The "Big" Picture

I have gone pretty much my entire photography life not having known the joys of a wide-angle lens. I mean the last camera that would've had any type of wide-angle lens that I used would be something like this

Once I moved into middle school and high school, I really got into SLR photography and into shooting sports. So, I got obsessed with zoom lenses, leaving wide-angle photography out of the mix.

Needless to say, successful wide-angle photography has become quite elusive to me.

Last week, the The Tour of Utah claimed the streets in and around Salt Lake City. I broke out the old Nikon D70s and mounted my Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 to try and get some nice wide-angle shots of the bike race.

Here was my first attempt:


(Photo info: 15mm, ISO 400, 1/125s at f/2.8)

I was mildly okay with the results. While I liked the motion blur, I felt the focus point was off, centered on his back and shoulders and not his face.

The final stage on Sunday, I gave it a whirl again. I upped the shutter speed, set the aperture small, turned off auto focus, and set the focal distance to infinity.

Here were these results:


(Photo info: 16mm, ISO 400, 1/750s at f/16)


(Photo info: 16mm, ISO 400, 1/750s at f/16)


(Photo info: 16mm, ISO 400, 1/750s at f/16)

I think I made progress on it and am happier with these results from Stage 5 than I was from the Prologue.

Then I got to thinking, to the difference between telephoto and wide-angle photography. With zoom lenses, you're trying to make the subject "fill the frame." However, with wide-angle lenses, you're trying to capture the big picture... capturing the subject AND its surroundings.

Here are some of my telephoto shots that "fill the frame":





and