Week 9 for the Project 52

Toronto

So I finally had some time off this week (Yay me!!!) and I decided it was about time I finally set out to shoot that Landscape picture I've been talking about for the last few weeks or so. Friday seemed like a good enough day so I packed up all my stuff, loaded it into my car and set out to see what I could find...

After checking the weather report, I set out on my quest for the perfect Landscape shot. I had it all planned out; drive down to Polson Pier, set up my camera, snap a few test shots, pull out my ND grad set and get down to the nitty gritty of taking an AWESOME pic of the Toronto skyline! Well, the first part of my plan worked out perfectly. The pic above was one of my test shots. Not bad but not exactly what I had in mind. I wanted drama. What I got was a little less so....

Ummm... Toronto?

Apparently waiting for the perfect shot wasn't the best plan I could have come up with that day. This pic was taken about 5 minutes after the one at the top of the page, while I was trying to figure out the difference between the exposure for the city versus the sky.

So I waited... and waited... and waited; hoping the low cloud cover would pass and I'd get that perfect shot that I had set up in my head. Needless to say it didn't happen....

However; all was not lost! As I was waiting for the sky to clear, I noticed that there was a large Laker being brought in to harbor. So I snapped a few pics.

Lake Freighter

Not too bad... but I thought I could do better. Then I remembered; when I packed up my stuff to come out and shoot, one of the lenses I packed was my Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens!

The thing about the Sigma is not only is it wide (10mm is pretty wide) but it also has one other attribute that makes it pretty cool; it has a very close focus point and a very large depth of field. That means I can put something really close to the lens and it will stay in focus along with pretty much everything behind it! So instead of shooting the landscape I was looking for, I decided to try and get something useful out of the Sigma instead.

Laker in the Mist

I gotta say, I like it! The bollard in the pic was about 10 inches away from the lens when I snapped this. I actually took my tripod centre post out and mounted it upside down so I could get as low as possible to the ground. This pic was actually taken upside down with the swivel screen of my camera pointed up so I could see what I was shooting!

Coming in to Dock

For this shot, I actually lay right down on the dock so the camera was braced against the ground. The bollard was pretty much right beside my head. The thing looks huge (it was actually about 8-10 inches tall...)! I've read up a bit on the proper use of a wide angle lens; they say that the best use of the lens is when you get up close and personal with your subject. When I bought it, I intended on using it to get wider than my kit lens (my kit lens is a 18-105, pretty damn good lens for a kit lens but it never seemed to go wide enough for me). Now, know that this lens really shines when you have something in your foreground and I plan to use it a lot more!

I got a few other good pics as well....

Strange Birds

These guys were just floating in the lake between the city and the island. I have no idea what they are; I've never seen them before. They were black and white with long tails. Anyone?

The Laker

And the Tug

Once the freighter got a little closer I managed to get a few shots with my kit lens. As you can see from the background, the low hanging clouds pretty much made it impossible to get the picture I set out to get but all in all, I'm pleased with the results I did manage to get.

Then again, I still have 43 weeks left to get that Landscape.

Maybe next week....