Since I have am trying to reclaim personal time and removing professional life from making me go crazy, I have decided I need to invest in more photography tools. Because of the cropped sensor on the 7D — and the fact that I wanted a fisheye lens — I knew I had to take the 1.6 into consideration when going for a new lens. I shot for the 8mm as it would be the lens that would be less impacted by the crop and would still give me a decent experience on the field.
I shot for the Samyang — well, originally, the Rokinon — and am really impressed with the build quality to it. It really is a solid lens, whose only worry — on my side — is the lack of some sort of glass protection. And no, the petal hood doesn’t do it for me. Don’t get me wrong, it works, but I want some other piece and security attached to this, it’s something this lens isn’t threaded for. The lens works fine though, image sharpness is pretty good in my book.
For my first shots, I actually took photos of the place — because like a kid in a candy store, I wanted to test this now, YESTERDAY — but I decided to test this lens out in the real world and I have to say, I’m really liking this acquisition. I really want to do people photography with this lens, though. I have plenty of ideas for it…the trick is all about positioning. I think I could get some really wicked shots with it, but need to make sure folks aren’t too distorted — read: bloated — because of the fisheye affect.
Anyhow, enough talk…these photographs are of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. — built as a “living memorial” (whatever that may mean) to the slain president — the center hosts over two-thousand in-house and out-of-house productions. It may be off the beaten path, but it’s definitely worth a trip to — especially the view from the Roof level of the building (my Instagram feed is filled with shots from up there of Rosslyn)…so, definitely check it out — get exposed to the arts, in all it’s forms.