It was a great opportunity to see Nafplion again, one of my favorite places in Greece and meet my other friends and colleagues that were also invited.
Yiannis Alefantou, George Pahountis, Thanasis Kaiafas, Christos Contsaloudis, but also Takis Athanasopoulos and Manos Mandilaras that I met there for the first time.
I spent there only two days but they were two very fun and joyful days and we all had a really great time.
Just what I needed to start the season.
Thank you guys for the great experience. I wish we can do something similar again.

Along with the kid’s father we were seven photographers and only one Videographer so I decided to shoot more video and less stills to even it out so I ended up with a fusion style video with both motion and stills.

Enjoy!

Vasilios Christening in Nafplion from Spiros Zaharakis on Vimeo.

What a lovely wedding it was… The couple Elias and Eliana, both doctors with a great taste in everything, had paid attention to every little detail in their wedding. Photography and videography could not be left out in this perfect setup.
George Pahountis was doing the stills and me and Kostas took care of the video. I believe that we all did a great job there.
Here is a short teaser Kostas just posted.
Thumbs up Kostas, it was my pleasure working with you again.

Well, one thing I know for sure, to win an award in a competition, first thing you have to do is enter the competition (how genius is that?)

Being a member of the Fearless Photographers group for a couple months now, I decided to enter their monthly competition. The fact that some of the best photographers in the world are members there and submit images in the competition regularly, wasn’t working in my favor so I entered the competition not really expecting anything, especially after I found out that more than 2500 images were submitted from great photographers from all around the world.

I was really surprised when I saw my picture not only featured in the awards but also receiving a “best of show” title meaning that my picture was one of the 5 pictures that all 5 judges voted for.

Getting a “fearless” award is a great honor, getting a “fearless, best of show” award though is an even greater one and really not something I could even dream of.

So here is the image that was awarded:

Image taken at the bride’s preparation in Grecotel Creta Palace Hotel in Rethymnon, Crete.

A Big thank you to the judges of this competition: Ryan Brenizer, Joe Appel, Sergio, Jacqueline Dersjant, and Candice Cusic.

If you want to see some great, fearless photography, check out all the awarded images here or through facebook.

If you like more info about the fearless photographers and the  fearless awards just visit the fearless photographers web page and enjoy some of the finest wedding photography in the world.

If you like what you see, you can “like” the fearless photographers facebook page too

It’s almost 2 months since I tried the lens and I barely had the chance to check the results.
This is not really a review since I only had the lens for one day but I will try to post my experience in a few words and show few shots I took with it.

I didn’t take any comparison shots with the Canon 1.8 or the 1.2. They were both available but for some reason I didn’t want to take the Sigma lens out of my camera.

The lens feels very good and has the right size and weight. In comparison the 1.8 feels cheep and the 1.2 way too heavy.

While shooting, AF on the Sigma lens feels faster than both Canons and the final images proved that AF was not only fast but accurate too. Sharpness was trully outstanding.
In extremely low light (60 f1.4 6400) focus without AF Assist light was dificult but after a couple back and forth movements the lens was focusing accurately on the subject. I wouldn’t expect any of the Canons to make it in that kind of light without AF Assist. I was amazed.
In some backlit shots in bright daylight I noticed some CA but nothing that cannot be corrected in post.

Hadn’t I just bought a Canon 135f2 the Sigma would have already being in my bag. For now it’s only going to stay in my wish list for 2011 but as soon as I finish with some other priorities I will definately get it.

The Sigma 85 f1.4 is Highily Recommended.

The following shots were taken during the WedPro Get Together meeting in Santorini Island on a Canon 5D MkII.
They are straight out of camera processed with DPP and with a slight contrast boost in PS. No additional sharpening or other tricks.

Polyxeni At Athermi studios

100% crop from lower right corner

Polyxeni in Oia Santorini

Oia Santorini

The image that showed a bit CA

100% crop

G. Michalas looking cool in the little streets of Oia, I just love the bokeh in that shot.

Artemis Asteriadi

Oly Ruiz

G Michalas & A Seferidis in very low light at Athermi Studios 1/60, f1.4 @6400ISO

A Seferidis

At this point I would like to thank one more time Galaios Photo, www.galaiosphoto.gr the photography store that supports WedPro in all of our activities for lending us the Sigma lenses and the Canon cameras (50 f1.4, 85 f1.4, 70-200 f2.8 OS, Canon 1DMkIV, and Canon 60D)