rainbows
After months of pining for an f1.8 31mm I went to the store today and tried one. I have had my heart set on the 31mm for a long time, but when I finally had it on my camera and shot a few images, it wasn't what I had it made out to be in my mind since apparently there's a huge difference between how lenses behave for analogue vs. digital cameras. It simply didn't compare to the similar lens I had for the manual camera and my heart kind of sank. So I kept trying lenses on, determined to complete the trio of lenses I was blissfully happy with when I was still analogue: a fast beautiful 50mm, a good zoom, and a wide angle with a noticeable degree of distortion (apparently something the more modern lenses strive to eliminate with fancy things like 'aspherical lenses' and whatnot.) And although I've often toyed with the idea of a fish-eye, it's terribly limited in its applications, as the level of distortion is almost too high for much else than trick-bike and skateboarding magazines. At the end of the day, I ended up bringing home an f4.0 12mm - 24mm wide angle instead. Even after I brought it home, I had my reservations. Of course, the best thing to do is go shooting.
My cousin Debra and I went to visit relations up in Northern Alberta this spring, and on our way home we saw the most incredible rainbow ever. Not only could we see the entire rainbow arching across the highway, but the actual point where it appeared to start. Goosebumps aplenty. (If you look close, you can see the spectrum coming down in front of the trees and ending in the little clearing.)
My only lament was, I didn't have a wide-angle lens wide enough to get the entire rainbow.
We often have rainbows over our house. Same lament.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today there was some pretty typical wacky Alberta weather to be enjoyed. It was overcast as I drove out to my first session, sunny during it (thought we were inside, curses!) and by the time I left for session #3, it was sprinkling. We waited it out indoors for about 20 minutes, and the rain stopped. We ventured out and did the first half of the session under an overcast sky with some really ominous-looking clouds way off to the west. Not 2 minutes after finishing the session, it began to pour. Buckets. And enough hail to make the roads slippery. We were all doing about 85km/h on the highway due to slick pavement and really poor visibility. As I wound my way onto Anthony Henday, I had outrun the storm. It was heading for the city fast and furious. I picked up Serejane from Bill's work and headed for the camera store under dark clouds and heavy downpour. Two blocks later, I wasn under a clear blue sky with fluffy white clouds, but off in the distance Jane and I could see bolts of blue-white lightening and heavy slanted curtains of rain pouring from the same black hail-spewing thunderhead that had dumped on me on the highway.
The sun shone for Jane and I as we drove back home. The rain had made all the roads shiny and black, hard to drive on for the glare. An hour later, we were being dumped on again by yet another big black could, which seemed to be situated approximately in our back but not front yard. The result? A huge rainbow. Hell of an excuse to take the new (slow but passable and I still might take it back to the store because I'm not convinced I am going to be in love with it) lens for a test drive.
I know they're not exposed or focussed properly (come on - I'd had the lens for all of about 8 minutes) but note the distortion, and the presence of the WHOLE rainbow, and by golly it's love! Need I say more?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My cousin Debra and I went to visit relations up in Northern Alberta this spring, and on our way home we saw the most incredible rainbow ever. Not only could we see the entire rainbow arching across the highway, but the actual point where it appeared to start. Goosebumps aplenty. (If you look close, you can see the spectrum coming down in front of the trees and ending in the little clearing.)
My only lament was, I didn't have a wide-angle lens wide enough to get the entire rainbow.
We often have rainbows over our house. Same lament.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Today there was some pretty typical wacky Alberta weather to be enjoyed. It was overcast as I drove out to my first session, sunny during it (thought we were inside, curses!) and by the time I left for session #3, it was sprinkling. We waited it out indoors for about 20 minutes, and the rain stopped. We ventured out and did the first half of the session under an overcast sky with some really ominous-looking clouds way off to the west. Not 2 minutes after finishing the session, it began to pour. Buckets. And enough hail to make the roads slippery. We were all doing about 85km/h on the highway due to slick pavement and really poor visibility. As I wound my way onto Anthony Henday, I had outrun the storm. It was heading for the city fast and furious. I picked up Serejane from Bill's work and headed for the camera store under dark clouds and heavy downpour. Two blocks later, I wasn under a clear blue sky with fluffy white clouds, but off in the distance Jane and I could see bolts of blue-white lightening and heavy slanted curtains of rain pouring from the same black hail-spewing thunderhead that had dumped on me on the highway.
The sun shone for Jane and I as we drove back home. The rain had made all the roads shiny and black, hard to drive on for the glare. An hour later, we were being dumped on again by yet another big black could, which seemed to be situated approximately in our back but not front yard. The result? A huge rainbow. Hell of an excuse to take the new (slow but passable and I still might take it back to the store because I'm not convinced I am going to be in love with it) lens for a test drive.
I know they're not exposed or focussed properly (come on - I'd had the lens for all of about 8 minutes) but note the distortion, and the presence of the WHOLE rainbow, and by golly it's love! Need I say more?
Comments
I am giddy for you :D :D :D
Can't wait to see what else you come up with.