(Click on an image to see it enlarged)
San Diego –– Thanks to a good friend I was able to get out again on Tuesday. We went to lunch in Encinitas and then drifted back along the coast. I was surprised at the number of people who were at the beach for a Tuesday, forgetting this is still summer vacation for many.
Near Del Mar a walking path skirts the houses and follows the railroad tracks as it winds its way south toward Torrey Pines. It is late in the season but many of the flowers are still in bloom. Of course having taken a quick look, there was no way I could not want to see if some image might be trying to hide from us there along that path so it was back to the car to grab a camera. I still am working to gain more and more confidence in wide angle lenses so grabbed two of them, the 24mm tilt/shift and the 8-15mm fisheye zoom.
At one point, a bench has been placed in the middle of the flowers to allow those passing by a beautiful place to sit and enjoy the place and the view.
In some places the various flowers grow in profusion to create a tapestry of colors and shapes.
These first two shots were taken with the 24mm T/S lens. I am trying to get used to the fact, whioch i cannot explain, that it takes far less frontal tilt or swing to schieve the proper realignment of the plane of focus than it does on a large format camera.
We noticed a photographer on the berm across the tracks all set up and waiting. It seemed reasonable to assume he was waiting for the train to come through. His shot would put the train with a backdrop of the flowered path so should have been cool. But we were on the wrong side for that, instead we had the berm and the ocean for a backdrop. But he seemed to be expecting the train to come along any minute so it seemed reasonable to wait and see what we could get. While waiting, I put the fisheye lens on and took a couple of shots of the area.
Some people think that a wide angle lens is simply to give you a wider angle of view, i.e. a panoramic view that can then be cropped down. But I think it is far more powerful when it is being used to immerse the viewer into the scene by exaggerating the foreground and using its extreme depth of field to take it all in. The Fisheye then can be used to wrap the viewer in the scene.
I was looking aroubd for another grab shot and actually planned on switching back to the 24mm T/S lens when, all of a sudden with no warning, the train was on us and it was shoot or forget it. I was not able to change the shutter speed so the train is a little blurry.
Close but no cigar… Oh well, it looks like I’ll have to go back to try this again. How terrible…
Travels with Rocinante 