I love living a block of the beach in Carlsbad, Ca. It's a rough life. Beautiful sunsets are so common it's easy to take them for granted. But tonight I was out playing with a new toy, the 14-24mm/F2.8 Nikon. This lens has an amazing reputation, it's so damn good that Canon shooters invented an adapter so they could use it. And after using it a bit, I can see why. The lens is absolutely phenomenal. There are so many full reviews on this lens out there that I won't bother adding one, but I will say that you shouldn't be afraid of the size of it. Based on all the comments out there, I thought it was going to be some huge beast. Not true at all. Yes, the front element is massive, round and quite ... distinctive, but it is smaller than the 24-70mm and roughly the same size if than my 17-55mm/f2.8 DX.
What I learned with my initial walk around is that the lens is technically awesome. It will shoot anything. But I have a lot to learn about using a wide angle lens. Lines get weird, perspective gets distorted, things curve at the edges, little changes in camera level and height make huge differences. Not sure yet how I wound up with the tilted horizon in the shot above, the camera was dead level...I am not yet worthy of this lens. I cannot use it to anywhere near its' full effectiveness. But it is going to be fun as hell to learn.
Also, this should come with a warning label like car side mirrors- "objects in lens may be closer to lens than they appear..."
He reached out shortly after this frame and was able to tap me in the head. I don't have any pics of the awesome spider web I was going to shoot, because I wound up having to clean it off the front element after not realizing I was that close to it. (note to self.... be careful using this lens at fire performances.....)
So new lens rocks. I also did a test shoot with Shannon, aka Brass Honey, a fashion blogger who I hopefully will be shooting for on a regular basis. I say hopefully, because even though she seemed anxious to get the pics in time to do an upcoming post, she hasn't used any of them yet and she's posted twice since they were available. I haven't heard anything from her and was hesitant to post any of them so as not to steal her thunder, but now I guess I will post a couple and let the rest of the world (aka- the two actual people who read this and aren't just spammers and link trolls like vampire stat) decide if they are any good. I actually was pretty happy with how they turned out. Bright mid-day sun, nothing but excalibur and an on camera speedlight to work with (didn't have the wide angle to play with in time)
The corporate mascot wound up with the balloons after the shoot, so it was a win in his book. Liberty station was a great venue to shoot around, I was especially happy to notice this wall, that looks better than many expensive studio backdrops I have seen.
Finally, have to end with Labor Day weekend. I mentioned at the start of this post that I have come to take the awesome sunsets here in Carlsbad almost for granted, and that is true most of the time. But I feel really lucky to live where I do, I get the perfect lab almost every evening that lets me play with the famous "golden hour." Well, tonight it was particularly golden, so I will leave you with a few shots from the beach. These were taken slightly drunk with my water proof point and shoot, but are a pretty good example of how awesome the golden hour is here on a somewhat regular basis, living a block of Tamarack Beach doesn't suck at all, no sir! It's well worth the hellish commute to Coronado every morning.
Seriously. Those were available light with a vintage 2009 point and shoot. One of these days I need to get Excalibur and the new wide angle down to the sandbox for a sunset shoot, maybe even some actual models. I am spoiled living here. Loving life. In fact, the only way I think it could get any better was if someone actually started paying me to take pictures. Otherwise, life is awesome. Have a great rest of your holiday weekend, more gear reviews and stuff coming soon-ish.
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