I'll be leaving Saturday for a little break. We'll be going to the Big Island of Hawaii and staying at one of our favorite resorts, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, at the northern part of the Kona coast. It's been recently renovated and we want to see how it compares to our many previous stays.
As the above photo (which I created for a speech I gave at the International Center of Photography) suggests, I really enjoy traveling with a small Billingham bag and a handful of Limited and FA lenses.
The resort was designed by Rockefeller in 1965. It has a very open and terraced architecture, houses an incredible collection of Asian art, and has beautiful grounds. This got me thinking that I should give myself an assignment to try and capture a set of photos that gives someone who's never been to the Mauna Kea a real sense of what the hotel looks and feels like. In essence, try to provide a more accurate set of images than the few miscellaneous photos that one can look at if you're using Trip Advisor or other travel sites.
With this criteria in mind, I've decided to take only three lenses. And to make this a fun post, the first person that can post a comment that accurately lists the three lenses I'll be taking with me will get a prize that I'm still trying to figure out...but it will be something that contains glass.
To help you narrow down the trio of lenses, they will be a combination of DA Limiteds and the FA Limited lenses. And to eliminate any draws wherein more than one person guesses the right three lenses, include a brief reason why you think I selected those particular lenses.
Good luck and Aloha!
May 14th (Friday Night Update):
I guess my contest wasn't that hard or my shooting style is too predictable. I had a winner almost instantly. I didn't think this would happen as I figured the surprise element was that I will not be taking the FA31mm.
The three lenses are DA15, DA35mm Macro and the FA77mm for the reasons that many of your pointed out. I literally was trying to finish all pending work today, as well as get ready for the early flight in the morning, so I'll have to confirm the winner in the next few days while I have some downtime at the Mauna Kea.
This contest was a rather spontaneous idea while I was waiting for a delayed flight Thursday night to take off from Denver, so I am really pleased with all the comments you contributed. Dialogue on lens selection and the reasoning behind how and why one chooses their lenses for an assignment turned out to be a nice topic. I think I'll have to do this again choosing another aspect of photography?
