{"id":441,"date":"2016-10-10T13:37:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T13:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/?p=441"},"modified":"2021-12-16T10:27:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T10:27:13","slug":"zeiss-loxia-21-in-muscat-oman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/?p=441","title":{"rendered":"Zeiss Loxia 21 in Muscat, Oman"},"content":{"rendered":"

I visit Muscat around twice a year, on business, and I always take the opportunity to go back to some of the places that have stayed in my memory from when I lived there. For example, I like to go to Mutrah to walk around in the souk and the Corniche at sunset; or go to the Grand Mosque to try and find some new angle. This is not easy for me, as the free time is not much, and I photographed these places many times before.<\/span><\/p>\n

So for this trip I planned something different, I would only take one lens, the Zeiss Loxia 21 f2.8, mounted on the Sony A7. I also took a small travel tripod, as exposure times would be long. My idea was to visit the Mutrah souk, place the tripod on a busy lace, and shoot around. This would be a great testing ground for this lens. I shoot a lot of travel and people, but using a 21mm lens only was a first for me. It would also be challenging, as 21mm includes a lot in the frame, so getting good and clean compositions is not easy.<\/span><\/p>\n

From my previous experiences in Muscat, and in Oman, people are really very friendly and are not camera shy; but how would they react to a foreigner shooting off a tripod in the middle of the souk? Well, I had no problems whatsoever, and even showed the results to a few passers-by. Also, there was a local photographer doing the same thing, but using a much larger tripod and camera\/lens combination!<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus encouraged, I just walked along the familiar narrow alleyways, setting up the tripod on an interesting place, and waiting for someone to go by. I am happy with the results, as the ambiance of the place is perfectly reproduced, and the people are registered in a ghostly fashion, adding mystery to the scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the visit to the Grand Mosque, it was a short one at the end of the day, and I came away with interesting shots of the large dome\u2019s reflection in the marble floor. At this time of the day, the Mosque is closed to visitors, so I merely wandered around trying to shoot interesting angles. In the end, I was happy to have captured some new points of view, by setting the camera on the ground, or by placing the tripod ill-balanced on the fence. It was a bit of a frantic session, with lots of running around, as the blue hour does not last much.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the lens, it performed admirably. I would just use say f5.6 or f8, pre-focus, wait for something to happen, and shoot. Plus, no other lens maker does stars like Zeiss! Great contrast, and beautiful colour reproduction too. A winner of a lens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mutrah<\/a>
Mutrah corniche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mutrah<\/a>
Mutrah souk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mutrah<\/a>
Mutrah souk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mutrah<\/a>
Mutrah souk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mutrah<\/a>
Mutrah corniche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mutrah<\/a>
Mutrah corniche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Grand<\/a>
Grand Mosque sunset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Grand<\/a>
Grand Mosque<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Grand<\/a>
Grand Mosque blue hour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Grand<\/a>
Grand Mosque blue hour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I visit Muscat around twice a year, on business, and I always take the opportunity to go back to some of the places that have stayed in my memory from when I lived there. For example, I like to go to Mutrah to walk around in the souk and the Corniche at sunset; or go … Continue reading Zeiss Loxia 21 in Muscat, Oman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2228,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions\/2228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}