The Gift!

I wish it had snowed when we were there in Tahoe. But I cant ask for it knowing, we were really lucky to have snow at all, considering the time of the year we had been there - last week of May.

It has been and is still in my list to take a macro of snowflakes. 

But well, I was excited to see the snow everywhere, since this was the first time ever I have ( we have - Sujaya and me) seen snow. 

The bright and beaming sun was good in one way, since it was warm and not a typical "snow" climate, where I should be freezing. But it sometimes brought in problems, particularly when ever I took my camera. The sun and the full white snow made things over exposed easily. So I kept popping up the f stop to bigger numbers, which also brought some nice landscapes.

This picture of Robin is for my sweet little Sujaya, who likes all kinds of tweety birds and she loves Robins and Blue Jays. I kept chasing this guy who was busy digging his dinner. The Golden Hour - as it is called (the last hour in a day with Sun light), brought in the dramatic light effect to the bird and the grass. The colors are natural - untouched. Straight Out Of Camera - not even cropped. 

And one more !

What else did I get to take with my wide angle inside the kids play area / casino?! 

Okie, here is a small game that I played. The pictures and settings are here, the inference is so very obvious:

Night view of Reno from 18th floor. 

Lens : Canon 55-250mm, ISO :100,  Exposure :30 secs, Aperture : 22, focal length: 55mm

Lens : Tokina 12 - 24 mm, ISO 100, Exposure : 30 secs, Aperture : 22, Focal length : 24

Lens: Tokina 12 - 24mm, ISO 100, Exposure : 30 secs, Aperture : 22, Focal length: 12mm

Lens : Tokina 12- 24mm, ISO 400, Aperture 4, exposure 1/60 secs, focal length 24 mm, flash used: Very much YES (one can see the flash light reflection on the glass)

Needless to say :) Camera dial turned to manual and just one press - click!! ONE REASON TO GO MANUAL. You will stick there. You wont mind deleting about 10 pics you have tried to get the settings right! But will sure get the thrill of it.

Walking straight into the boat!

The lovely shore of the beautiful lake. Converted it to B&W to make it a bit appealing, since the original version had harsh mid day light. Also tweeked the contrast a bit, to make it look not too gray. 

One can see the horizon in the above picture is all messed up. :) I was indeed tired after holding the super heavy wide-angle for more than two hours, that my hands became partially senseless and didnot even realize I was holding the camera all tilted. This is AFTER adjusting the horizon :)

Settings for above picture:

Lens : Tokina 12 -24mm, ISO 200, Aperture : 22, Exposure : 1/250 sec, focal length : 24mm.

Higher the shutter speed, starry the Sun. Lower shutter speed renders a big white Sun with circles but no flares/starry effect. So the key was to keep increasing the shutter speed after setting the required ISO and aperture till we get the starry effect.

One more mistake that I will keep regretting about for next few weeks. I wonder what on earth I was thinking when I left back the tripod in car to run to this place where I HAD thought of taking long exposure water shots. The only shot that came better in about 50 shots that I had taken - hand held! 

Atlast got a chance to try good landscape pictures. Thank my husband for giving this wonder trip to a scenic spot, with a wide-angle lens. Perfect Gift for our 6th wedding anniversary. Couldn't have asked for more. L.O.V.E.

Getting Wild with WIDE!!

TOKINA 12-24mm WIDE ANGLE LENS. Cant stop thinking of this!

Wide angle lens does better justice in capturing the majesty of Mother Nature. It is THE best for landscape photography.

Had been on a trip to Tahoe/Reno and I decided to rent a Wide angle lens for the trip after some study I made while we planned for the trip.

I found out 55-250mm is no where when it comes to taking landscape pictures and I was on a lookout as what would cater to my need. I found out buying a wide angle was out of question since it starts from $500+.which is certainly a big budget.

But wait, how about renting / borrowing one for 3 days. I dont travel a lot and I dont need a wideangle for day to day pictures. So why lock $500+ in a lens which would come out may be for just 10 days a year? How about  paying $35 for 3 days ( or $40 for 4 days), use it, and return it? That seems a lot more effective as well as, well withing the budget.

When I started out what kind of lens I should be taking, I was completely lost -there are so many in the market -to buy/ to rent.

Some key points that I inferred to consider before choosing one:

* Lesser the number , wider the angle. Example : 12-24 mm is preferred than 50mm or 85mm, since more of the scene can be brought in via 12 - 24 mm. But the old-school says 35mm is the preferred number and anything less than 14mm gives distorted images - better for artistic results.
* No greater zoom required.
* No smaller f# required. Obvious, since landscape is usually done with larger f numbers - 18 and above. So it doesnt matter how wide the lens can open.
* Donot forget tripod.
* Get a polarizing filter.
* Dump that UV filter particularly on bright and sunny days.
* And last - a crude tip : A lens with a red ring around it is considered to have better picture quality than a regular one. Not sure as how true it is, but this sure caught my attention, though I didnot go for one with a red ring around it.

Some pictures:


























The last picture shows a lizard right under my foot to the far away clouds and still the blue/green color of the lake is yet intact!

Wish I just had warmer light - not the harsh mid day light in almost all of these pictures. Also regret for not removing the UV filter which has rendered its lens flare in almost all the pictures.

But end of the shoot, I was happy - indeed. And not my job of explaining / convincing my husband as where to use, how is it different from the lens that you have, what can it do and etc., questions of my husband when I actually need one. Infact he is more than happy than me with this lens (All SMILES).

Will soon update another post with the other "non-wide angle" pictures.