Jan 3/24/26 Jan 3/24/26

Stephen - Sports Photography Cork

I’ve been taking photos pretty much my whole life, but it really started in 2010. That’s when I started working in the film industry. At first I was documenting my life on set, behind the scenes with a trusty analogue camera and a couple of rolls of film bouncing around in my sling bag.

After 5 years in the film industry, I wanted to move away from moving images and I became fascinated with stills. I explored every facet of the photography industry, trying to find my niche and what suited me.

I just followed what I enjoyed doing at the time. And that turned out to be a lot of sports photography around 2016-2018. I photographed it all, from boxing and MMA, to car racing to hurling matches and more.

That time taught me so much about photography and how to capture the perfect moment. I then slowly settled on what I really wanted to do and you can see that reflected on my website now.

So when Stephen got in touch with me, it took me right back to that 2017 period. It was such a fun throw back! Stephen is a para-athlete from Canada, who was visiting Cork for an extended period for several endurance races on his hand bike and also some duathlons.

He needed/wanted some training photos and portraits in Cork for his online presence, as well as for his sponsors; L’Hippopotame Athlétique, who make his performance wear.

Sponsor

His sponsor L’Hippopotame Athlétiquemake his performance wear.

My aim with this shoot was to give Stephen a large variety of photos that could be used for many different applications. So we did some photos with the flash, some without, some with special effect filters, some really wide shots, some extreme close ups, mostly horizontal but also some vertical photos.

There are photos that really focus in on him, where as some are beautiful landscape shots, showing off the beauty of Cork.

Using the flash was a really cool addition to this shoot that I enjoyed using a lot. I wanted to really convey the speed that Stephen was able to hit. It also really draws the focus more onto him, and his sponsor’s white top.

This mix of photos then became a really well rounded gallery that I hope will serve him for a long time! It was also fun to dip my toes into this action photography again. I always enjoy mixing things up as I feel like it improves my overall ability as a photographer. Just like when I photographed this game of golf at the Old Head of Kinsale.

If you would like to find out more about Stephen and his journey, you can check out his Instagram here and if you’d like to book me for your sport, say hi to me here or go to my contact form here!

Jan 2/6/26 Jan 2/6/26

Sigma 35mm f1.2 DG II Review and Wedding Sample Photos

Sigma 35mm f1.2 DG II Review and sample portrait photos from family photo shoots and wedding couple shoots.

The Focal Length

The 35mm focal length is by far my favourite one! I love using it for couple and family shoots, as well as weddings. If I could only have one prime, this would be the one. I have written previous blog posts of my favourite 35mm-ish lenses at the time, the Sony Zeiss 35mm f1.4, the tiny Samyang AF 35mm f1.8 and the APS-C Samyang 21mm f1.4.

Sigma 35mm f1.2 DG II @ f1.2 with an effect filter

Sigma 35mm f1.2 DG II Wedding Sample Photos

This is in general less of a review and more of an opportunity to showcase some sample photos to those who are unsure if they would like this lens. I live in Ireland where there aren’t really any camera and lens rentals, or big camera stores where we can try out unlimited amounts of gear. So I personally always appreciate having some sample photos to look at.

I have shot a number of weddings and family shoots with it now, and spoiler alert, I think this is a great lens. I especially enjoyed photographing this wedding couple shoot with it.

Upgrading from the Sony Zeiss

I previously wrote a blog post about my previous lens, the Sony Zeiss 35mm 1.4. Although it wasn’t a very popular lens, I loved using it. But as time passed, there were two issues I was having with it:

The autofocus was very fast and accurate outdoors. Very reliable. But in any indoor environment, it was absolutely unusable as a professional photographer. It was both slow and inaccurate, telling me it had locked focus when it hadn’t.

2. It paired up really well with my Sony Zeiss 55mm 1.8, another characterful lens, but not with any of my other lenses.

3. I loved characterful lenses, but am now appreciating more neutral looking lenses.

I think the latter two points is more of an issue that I face specifically as a professional photographer. When I was an amateur photographer, my aim was to get a few great shots every couple of weeks. As a professional however, I need to be able to provide dozens of great shots every time I do a shoot. So I can’t have equipment letting me down by only working in specific scenarios, or complicating my shoot because I was only able to pair certain lenses together.

So along with getting this 35mm lens, I reduced my lens collection to the most important focal lengths for me. Choosing lenses where each lens can work in any environment (indoors/outdoors), any situation (fast/slow) and in any pairing.

Trying the Sony GM

So I began looking for a more suitable 35mm. Everyone seems to love the Sony 35mm 1.4 GM, so I bought that first. To me it honestly didn’t feel like a €1500 lens. The build quality was great but I felt like the lens should have been at most €1000. The look of the images was too boring for me as well, and even though it was also a f1.4, it rendered more like a f1.8 or even f2.0. I was definitely getting a shallower depth of field with my Sony Zeiss. So I sent it back and by pure coincidence, the new Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II had just been put on sale.

