Finally had a little break from dance photos to look back and some images that I may put into the portfolio. The winter evenings also brought some opportunities to go out and get some photos of the capitol city. During this evening, I took my gear out to the Tidal Basin. I do not normally visit this area unless it is bursting with cherry blossoms! It is probably one of the most photographed areas in DC during those few early Spring days, but on a week night evening, all the traffic is on the surrounding streets and bridges with commuters heading home for the day.
The parking lots are very accessible during this time, and there is not too much foot traffic around the basin. This gives clear vantages to the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument, and even the White House. The fading light will also give you streaks of lights from air traffic going in or out of Reagan National Airport, and there is a faint glow from the traffic and building lights from across the Potomac River. It is a peaceful time if you are there for photos, and not in your car just trying to get home.
It is a beautiful day for some gardening! After a busy week of photos, I think I’m going to spend some time outside. Thanks to everyone that has visited the website and the blog to view photos. We especially appreciate those of you that purchase photos from recent events. These in fact keep our photography studio going, and we will work to get more photos of you out there soon!
These photos are from one of my favorite Springtime traditions. Walking along the Tidal Basin is especially fun when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. Although they do not give off any fragrance, their color balanced against blue waters and sky make for easy photos. This Spring Saturday was perfect to enjoy this DC tradition. Have you ever been to the Tidal Basin during the peak? It can be a challenge to get photos without people due to the crowds. However, a little patience can give you just the right frame.
For today’s Tech Thursday post, I wanted to go to the opposite side of the focal length scale. Last time, I posted about the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. This is by far the longest lens I use on a regular basis. One of the widest lenses that I have is the 16mm Fisheye lens from Nikon. This is undoubtedly an extremely wide-angle lens. In sum, it allows for a complete 180-degree field of view in the camera frame. This is one piece of camera gear that is overused by photographers when they first get their hands on it. You definitely need to get this out of your system with interiors and landscape images. Here is an example of a shot with the Fisheye lens from the balcony of a church overlooking a wedding ceremony.
These make nice scene setting images for wedding albums. These are suited for photos where people faces are not prominent. The bowing of the image at the sides do not make this a good portrait lens. No one likes to be the curved/distorted one at the edge of a fisheye image! The wide field of view allows you to put lots of elements into a frame without resorting to a lot of post-production work to combine images. Here is another wedding image to put the cake in it’s complete setting.
The characteristic fisheye distortion is clearly seen in the columns. You will notice that the distortion is not as bad through the center of the picture. Place your subject as close to the middle of the frame to reduce the effect of the lens on your subject. This makes it challenging to keep the rule-of-thirds in the frame, but that is normal with these extreme lenses. If you do not want to have the curvature in the image, this can be corrected easily with software. In Adobe Lightroom 4, there is a lens correction feature that will fix the distortion in the image with a few clicks. I took a photo of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC and corrected it Lightroom. Here are both the corrected and uncorrected versions of the photo:
Now the angles have all been straightened, and the photo looks more “normal”. But you have the added benefit of having more of the area in the photo than is possible with a straight or rectilinear lens. Give these lenses a try next time you are thinking of visiting somewhere large expanses of views, or enourmous ceiling heights. They can be a lot of fun!
