Arghhhh!

[milleniummuppet]

Was taking some photo's in a large paddock a while back.
There was a little bit of stock way over the other side of the paddock, and they didn't notice me, as I was being quite subtle, and they were so far away.
So yea, was taking some photos from close to the ground, I looked up, and there's this crazy Lama ( well, alpaca really ) about two meters from me - charging like a maniac.

I have never jumped a fence so fast in my life.

So there's a lesson for ya:

Pay attention to the scene OUTSIDE the view-finder .

[iPhillip]

Shame, its looks to be nice enough in the photo.

[milleniummuppet]

No, that's an evil glare, and it was actually winding up its saliva to spit at me.
Insult?

[Colin Southern]

Reminds me of a sign on a farmers gate ...

"To those of you who think you can take a 30 second shortcut across my paddock - my bull can do it in 12"

PS: Matt - finished the canvas today - will hopefully get it away to you tomorrow.

[Colin Southern]

PS: I know what you mean about keeping an eye open outside the viewfinder - I shot this a couple of days ago - just fooling around whilst a neighbour let his young daughter have a drive of the cart (don't worry, it has a kill switch at the back!).

Although it looks like a static shot, she was actually heading straight for me at about 10 MPh - and I had a wide angle lens on (so things don't start to get big until they're really close - and this shot is totally uncropped!) ...



Cheers,

Colin - pbase.com/cjsouthern

[crisscross]

some people like to get their lenses covered in slobber to get squiffy effects (when no vaseline in bag) and if you hadn't jumped you wouldn't have the gate spoiling the beast

[milleniummuppet]

Ha, yea, well I don't think it would have been a good idea to STAY in the paddock .
I was fearing for my camera, as I could see myself falling on it (with my superior sense of the future )

Ive only actually used a wide angle a couple of times, and remember it being very distorting!

[Colin Southern]

"Ive only actually used a wide angle a couple of times, and remember it being very distorting!"

The biggest distortion with wide angle lenses is usually perspective distortion - it's not the lens per sec, it's just that the lens lets you get so close that the object in the centre of the lens can be physically much closer than objects visable from around the outside.

Other than that - depending in the scene - you can notice elongation of vegitation etc in the corners which is more pronounced when the camera is tilted.

As a rule they're OK for people so long as you aren't too close, and the people are in the middle - that shot of mine was taken with a 16-35mm WA lens (at the 35mm end) on a FF camera - you can see how the front of the cart (and the girls feet) are a bit out of proportion, but I think people almost expect that with this kind of shot (it makes it more dramatic).

Cheers,

Colin - pbase.com/cjsouthern

[shreds]

I have noticed that wide angle shots seem to be having a bit of a renaissance recently or is it my imagination? Having said that the optical qualities of the Nikon 14-24mm are quite simply superb.

[iPhillip]

I've caught many a great wide angle shot with our 18/55mm.

I think wide angle shots bring new perspective to a photo.. and you can fit more stuff in , thats why I've always liked them.