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Well it’s a bit of a bittersweet day.  Some of you will recall I acquired my Sony a7rIII back in November (video review from Singapore here).  Put very simply the a7rIII is phenomenal and has met every need I’ve had and I couldn’t be happier with it.  But this post isn’t about my a7rIII.  It’s about my previous Favorite Camera Ever: my Sony a7rII.

I haven’t been using my a7rII very much lately.  There’s nothing wrong with it and its pictures are just as good as ever but I pick up the a7rIII every time because it does everything better than the II.  So eventually I made the tough decision to part ways with my Sony a7rII.  Luckily I found a reader of the blog who wanted it and he’ll take delivery of it this weekend, so I’m glad it’s going to a good home.

My Five Favorites Pictures from my Sony a7rII

An occasion such as this calls for a walk down memory lane to share some of my favorite images from this incredible camera with you.

5. Lake Bled, Slovenia

It’s hard for me to come up with any sort of Top 5 list without Lake Bled ending up on it.  It’s just such a magical and wonderful place and my a7rII went on many a journey there with me.  January 2017 took me on a quick weekend trip over to Europe to find my smile again during a tough season and Lake Bled was just what I needed.  The a7rII captured the scene perfectly!

4. Dallas, Texas

My beloved a7rII took more images of my hometown than anywhere else, so I thought it was fitting to include one here.  I like this one for many reasons, mainly that I was using an adapted Canon 17mm tilt-shift lens on the a7rII!  The flexibility and ability to adapt lenses is just another thing I love about Sony mirrorless cameras.

3. Brooklyn, New York

I actually took this picture the day I purchased the camera back in 2015!  I was in NYC for a business trip and managed to find the last a7rII in stock at a local Best Buy so picked it up and made my way over to Brooklyn for this classic shot looking back at lower Manhattan!

2. Vernazza, Italy

Italy’s Cinque Terre is a fascinating, romantic, and surprisingly isolated swath of villages along Italy’s west coast.  The villages are all picturesque in their own way but the cliffside view of Vernazza is about as iconic as it gets.  The dynamic range of the a7rII allowed me to capture this entire scene in a single image, no exposure blending necessary!

1. Hong Kong

I chose this image for a couple of reasons: 1) I love it, and 2) it represents where I was when I purchased my a7rII and where I feel like I am now that I’m selling it.

My first “big” camera was the Sony a7.  There was nothing wrong with it and I’ve taken some of my favorite pictures ever with it.  The a7rII was a fairly needless purchase at the level I was at in 2015 but it was a bet and an investment in myself and my photographic career.  As I’ve gotten better as a photographer it was an incredibly peaceful feeling knowing my gear would not hold me back and was ready for whatever I needed it to handle.  This image of Hong Kong is evidence of that.  I’ve gotten better at seeing an image in my head and creating it with my camera (instead of just pointing it at something pretty and hoping it turns out well).  This is actually three images blended together, one exposure for the water, another for the boat, and another for Hong Kong Island in the background.  With images like these I finally felt like I was worthy of such a camera and these days have all the confidence in the world that I can produce quality images no matter where I am.

Goodbye my beloved a7rII

Looking through these images (and the hundreds of others I could’ve included) brought tears to my eyes.  I think back to who I was when I bought it and realize I’ve traveled the world with it, fallen in love, had my heart broken, traveled some more, had good days, bad days, found a love for headshot photography, it’s kind of hard to overstate just how much happened!  But in a way that’s life: it keeps going, the good and the bad.  I’m so happy that I had such a great tool to help me capture memories along the way and that I have this blog to share those memories with you!

To conclude, here’s a selfie I snapped with the a7rII of my natural state: me in First Class flying somewhere wonderful.  I never thought I’d miss something as inanimate as a camera but I will definitely miss my a7rII.  It’s been a great ride!