ST ANNE’S PARK IN RAHENY
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A Rich Tapestry of Trees
St. Anne’s Park boasts a diverse and mature collection of trees, many of which were planted in the 19th century by the Guinness family. This gives the park’s woodlands a sense of history and grandeur. You’ll find a delightful mix of native and exotic species, including:
Native: Oak, Ash, Beech, Elm, Lime, Chestnut, Yew
Exotic: Holm Oak, Monterey Pine, Himalayan Pine, Atlas Cedar
The variety of trees creates a multi-layered canopy, providing a rich habitat for wildlife and a changing spectacle of colour throughout the year.
Unique & Unusual Features
Shelterbelts of Holm Oak: Lord and Lady Ardilaun, the Guinness family members who developed the park, planted extensive belts of Holm Oak to protect the park’s interior from the harsh easterly winds and salt spray from the sea. These evergreen oaks, native to the Mediterranean, are well-suited to coastal conditions and their dense foliage creates a microclimate within the park.
Avenue of Giants: The park’s Main Avenue is a magnificent mile-long stretch lined with alternating plantings of Holm Oak, Monterey Pine, and Austrian Pine. These mature trees form a majestic canopy overhead, offering a sense of enclosure and grandeur.
Coastal Adaptations: The trees closest to the sea display fascinating adaptations to their challenging environment. Their branches often grow in a windswept, contorted fashion, sculpted by the prevailing winds. Some trees may also exhibit stunted growth due to salt exposure.
Impact of the Sea
The proximity of the sea has a profound influence on the park’s trees and woodlands:
Salt Spray: The wind carries salt spray from the sea, which can damage leaves and inhibit growth. This is particularly noticeable on trees near the coast.
Wind Exposure: The prevailing easterly winds can be strong, especially in winter. This can cause physical damage to trees, leading to broken branches or even uprooting.
Soil Conditions: The sandy soil near the coast is free-draining and nutrient-poor, posing challenges for tree growth.
Resilience & Adaptation
Despite these challenges, the trees and woodlands of St. Anne’s Park have shown remarkable resilience and adaptation. The shelterbelts of Holm Oak play a crucial role in mitigating the impact of the sea, creating a more sheltered environment for other trees to thrive. The trees’ windswept shapes and stunted growth are testament to their ability to survive and even flourish in a demanding coastal environment.
Today I used a Zeiss Batis 25mm Lens.
The Zeiss Batis lens series, designed specifically for Sony E-mount cameras, is a collection of prime lenses that excel in image quality, build, and innovative features. Let’s discuss some of their key aspects:
Image Quality
Sharpness: Zeiss Batis lenses are known for their exceptional sharpness and clarity across the frame, even when shooting wide open. They produce images with fine details and beautiful contrast, making them ideal for various genres like landscape, portrait, and street photography.
Color Rendition: These lenses deliver accurate and pleasing color reproduction with natural skin tones, making them particularly suitable for portrait photographers.
Bokeh: The wide apertures of Batis lenses allow for stunning shallow depth of field effects with smooth and creamy bokeh, contributing to beautiful subject isolation and background separation.
Build Quality and Features
Durable Construction: Built with a combination of high-tech plastics and metal, Batis lenses are both lightweight and robust, designed to withstand demanding outdoor conditions and extensive use.
Weather Sealing: The lenses are sealed against dust and moisture, offering added protection when shooting in challenging environments.
Autofocus: Batis lenses feature fast and quiet autofocus motors, crucial for capturing fleeting moments and ensuring precise focus.
Manual Focus: The focus rings on Batis lenses provide smooth and precise manual focus control, ideal for situations where critical focus is crucial or for creative effects.
OLED Display: A unique feature in the Batis line, the OLED display provides information about focus distance and depth of field, assisting in achieving precise focus, especially in low-light conditions.
Lens Lineup
The Batis series covers a range of popular focal lengths, each offering unique perspectives for different photographic needs.
Batis 18mm f/2.8: A wide-angle lens perfect for landscapes, architecture, and astrophotography.
Batis 25mm f/2: A versatile wide-angle prime ideal for street photography, environmental portraits, and landscapes.
Batis 40mm f/2 CF: A compact and lightweight standard lens suitable for various genres, including travel, street, and documentary photography.
Batis 85mm f/1.8: A classic portrait lens with beautiful bokeh and shallow depth of field for stunning portraits and headshots.
Batis 135mm f/2.8: A telephoto lens for portraits, sports, and wildlife photography, offering compression and subject isolation.
Conclusion:
Zeiss Batis lenses are a premium choice for Sony E-mount photographers looking for outstanding image quality, reliable performance, and innovative features. While they may be an investment, their superb optics, durable build, and unique features like the OLED display make them a worthwhile addition to any photographer’s kit.
I own the 25mm, the 85mm and the 135mm and hope to purchase both the 40mm and the 18mm lenses at some future date.
I should mention that I was about to purchase some Zeiss Loxia lens but was advised by a contact that there is a known issue that develops over time:
The issue primarily revolves around the aperture communication between the lens and the camera body, particularly with newer Sony models.
Here’s a breakdown of the problem:
Inconsistent aperture communication: The issue manifests as erratic behaviour in how the aperture value is communicated from the lens to the camera. This can lead to several problems, including:
Focus magnification issues: The camera might unexpectedly exit focus magnification mode when focusing at certain apertures, making it challenging to achieve critical focus, especially for manual focus lenses like the Loxia.
Exposure inconsistencies: The camera might struggle to meter correctly or take an exposure at all due to the fluctuating aperture signals.
Flickering aperture display: The aperture value displayed on the camera’s screen or viewfinder might flicker or change erratically.
Cause: The root cause is likely related to the mechanical aperture ring and the encoder that translates its position into an electronic signal for the camera. Over time, wear and tear or even slight corrosion can affect the precision of this communication.
Affected models: While the issue can affect any Loxia lens, it seems more prevalent in certain models and particularly pronounced when used with newer Sony cameras like the A1 and A7R V.
Solutions Suggested To Me:
Send to Zeiss for repair: Zeiss has acknowledged the issue and offers repair services for affected lenses, typically involving replacing the aperture encoder.
Exercise the aperture ring: Regularly moving the aperture ring through its full range can help prevent corrosion and maintain smoother operation.
Workarounds: Some users have reported success by sticking to specific apertures where the issue doesn’t occur or by using alternative focusing methods. However, these are not ideal long-term solutions.