Travel Photography with Sigma Prime Lenses
When I first bought my Sony A7R III camera, the first lens I bought was the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens, which was what I primarily used for street photography. But after reading reviews and seeing photography examples of how sharp prime lenses were, I knew that I had to add at least one to my camera gear.
My journey into photography started with street photography at night around Los Angeles. Although I loved the versatility of the 24-70 zoom lens, I wanted to get a lens that had a wide enough aperture that I could photograph with and not have to think about using noise reduction (this was before the AI Noise Reduction feature in Adobe Lightroom was available).
The Sigma DG DN Art lenses were my first choice and they have been in the main line of prime lenses that I use for all of my photography.
Sony A7R III | Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/400 sec. | f/4.5 | ISO 320
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/800 sec. | f/10 | ISO 200
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/640 sec. | f/5.6 | ISO 320
Sony A7R III | Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/400 sec. | f/5.0 | ISO 320
Sony A7R III | Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/500 sec. | f/5.6 | ISO 100
FOCAL LENGTHS FOR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
Because I’m only work with one focal length when using a prime lens, I wanted to buy at least two lenses that were different enough to allow for versaility, but that would still serve me well when creating travel and lifestyle content across different types of photography.
Since the 24-70mm lens took care of the wide angles, I bought the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art first just because it was a new focal length. At first, I only used this lens for portraits, but over the last year I’ve come to view this lens as an incredibly cinematic lens for adventure and lifestyle photography. The 85mm focal length is a great lens to use when getting closer up shots and isolating subjects from their background. Through using the 85mm lens, I began to incorproate a new perspective into my photography by focusing on details, and not just wide landscape shots.
After having the 85mm lens for a few years, I debated between buying the Sigma 24mm lens or the 35mm lens. In the end, I decided to go with the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lens because I wanted a camera that would be wide enough to capture the narrow streets during my Tokyo trip, but I also wanted a lens that I could use for lifestyle portraits that wouldn’t offer too much distortion. When I look back at all of the photos I took with my 24-70mm lens, the photos that I liked the most and found the most cinematic were taken in the 31-37mm focal length range.
Taken on the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G-Master Lens | Focal Length: 32mm
Taken on the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN ART
Taken on the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G-Master Lens | Focal Length: 38mm
Taken on the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN ART
Travel Lightly
As a travel photographer, I spend hours wandering around cities and beaches to find new and exciting destinations. I always bring my camera bag with me because I never know when I’m going to encounter a scene that I want to photograph. When looking for new camera gear, one of the most important things for me is to find equipment that won’t be too burdensome to travel with.
Overall, I find the Sigma prime lenses to be compact enough to travel with. Even though I carry a lot of lenses with me, I find myself mainly using my prime lenses only. These two lenses also just happen to be the two smallest lenses that I end up taking with me when I travel. Even though they’re not as light as Sony native lenses, I find them to still be a comfortable weight to carry with me when traveling.
It’s pretty quick and easy to switch between these two lenses when I’m capturing a scene.
These photos were taken with the 35mm and 85mm Sigma lenses respectively. I had a limited amount of time to capture two different perspectives before the sunset was gone.
IMAGE QUALITY
I’m always impressed with the final photos when taken with these prime lenses paired with my Sony A7R III. I feel confident relying on both of these lenses to get sharp photos with excellent quality across a wide range of apertures.
As I’ve started to incorporate subjects and models into my mix of lifestyle and travel photography, I have started using the Sigma 85mm lens a lot more as it offers excellent compression and isolates the subject from its background very cleanly.
The Sigma 35mm was the perfect lens to use for my trip to Tokyo when I was walking across different back alleys or trying to capture wide scenes of the city.
To me travel photography is more than just photographing wide landscapes, but it’s about capturing cinematic moments in time when you’re exploring a destination. I love the versatility that a zoom lens can provide, but having two prime lenses with an aperture that goes down to 1.4 and that still maintains excellent quality has been a huge staple in my photography.
Sony A7R III | Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/400 sec. | f/1.4 | ISO 200
Sony A7R III | Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN ART | 1/200 sec. | f/2.2 | ISO 640