I was also happy to upgrade to an f1.2 instead of sidestepping to another f1.4. I’d rather have more light and a shallower depth of field available to me and choose not to use it, than running out of light.

Choosing the Sigma 35mm f1.2 DG II

Immediately I loved the look of the photos from this lens. They are very neutral, not very characterful, but not boring like the GM. This is exactly what I was looking for. The Sony Zeiss was too characterful at times, and again, as stated before, when you’re a professional photographer and you have to capture dozens of great photos every time you shoot, this can become problematic.

Lens Pairing

This lens also pairs up really well with my Sigma 65mm f2 DG DN which I bought to replace the Sony Zeiss 55mm. I love the 65mm focal length, it really suits my way of shooting and I’m so grateful that Sigma made it. An 85mm or even 75mm always felt to close for me and I could never get used to it, no matter how hard I tried.

It also works really well with the Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 DG DN OS that I also own. A great combo for weddings or even sports, like this game of golf that I photographed with this pair.

Previously, when I was using the Samyang AF 35mm (review here), I paired that up with the Samyang AF 75mm (review here). And that worked for a while. But I didn’t like about that combination was that the two focal lengths looked too different. The 75mm had so much compression, that when browsing through the photos of a photo shoot, I found it quite jarring going from one image to the next. I could, without fail, tell which image had been taken with which lens. This is a very personal complaint, as the 35/75 combo has traditionally been a very popular option.

The Sony Zeiss combo of the 35mm and 55mm worked really well too but here I had the opposite problem; the angle of view between the two was not quite big enough. So when I paired the Sigma 35mm with 65mm, I was in heaven, it was perfect for me! In the best way possible, the two lenses mesh into one and I can only tell half the time which lens is which while looking at the images. The shoot becomes way more cohesive and I love that!

The Positives

The autofocus is a huge improvement indoors and in less than ideal lighting conditions. That is the big one! I can now use a 35mm lens comfortably and reliably in any part of the wedding day. I have to say, it’s not as good as my Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 DG DN, but it’s 90% there. And I’m definitely getting more keepers even when the DOF is super shallow at f1.2!

The build quality is amazing, like all Sigmas, and I love their lens hood design with the button and I love that all their lenses have an aperture ring. I love using aperture rings! Especially compared to the Sony Zeiss that had a flimsy lens hood that often fell off and a loose aperture ring who’s clicks weren’t very confident.

I’m delighted that Sigma was able to reduce the weight by such a big amount. There was no way that I was going to carry a 35mm lens that weighed over a kilogram with me. The mkII is a bit bigger and heavier than the Sony Zeiss but it balances really well on camera.

And finally, the image quality is just out of this world! It’s such an upgrade in every way that even my non-photographer friends and family have remarked about how much better the images look, not knowing that I got a new lens. They asked me what I did differently because the photos looked noticeably better. And I totally agree.

Neutral Remarks

I know that everyone mentions that the lens has no CA. But what I have noticed is that sometimes when I see the images in the Lightroom library, it does show some photos to have purple fringing but when I open it in ‘Develop’, it disappears. So I wonder if it’s just digitally removed. I don’t really mind, as it’s removed so well that it’s never been an issue but I’m just curious what’s going on there.

Something else that I noticed and that I’ve never seen with any other lens before is that very rarely, when slightly stopped down, you can get these square bokeh balls in the corners of the image. Again, I don’t mind it, but it’s just odd, I’ve never seen that before. I’m assuming that when stopped down, the swirly bokeh makes the balls square.

The below example photo of this phenomenon is an extreme crop of the top left corner taken at f2.0. It was a Christmas tree in the background.

Square Bokeh

“…you can get these square bokeh balls in the corners of the image.”

This is a sharp lens. A very sharp lens. Just like with my 70-200mm when I do headshots for companies, I end up having to spend more time in post softening skin. I suppose this is one of those cases of ‘at least I can always soften an image, but I can’t make it sharper’.

A minor non-issue, but I do prefer Sigma’s previous sans-serif font. I think it looked more timeless.

And lastly, this lens does wash out more significantly in backlit situations than any of the lenses I have owned in the last 8 or so years. I’m not sure why they didn’t or couldn’t match this to their usual great flare resistance. However, I must say it’s not terrible, I actually think it makes the images look a bit more natural, which is why I didn’t put it down in the negatives but it’s something to be aware of.

