52 Week Project | Wide Angle

The 52 Week Project is a blog circle with a theme for every week (which means we all link to each other, links are found at the end of the post).

The 52 Week Project theme for this week was wide angle. Wide angle refers to the field of view by which a camera sees the world through a lens. Wider = a wider scene, while narrower = a magnified, smaller scene (aka zoom!).

Enter in the Creakasaurus.

Years ago (indeed within the first year of use, in the realm of 2011) the Creakasaurus lens was created. The setting was a bumpy barely maintained road that wrapped around the outskirts of the Great Sand Dunes. A resting spot on a handrail no longer was at rest on a particularly lumpy bump. The lens, a Tamron 10-24mm fell, impacting heavily onto the floor of the vehicle front lens element down, effectively jamming the barrel of the lens, rendering the lens useless (and only a day into the trip).

(Insert swearing and massive anxiety)

Some crafty manipulation and the barrel was unjammed. The tradeoff, the lens now sported a VERY noisy autofocus and an occasionally touch of loosing its mind. The dreadfully noisiness of this lens keeps it in the lineup as a landscape/cars lens. Also it is a crop sensor lens, so on a full frame camera there is MASSIVE vignetting at 10mm that doesn’t clear up until 15mm. And barrel distortion especially on the edges.

But it sure is wide…

(Above: I’m not exactly sure if the light is reflecting inside the barrel of the lens or if its reflecting off the smaller rear mount area)

Bender was not impressed with the noise, nor how close I was to him (minimum focusing distance is 9.45″ inches aka VERY CLOSE!) even though I had a tasty treat in hand. Also, that’s his classic “mom’s in my face old man no ears look”…

Since the weather was on the cusp of warmish, with no breeze, Bender & I departed towards the downtown area to use the Creakasaurus. There is no discretion of noise for this lens, so luckily downtown was quiet (as small towns are) and no one paid us any mind.

Across the street from the brick wall above is wall that once sported a playful mural for the little local bakery (bakery is no longer, nor is the mural), it now has a crisp white color from sidewalk to roofline. A weathered bench sits against it. I wanted to emphasize the space being bigger than Bender so he was positioned on the bench, (from his pout, I’d say it was cold on his bum), the Creakasaurus zoomed out to 14-15mm (hence the touch of vignetting). 

I moved back slightly for a little more space and to center the bench on the wall. (The curve of the snow is from the barrel distortion of the 10-24mm at 15mm). I kind of want to print this as a giant piece and have in a gallery somewhere…

Next visit Little White Dog Pet Photography – Sioux Falls, SD to see her take on wide angle.