Tag: Fisheye lens

The Fisheye Cometh

“You can rent lenses?” Yes, rhetorical voice of me, lenses can be rented.

Vacation is rapidly approaching. We’re going somewhere very photogenic so I decided to try something a little different. I rented a lens for “Clicky.”

“You can rent lenses?”

Yes, rhetorical voice of me, lenses can be rented.

I ordered a 4.5mm f/2.8 Sigma fisheye lens from BorrowLenses in California. It arrived today. The rental price and shipping is around 15% of what a lens would cost. It’s a lens to play with, not own.

The lens itself is very different than anything I’ve shot before. There are no straight lines. Everything is spatially distorted.

Distances are distorted too. Everything looks farther away and larger than it really is.

Finding the right tricks to make a pleasing shot won’t be easy. I’ve already thumbed through dozens of photos on Flickr to see how others use this lens (yeah–you can do that too).

Here are my first attempts in no particular order. Click any photo to make it larger.


Return Of The Photowalk… Again

Two years ago Steve Brenner and I drove to Brooklyn, took the subway to Manhattan and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was probably my best photo day ever!

Saturday is the annual Worldwide Photowalk. I plan to attend in New Haven even though it’s scheduled for the middle of the night: 9:30 AM! Are they nuts?

Worldwide 29,000 photographers are signed up to attend 1,108 walks. The New Haven walk is limited to 50 with 49 already on board.

Q. What is a Photo Walk?
A. It’s a social photography event where photographers get together (usually in a downtown area or trendy section of town) to walk around, shoot photos, and generally have fun with other photographers.

Two years ago Steve Brenner and I drove to Brooklyn, took the subway to Manhattan and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was probably my best photo day ever! The Brooklyn Bridge pano at the top of this entry was taken at the end of the walk.

Last year I did New Haven which is an architecturally interesting city and was still as disappointed as could be.

New group leader. New meeting place. New route. I’m giving it another shot.

I’m excited because I’ll be carrying one additional lens. In anticipation of an upcoming trip I’ve rented a 4.5mm fisheye lens for ten days. FedEx says it’s here Thursday. It should give me an additional perspective… good or bad.