Flaring

“…this lens does wash out more significantly in backlit situations…”

The Negatives

What I have noticed is that the AF does sometimes struggle on objects that are closer up, like about 70cm or less to the camera. It can just refuse to see the object. For the types of shots I use this for, this isn’t a deal breaker as I don’t miss any critical shots, it’s just a little bit annoying sometimes. I wonder if there might be a firmware update in the future to fix this issue?

And the only other negative I have, is that it makes my Sigma 24-70 2.8 DG DN mkI look like dogsh*t. Haha! I thought this was a high contrast and sharp lens when I got it initially. Turns out I was wrong.

Verdict

Sony has a weird 35mm line up. With so many lenses in their catalogue, from Sony themselves to numerous third party manufacturers, I am still a little surprised how packed yet empty the 35mm line up is. There are many entry level options and some great expensive options. But nothing in between for around €800 that is reliable and versatile. I think if the Sigma 35mm 1.4 would have been a newer lens with more reliable autofocus, that logically would have been the lens for me. Having said that, I am really happy I went with the more expensive lens with the most advanced autofocus. Yes, it’s not double as good for double the price but for someone like me who is using this lens regularly for paid gigs, it’s clearly made the difference.

Buying this lens was also a part of a greater project of simplifying my lens collection and making the lenses more compatible with each other. So I now have:

• Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 DG DN I

• Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 DG DN

• Sigma 35mm f1.2 DG II

• Sigma 65mm f2.0 DG DN

• Zeiss Batis 40mm f2.0

The Batis is the only outlier and I use that either on it’s own or with one of the two zooms. Otherwise I can pair any of the Sigma lenses together perfectly. They look well together and all have great autofocus so that I can use them in any situation. This has made my work life so much easier.

All the Sigmas also have much more similar colours to each other as well, simplifying the white balance settings in Lightroom as well. Mixing brands before was a bit of a mess, as some lenses were warmer than others or had more magenta that needed to toned down.

Hopefully this has helped you make a decision if this is the lens for you or see more of my gear reviews here.

Jan 2/3/26 Jan 2/3/26

Crossing Borders - Killarney Couple Shoot Photographer

I’ve left the county a handful of times for a photo shoot. I did some sports photography many years back which allowed me to travel a bit, and I’ve photographed this lovely wedding in Kilkenny but I’ve never left County Cork for a posed family or couple shoot before.

So in 2026, I have decided to officially offer my first shooting location in a different county. And which county is that? My second favourite one, the Kingdom of Kerry of course!

Soft Launch for now

I often go with my wife to the Killarney National Park and its surroundings for day trips and hikes. So we know Killarney well, but it’s an area that I am still exploring as a photographer. So for now, this is more of a soft launch with limited availability for now. But I have specific spots in mind already that I’d love to explore together with you! I’ll be mainly doing couple shoots here and a few family shoots.

The two exact spots that I am able to show off here, and which worked really well, are:

The Gap of Dunloe
Muckross House

The Gap of Dunloe Couple Shoot

The Gap of Dunloe is one of my favourite spots in Ireland. While County Cork has hills, County Kerry has mountains! They’re strikingly beautiful. And a little bit like with Gougane Barra, even if it’s absolutely storming and awful weather, it still translates to beautiful images! I always find it fun to stare at a barren cliff face, and slowly finding one tiny white dot after the other in the most impossible spots. These Kerry sheep are just something else!

Ashley and Michael booked me for an adventure couple shoot. I love splitting up these shoots into two chapters, one of them spectacular, natural and wild, with the other chapter being cleaner and more posed. This gives two contrasting sets of photos, especially when some couples opt to do an outfit change.

Muckross House Couple Shoot

We then headed off to Muckross House, after hours when all the visitors were gone and ended up having the whole spot for ourselves. I first used the house itself as a background, before then heading down to the water to feature the glossy Muckross Lake, which is right next to the bigger Lough Leane.

The light was so soft, I feel like everything was just glowing a little bit. I really liked both of these locations, and I think this was a very successful shoot.

5-star Google Review

Ashley and Michael were so happy with their adventure couple shoot that they left me this lovely 5-star review:

“My fiancé and I had the pleasure of having both Jannik and his wife on the day of our shoot. Jannik is incredibly talented as a photographer and his wife provided amazing suggestions and help while we took photos.

Both were professional, fun, and put us at ease! We booked an adventure session with him and would do it again. Highly recommend!!”

— Ashley

So what does the future look like?

I’d love to do more shoots at the Gap of Dunloe, no doubt! At Muckross, there’s also a forest that I’d love to explore more, and there are quite a few more scenic spots around Lough Leane that I have my eye on.

So if you’d like to explore these areas with me, I’d be delighted to go on an adventure shoot with you! Especially if you’re happy to do a bit of a walk with me to get to the best spots.

I hope this gives a nice insight into Killarney and its surrounding areas.