Vaperturesurreal
Posted on January 6, 2014
This photo looks like a cross between an actual photograph and a Salvador Dali painting, which is why it’s surreal to me when I look at it. The muted blues and grays in the sky, and the warm oranges and reds in the city and the water give this image a very special feeling that anyone who has ever lived in New York can appreciate within a few seconds of viewing it. This would be stunning as a large floating canvas print in 20×30 or 30×45. Taken with a Carl Zeiss 15mm f2.8 wide angle Distagon lens, 30-second exposure, f/11, tripod, remote release.
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reaching
Posted on November 5, 2013
Even the best wide angle lenses will distort your image to a certain extent, but this doesn’t have to be a bad thing if you open your mind to the artistic “effect” lens distortion can create.
Lens distortion can sometimes lead to a Dali’ish sense of altered perception… a virtual reality of sorts which can create an image that will constantly attract you to it even though you know it’s wrong.
Every object in this photograph seems to be reaching towards the sunshine. It reminds me of those time-lapse videos we’ve all seen on National Geographic where plants grow and reach towards the sunlight. They distort themselves in unimaginable ways to get to their primal energy source… the sun. The buildings are reaching and you can imagine every one of the 10 million people in New York reaching right along with them. This image is just as energizing as the day was itself, and that’s why It carries a special place in my collection.
For this shot I used a Zeiss 15mm f2.8 wide angle Distagon lens, which is an absolute gem of a lens. It’s a truly incredible piece of glass. So precise. So refined. So well built. I found it quite difficult to create interesting shots with such a wide angle until I read a key piece of advice about wide angle photography… you can never, ever get too close. This shot isn’t about being close to anything, but that idea showed me a whole new way to use this lens that I hadn’t anticipated, and now it gets used so much more often. Stay tuned for what I mean about getting close with wide angle lenses…
Vaperture 