There are times when you go out and everything is just right. The weather, the location and the company you are in all meld into the perfect storm for taking images. Swansea is always a fantastic place to take photographs, but sadly I don’t visit the area enough, so this visit was very special as I had really been wanting to come back to the area for a long time!
Swansea is the second city of Wales, and has some stunning areas to visit. Its centre is starting to look a little run-down, but they are re-developing the city, and areas such as the golden bridge which is featured in these images are transforming the city.
The day was also an excuse to use my two new lenses. The Viltrox 13mm F/1.4 and the 56mm F/1.4 have been on my radar for a while, and this visit was a real experience. I fell in love with one of these lenses from the very moment I raised the viewfinder to my eye and seen the Marina looking so spectacular.
This is the second time I have edited some of these images, I decided on my own Classic Chrome inspired colour scheme which I have developed in Darktable. I’m editing raw files more than I have done for a long time, I thought if I’m editing the jpegs anyway, I may as well get the extra benefits of raw images.
I am really happy with the images I took, so much variation and so much beauty all within a relatively small area of the city. I was going to separate the images into architecture, people and marina photographs, but I thought the way the are laid out takes you through the journey we took.
The Viltrox 13mm F/1.4 is absolutely stunning! I really like wide angle lenses, and I can see why this lens has been having such great reviews. The 56mm F/1.4 is a very different beast of a lens. I love the bokeh you get in the images from it. All the relevant EXIF data is in the images if you cannot spot which lens is which.
I would like to thank AVMPhoto for these lenses. Drop them a line and tell them Mark sent you! I get nothing from it, but you might!
Comments will be most welcome, as will likes and of course subscribing! Thank you all for your time.
Mark
One Camera One Lens 
Love the backlit arches, the oblique angled one with the single figure. Looks like these lenses perform very well for your vision.
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Thank you, i really enjoyed using them and look forward to using them in the future!
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I couldn’t immediately find a favorite photo, they are practically all favorites!
As for the lenses, I’m also a fan of wide-angle lenses, so the 13mm would also be my favorite (if I still had the Fuji system) 56mm (84mm in full frame) is too long for me, but I can understand that this is different for everyone.
And judging by your photos, it looks like you have two winners.
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Thank you Marc. The 56mm certainly won’t get used as much as the 13mm, but i knew that before purchasing it. It’ll be super handy for portraits of the kids though!
I took around 200 photos yesterday in the three hours I was there. Honestly, it was so photogenic! Plus, I’ve really changed the way i take photos these days and the compositions i take are much more thought out… But that’s another story for another day!
Thanks Marc as always. And i still have my kidney stone issues. I’m having a consultation next week as it looks like I’ll need quite major surgery on it!
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This doesn’t sound so good Mark, I thought you would have gotten rid of it by now.
Well, you don’t have much choice but to hold on and believe that one day it will be over.
Take care, and good luck next week Mark !
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