Photo 365 - Day 233 (Fake Fisheye)

Day 233 (February 21th, 2011)
Title: Fake Fisheye

Fisheye lenses are one of the coolest, if not strangest, lenses in the "photographers arsenal".  Basically, they are super wide angle (5mm-18mm), and make these strange "round" shots.  The edges are blurred and rounded due to the outer-most lens element (it's a large convex piece of glass).  Because of said element, the lenses are crazy-expensive, also because of their short focal length, most "consumer" digital cameras can't use them (it's all scientifical, but lets just say, unless you own one of those crazy-expensive Nikon's or Canon's, your dreams of a fisheye lens are on hold.) 

I call this one Fake Fisheye because... well, no reason really, I just wanted to talk about fisheye lenses, and since I don't have to take a fisheye photo with, I figured any ol' photo will do!  This shot was taken at Mascone Center in San Francisco, near the Zeum (great place for kids!). 

Technical bits: f/10 at 1/250th using ISO 100.  Using ISO 100 really helped reduce the noise, so I highly recommend lowering your ISO to the lowest you can get - it makes post-production much easier! 

Enjoy

Photo 365 - Day 232 (Circle Park)

Day 232 (February 20th, 2011)
Title: Circle Park

I enjoy walking around San Francisco - when the weather is "photo friendly".  Recently I was walking around the Moscone Center, and they have a great park/kids area (called "Zeum").  The park area has a lot of interactive areas for kids and parents.  I was strolling though, and noticed it also has a lot of fun photographic spots to get some great cityscape shots.  Here is the first, facing north-east. 

Technical bits:  Using my 18-55mm lens at 18mm with the following settings: f/14 at 1/500th (ISO 400).  I think I should have moved the ISO to 200 or even 100, I still could have had the aperture at f/14 with a speed of 1/250th (or 1/125th) and gotten a slightly better shot.  I also should have bracketed for both the sky, the white buildings and the shadows from the trees - it would have been fun to combine them in post-production - but I was unable to due to the volume of people walking around.  I was lucky to get a show without really anyone in it, because for the most part, folks were walking in front of me the entire time I was shooting. 

Enjoy