A good place to read
I missed this weekend’s Flowertown Festival. It’s a yearly festival held in Summerville, SC and it attracts, from what I have heard, about 200,000 – 300,000 people! That’s rather impressive, considering that the total population of Charleston, North Charleston, and Summerville added together only adds up to about 180,000 … maybe.
Today, there were just a few remnants remaining. There were a few picnic tables, disassembled vendor stands, etc. I wanted to go out and shoot this evening and thought that I’d take in a few pictures of some azaleas. After all, they are in bloom all over the place. I decided that since I’ve not used my wide angle lens for quite a while, this would be the perfect opportunity. Originally, I wanted to go out and do some macro shots, but it was a tad bit windy. Winds were blowing a solid 20 miles per hour with gusts to 35. It would have been cool to do some ‘wind painting’, but I decided to go wide.
I went to Azalea Park, near downtown Summerville. I saw a bronze statue of a girl sitting on a wall reading. I decided that I’d take all of my pictures at or around this statue. The sun was going down pretty fast and this was the only part of the park that had a bit of sunshine remaining.
I had forgotten how much fun it was to shoot with an ultra wide angle lens. I had to get right up in her face, nearly 5 or 6 inches away from the face just to fill the frame and have a good deal of background visible.
I’m glad that I took the time to take the lens out of the bag. In part, Earl inspired me to get the lens out of the bag. He purchased a 14-24mm f/2.8 (way out of my budget right now) and has been doing some nice wide angle shots.
It was worth the time and the little bit of mud that I got on my knees from kneeling down next to the bird house on the pole. It’s nice to switch up every once in a while. It was a reminder of why I bought the lens.
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Nice photos Paul! Interesing clouds in the bird house photo.
I’ve found a lot of personal inspiration and creativity shooting with a ultra-wide recently.
While things change and there are points when I’ll be ready to move one to something else it’s always refreshing to come back to the ultra-wide.
An ultra wide angle can be really interesting. I have this thing where I prefer ‘full-frame’ 35mm cameras to the ‘crop factor’ ones, for that reason. It’s more of an indication of when I came of age and what I shot with thirty years ago than anything else, I suppose. I don’t know what your usual shooting gear is, but this lens looks really interesting to me. I especially like the statue.
There are two Canon lenses that I am hankering for. (Well, there is a longer list, but it gets into fantasy territory.) One is the 300mm f4 (no point in even dreaming about the 300mm f2.8) and the 10-22mm f3.5-4.5. Your post certainly stirs the flame for the wide angle. All the wrap-around details surrounding the reading girl are lovely.
Is your wide angle a Nikon lens? I have not ventured outside my Canon lenses. The pleasant shock that I got upgrading from lower priced Canon lenses to the L line dampened my enthusiasm for other brands. Maybe I am missing something.
@Anita: I’m using a Tamron 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6. The equivalent Nikon lens, the 14-24 f/2.8, costs about 2.5 – 3x as much! I got the Tamron for just under $600, $569. The 14-24mm costs about $1,800!
Anita, my wife and I bought the 300mm f/4 last year, and it is a great lens. It’s a bit heavy, though, and I end up shooting it on a monopod most of the time. I shudder to think of the weight of the f/2.8 version.
Chris, thanks for that warning on the 300mm f/4. I have a 70-200mm f/2.8 and I can barely use it at all without at least a monopod. I ended up adding the 70-200mm f/4 for that reason. It’s not a nice a lens, in my opinion, but it’s practical for me. Maybe I need to rethink my fantasies about that 300.
I have some wonderful images with the 70-200 f/4. I’d love the f/2.8, though.