In Canada, we celebrate our country's birthday a few days ahead of you, so we're still feeling the love of our country and can share that feeling with you.
On Canada Day, despite my better intentions, my family and I ventured downtown in the morning and stayed until the early evening, mingling with party-goers from the National Gallery to the NAC, and in between, but mostly in the Rideau Centre, where we escaped the heat and late-afternoon heat.
It was the family's first time in the National Gallery since they finished the glass restoration project in the great hall. As with all visits to the gallery, I like to stand in the centre of the great hall, point my camera upward, and take a snapshot that almost every visitor takes.
I later played with the image, creating a kaleidoscope effect, which you can see here.
The difference between this snapshot and the dozen others I've taken is the lens that I used. A month or so ago, I bought a Sigma 10-20mm wide-angle lens, and I love it (thanks, Marc!). With it, I can capture so much in such a tight area, but I'm looking forward to all the big landscapes I have planned.
Though an ultra-wide lens can create some distortion, I'm slowly learning how to compensate for that characteristic. As with the above image, it's not as obvious. But on Canada Day, as I left the gallery and returned to the hoards of outdoor party goers, I did something I haven't been able to do before I had this lens:
Stand under Maman while capturing almost all of her and the entire gallery.
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| My back is right up against one of her legs as I shot this image. Notice the distortion of the National Gallery. |
Other shots I've taken with my new lens can be found here. More to come.
Happy Friday!
Hi Ross. The 10-24 is not actually a fisheye. Any fisheye lens will be clearly named as a fisheye. Most ultra-wide lenses will distort at the edges, but the distortion for a fisheye is far more extreme.
ReplyDeleteThe distortion in the National Gallery is called keystoning, and it is caused by not having the plane of the sensor parallel to the building. Any lens will show this effect under the same conditions, but it is most noticeable with wide-angle's since you're closer to the building and have to point the camera up further to fit the building in the frame.
You're correct. Thanks for clarifying the "fisheye" term and for the other information. I'll fix the post.
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