Fish eye by night

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level view point

level view point

low view point

low view point

The difference between a level camera and one that isn't straight is so extreme with a fisheye that you really need to use a tripod to take your time, get the camera level, check everything is completely aligned as you want it before taking the shot. The slightest angle puts everything out of line and distorted out of shape in every possible way! I never had to think so much with my other lenses before taking a shot. The Canon 15mm on a full frame camera has almost a 180 degree angle of view which is a whole new world if you are used to zoom lenses. You have to watch everything-particularly where your hand and arms are holding the camera and even your feet. It's very easy for them to stray into the edges of a shot without noticing.

 The fisheye is potentially the worst lens for making people look beautiful but if carefully done, it could have a niche look you don't normally see. Hope to get some portraits with it soon... Keeping a flash out of the shot is going to be interesting!

 

Day 261

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Bought a 15mm Canon fisheye on eBay and giving it a test run. One thing I noticed, there's a little vignetting wide open and it's less sharp right in the corners but it is clinically sharp as a knife! If anything, it could even be too good. Everybody is into retro filters and making things look less than digitally perfect but even this extreme wide angle has limited colour fringing in high contrast areas and blows other lenses out of the water!

elephant's trunk

elephant's trunk

Day 256

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super moon?

super moon?

I say this every time but once or twice a year the media likes to talk about the super moon coming around. There's always some reason for its importance that means the BBC weather girl will tell you to go out and see it on a particular night due to its increased size. Sadly, super is more mediocre of a size difference than the media are willing to admit. This photo was taken with a 400mm lens and had to be severely cropped and sharpened to make out the moon clearly. If you use a mobile phone to get a moon snap, expect more of a fuzzy dot than this! However, seeing the moon early morning is an amazing sight when it changes colour and worth the effort to see even if you can't get a good photo of it. My personal tip is to use a mobile app called TPE "the photographer's ephemeris" to predict exactly when and where the moon will be at any time or date. http://photoephemeris.com (available on Google or iOS)

Moon photo uncropped -even with a big lens, it still looks small!

Moon photo uncropped -even with a big lens, it still looks small!

Day 251

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back to nature

back to nature

After weeks of not knowing where my time was going to, we finally got it into the country away from it all. It's amazing how refreshing it is to be in the mountains with not even a street light to pollute your view. The air smells better, food tastes better and time goes slower for the short fraction of time you can get far from the city!

Day 248

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Kylo Ren

Kylo Ren

The annual Offenbach Strassenfest is accompanied by the German Garrison of the 501st Legion of Star Wars troopers. All the costumes were really impressive and correct down to the finest detail. Due to my son being petrified of the sand people (that noise they make still scares me too) and having to prepare for his birthday party, I couldn't spend as long as I'd hoped to take photos of all the troopers. Hopefully, I can get more next time!