town and with impressive view on the Matterhorn. You can also shop through many luxury shops, and the fact that there are no cars is actually extremely nice, giving a very peaceful ambiance when you walk through the streets. Breath a fresh clean air!

Canon 5D MKII and Landscape scenery

I was very much impatient to test the 5D MKII within landscape situation, as the 21M pixels are for sure helping a lot in getting nice high resolution mountain postcards shots. I started with the Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L USM, and the lens performs very well but within Zermatt, the Matterhorn was quite far away and I had to switch rapidly to the Canon 24-70mm 2.8 L USM to be able to get the mountain correctly framed. I’m actually using the 24-70mm much more often than I’d thought, mainly due to the full frame resolution the 5D MKII is offering. It needs a bit of time to get used to. 

I shot all the below pictures with Automatic White Balance (AWB), and Landscape Picture Sytle Mode. No HDR in this serie! Some of the portraits have been done with the exceptional Canon Speedlite 580 EX II to move away some of the shadows.

Download 8 HD wallpapers of Zermatt and Matterhorn (Cervin) - HD resolution up to 1920x1200 and 2560x1440

 

More JHG Photo HD wallpapers of Switzerland / Suisse / Schweiz to download for free - resolution up to 1920x1200 and 2560x1440

One day in Vevey, Suisse - Photo portrait session with Canon 5D MKII 16-35mm 2.8 L II USM, 24-70mm 2.8 L USM and Speedlite 580 EXII in Switzerland

One day in Vevey - a city living for photography

The city of Vevey carries a lot of Photo exhibition and also the famous Photo Museum with nice collections in it. Today was finishing the “Images” free exhibition, with pretty famous photographers showing their work from all over the world, including some top famous professional and many award winners, as well as few animations with artists. 

Portrait Session with Canon 5D MKII, Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L USM, Canon 24-70mm 2.8 L USM and Speedlite 580 EXII

The photo portrait session has been a real pleasure, with the camera being ultra responsive and the lenses rendering very sharp result and brilliant colors. The Speedlite 580 EXII strobe flash is actually performing exceptionally well, with very delicate light when needed, giving a very nice lightning condition in this overcast day. It actually re-sync pretty fast and doesn’t have issue when shooting in continuous mode. 

The lenses have been mainly used at f/stop 2.8 most of the time, and this is delivering perfect sharp render. No major distortion, even for the wide angle 16-35mm, which is still giving this amazing wide shot while keeping the color spectrum as close as possible to reality, something I was not able to get with the Sigma 10-20mm

I switched to Canon EOS 5D MKII - Photo Test Review with 16-35mm 2.8L, 24-70 2.8L and 100-400 4.5-5.6L

Time to switch from Sony/Minolta to the world of Canon EOS

It was time for me to go to the next level, and I wanted to purchase a full frame camera. Since I need to also invest in high quality lenses, I was facing the choice to either go with Sony A850 or to switch brand… which I’ve done by selecting the Canon EOS 5D MKII and 3 fantastic pro lenses: Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L II USM, Canon 24-70mm 2.8 L USM and Canon 100-400mm 4.5-5.6 L USM. Below you will find my feelings after some intensive photo test on the field with it, in several conditions: landscape, action, outdoor life, concert, interior, night… nothing scientific, just photographies!

Solid professional built, a little bit heavy to carry

I’ve shot 700 photographies and one movie within one day, which is not that bad!In fact, the Canon 5D MKII is just a fantastic piece of art, it just totally revolutionised the way I will do photography, after 2.5 years with the Sony A700 and few G lenses from Minolta (not SSM, but 2.8 G). First of all, the camera is very well built, the lenses are solid and their are razor sharp… the only downside is that it’s quite heavy if you carry the 3 lenses and the 580 EXII Speedlite flash as well! The feeling of shooting with this new camera is like having a new generation of camera in hand (it already has 18months on the market!), and the speed, the noise and the experience is in a totally different league. It’s probably impossible to come back!

Fast Autofocus and metering always correct

I’ve been lucky enough today to find many nice situations to test the camera. It scores very well in every type of conditions, whether the subject is landscape or static, or whether it’s action. The combinaison of fast L lenses should probably help a lot. The first thing that strikes me was the very silent AutoFocus motor, so silent that I thought it was not working. Vey different from the Minolta non SSM lenses! The AF is most of the time intuitive and right, which is a pleasure to work with. The light metering is always very acurate, and there are almost no under or overexposure.

Superb viewfinder to enjoy making photography again and again

The viewfinder of the Canon 5D MKII is super bright and large, which finally makes the Manual Focus process possible and even pleasant to do. On top, the view within the finder is gorgeous and really makes you wish to do more photos, again and again!

Sharp like a razor, gorgeous color spectrum

The lenses are providing a very sharp results, even on the 21Mpixels the camera is providing. The bokeh at 2.8 aperture is very soft and creamy, extremely pleasant to look at. The colors are very well rendered, without any exaggerated saturation or artificial colors. Instead, the colors are showing very beautiful contrast, with an impressive spectrum of degrade of red, green and yellow. The results are professional straight from the camera, and there are very little need to work on the picture in Lightroom.

Shoot in High ISO (up to 6400) without noise

Shooting at 3200 and 6400 ISO is possible with the Canon 5D MKII… and it gives fantastic results without noise! Amazing, I’m totally stunt, especially in the concert pictures where you need sufficient shutter speed in dark conditions, it works perfectly. Auto ISO is selected automatically picture by picture, and the final result is not showing any differences, even when viewed at 100%.

Conclusion is no brainer, the Canon 5D MKII is the best choice I could have done

I’m extremely happy with the choice I made. The world of Canon EOS will also provide me much more choice and stability in the investment I’ve done, which is also an important reason for me to switch. The photo final results are impressive and professional, straight out of the camera. Shooting in high ISO is expanding the range of usability, and these by managing the noise at very low level. Look at the pictures below made on my first day with the camera!

Samples

All pictures below have been made with Canon 5D MKII, 16-35mm 2.8 L USM, 24-70mm 2-8 L USM and 100-400mm 4.5-5.6 L USM. All shots have been made under cloudy conditions between Morges and Lausanne, in Switzerland, next to the Leman Lake (Geneva Lake). Auto ISO, mostly Aperture priority or fully manual, and most of the time shot at fastest aperture possible on the lens (2.8 or 4.5).