In Pictures: Follow Matthew Miszczak on his visual journey through Finland.
Get an inside look at Matthew Miszczak (aka @sliceofmatt)’s recent trip to Finland with his ultimate travel companions, the Canon 16-35mm f2.8 and 70-200mm f2.8…
“First things first, I absolutely love both of these lenses. My everyday lens used to be a Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 as I wanted something that was versatile and not too expensive as I had just splashed out on a Canon 6D as my first DSLR (currently shooting on a Canon 5D Mark IV). While that lens is a great starter lens and it has served me well, I really learnt the value of Canon glass on this trip. The images these lenses produced just felt cleaner and crispier, and I only realised after we got back from Finland, that I didn’t use my Tamron once! As someone who was carrying all my gear in a backpack, this kind of irritated me a little bit because it meant I was carrying extra weight around for 10 days, but it also taught me that you don’t need to be able to cover every focal length to be able to get the photos you want.
On our trip, I managed to capture a lot of beautiful architecture which is where the Canon 16-35mm came in very handy as you’re not always blessed with being able to get further away from your subject while maintaining a clear view. This lens played a big role in helping me fall in love with Oodi, the Helsinki Central Library. I could go on about the building itself and the purpose it serves for days, but being able to capture such a large building, with its exquisite architecture is what made me fall in love with the lens! I know, there’s a lot of loving happening but trust me, if I could be in a polyamorous relationship with Oodi and the 16-35mm I would be.
The Canon 70-200mm was another beast completely. I’ve had the pleasure of using this lens on multiple occasions so I already knew how much I loved it, and it was actually next on my camera gear shopping list, knocked down a place only by the 16-35mm mentioned above! This lens was so great for focusing on details when in the cities, and then obviously when we were up in Finnish lapland it would have been great for capturing wildlife, but unfortunately we didn’t have much time to go on remote hikes so we only managed to briefly see some reindeer. However, one thing that I hadn’t yet played around with, with this lens, was experimenting shooting out the plane window. I had always assumed that a wide lens would work best on a plane as you might want to capture as wide a field of view as possible, to best convey what it’s like to look out of a plane window, but shooting with a long lens and using the opposite window as a frame really builds some creative and beautiful, compact images (the stabilisation really came in handy here).
I think part of the reason these two lenses work so well together (and are my ultimate travel companions) is because they don’t really overlap each other at all, so you can shoot the same scenario with each lens and capture two completely different feelings/ideas. I would 10/10 recommend either of these two lenses and I can guarantee you that this won’t be the last you’ll hear from me about them.”
Head over to Orms Direct to try out these lenses for yourself and find your own ultimate travel companions!
