Knocking out a couple of sun salutations is a good way to get your juices flowing in the morning. Lately, a couple of lovely Zeiss Sonnar lenses have been waking up some of my photographs. The basic Sonnar lens design was developed at Zeiss in 1930 and the name derives from Sonne, German for sun.
The image of the cypress foliage was captured using the Zeiss Sonnar 100 mm f/3.5 lens mounted on a Contax ST. The film stock was Lomography Berlin and processing was done in a monobath, because why not? Interestingly, I think the negatives came out better using the monobath than when processed using separate solutions. At any rate, this is a really terrific lens that punches above its weight, and like most slowish lenses is cheap as chips. In addition to a pleasant rendering overall, good sharpness, a flat field, the bokeh is pretty spectacular too. Pairs well with digital sensors in addition to analog.
The magnolia is my favorite tree, which is a really good thing given their abundance down here. This majestic tree, illuminated by the late afternoon sun, was shot on Lomography 800 film using the Contax T point and shoot camera. Man, what a jewel of a lens! The famous 38 mm f/2.8 lens is a Sonnar design, and really shines here (sorry for that).
You know, it is not a bad idea to keep a Sonnar in your back pocket when you are out and about. It won't take up that much room -- small size is another benefit of this classic lens design.
