Figure 1: The only shot that was big screen viewable, without cringe.
I know what it’s like to be a balloon. I had that deflated feeling once again this weekend, after a trip to the local lake. The scene was spectacular, and was easily the most beautiful nature scene I’d personally witnessed to date. In glee for my fortuitous presence at the scene next to the lake, at just the right moment, I snapped over two hundred photos.
My camera’s LV screen was mostly obscured by the sun’s light, but I was using auto-focus and so didn’t worry too much about the fact that I was not seeing the viewer very well. I should have known better. I was using my recently acquired 18-250 mm Sigma zoom lens to take the shots, which I had never shot at 18 mm.
When I returned to the big screen in my edit room, I realized that I would not be able to salvage a single shot from the collection of photos. I think the problem was two fold: 1) Using the distant shoreline as a focus point and assuming it’d be “OK”, and 2) using the zoom at 18 mm without ever having used it as such a wide angle before the trip. I think the auto-focus focal point was mainly at fault, but also I think that a zoom lens at 18 mm is not ever going to equal what an 18 mm prime lens could do. So, an 18 mm prime is on my must-have list now. Better late than never.
A Storm Of Photons 