Recently, I wrote this about the Fujifilm 10-24mm ultra-wide lens: “I’m find­ing it hard to get com­fy with. What I re­al­ly need to do is go out for a cou­ple of pho­towalks with just this pup­py and force my­self to see the kind of pic­ture it wants to take.” Here are some of those. Warning: Heavily-processed photos ahead.

The street where I live is blessed with a variety of trees, including a few really big ones. Today we had a clear blue spring sky and it set them off nicely. With this kind of a lens you can stand right in front of a big tree and snap away.

Evergreen against the sun

I was standing in the middle of the street leaning back pointing this big swollen cone-shaped lens at the sky and my neighbor got out of her car, asking “What are you seeing?”. Good question.

Lots of things are blooming (more to come, though).

Blooming trees

The pictures were reasonably pleasing, but had me reaching for the Lightroom sliders, looking for extra drama.

Evergreen, someone abstractified

What you see above is a perfectly nice basic evergreen, tarted up with a little negative clarity.

If a tree’s not an evergreen it’s mostly geometry this time of year, and color just gets in the way.

Bare February tree

No, I haven’t figured the lens out. I can get a decent shot with it, but I’m not getting the urge to strap it on the camera. Give it time.



Contributions

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From: Gordon Haff (Feb 28 2015, at 18:17)

Using ultrawides really effectively tends to involve using close foregrounds via distant backgrounds. I don't hold out this photo as any sort of particularly awesome shot but it's the *type* of thing I tend to do with an ultrawide: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bitmason/16040169080/. Get low and close to a foreground object and take advantage of the huge depth of field. I don't do this for every shot but it's the model I'm thinking about at the wider end of the range.

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From: Jerry A (Feb 28 2015, at 19:04)

Here's a good page about using ultra wide angle lenses. It seems counterintuitive at first that they're better at getting closer, rather than getting it all in, but give it a try.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm

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From: Dave Pawson (Feb 28 2015, at 23:11)

I think you're finding out the meaning of too much of a good thing Tim?

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February 28, 2015
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