Test Drivin' the Wide One: First Stop: East Canyon

  Little Dell Reservoir at the foot of East Canyon/Emigration Canyon.

 

As I have mentioned a couple of times in my past few blogs, I have been lusting bad for a wide angle lens.

There have been sooo many times when I just couldn't get back far enough to get an entire view in of a marvelous scene, and the scenes around here deserve to be displayed completely.

The Little Dell Reservoir, for instance, is an excellent example of such a scene.

It was my first shot taken with the Canon 10-22 wide angle lens.

 

The Canon 10-22 wide angle lens had been suggested to me for my next lens purchase; a new "toy" with which to amuse myself.

Santa, I've been good...

But waiting until Christmas would mean missing all the prime fall colors.

Bernie said if I really wanted it, I should just go get it.

What was stopping me?

Call me a tightwad, but buying a lens that cost almost as much as my camera just seemed wrong.

I read and researched lens by various manufactures, learned the pros and cons of each, and found that at best the price difference between manufactures for the same quality was not very different.

So.

I decided I would rent the Canon lens for a day from HERE

Take it for a test drive, if you will.

 (The test drive day turned out to be two days as they "threw in" Sunday's rent day since they are closed).

Saturday Bernie would be playing 36 holes of golf with Jeff; that would mean I was on my own for a whole day.

The weather was to be beautiful and the season was ramping up to peak color.

I picked up the lens downtown at 9:30 am sharp and headed out to the cleverly named East Canyon to see what I could see, and to discover what this lens could actually do, verses my current favorite all purpose fixed lens 60mm lens.

 

Wide angle could grab a long shot like crazy.

I switched to my 60mm lens for this shot.

Same scene.

The wide angle shot is pretty cool.

But is it over $600 worth of cool?

Taken with my 60mm.

I could take pictures of leaves on the ground for hours.

God's collages I call them.

The frost was just frosting on the leaf cake for me.

I had to switch from the wide angle lens for that shot.

Later I learned I could of gotten it with the wide angle too.

Another 60mm shot.

Wide angle

60mm

60mm

60mm

60mm

Wide angle.

60mm.

Are you getting as confused as I am?

The difference is so minor, unless one looks carefully to see what is missing from the shot.

Wide angle.

Wide angle.

60mm.

I did start noticing that in some shots the sky was a bluer shade and in then in other shots the sky looked turquoise. 

I later had a chat with the guys at the camera shop about that.

 They suggested I not use the auto white balance setting and use a different range. 

I will be giving that try soon.

Turquoise skies just don't do it for me.

The scenery was amazing as it always seems to be in East Canyon this time of year.

One drives up three hair pin turns to reach the top of the canyon. 

It is quite fun to watch cars slow down, pull over, and everything from cell phones to point and shoots to gnarly beast sized camera on tripods are all being use by folks with huge smiles on their faces.

I was shooting next to a guy who seemed a little older than me.

We kind of wound up dancing our tripods around each other at each wide place in the road, we being the only ones with tripods at first.

Seriously...is this just not awesome?

Another 60mm shot.

The wide angle shot just left the scene too far away.

The wide angle lens was a "zoom" lens, and I was using it as far out as possible to get the scene to look close.

Aside from walking right off the cliff, I couldn't get any closer so I switched to my trusty 60mm fixed lens and got the scene I wanted.

The color stripes are just starting by the way.

My mom is flying in on Thursday and by then the scene should be full on color with little green at all.

Wide angle, taken at the top of the canyon.

A Chinese couple with their pink ski jacket clad 16 month old daughter were giddily laughing and pointing and photographing everything while their daughter cried and whined.

It was close to lunch and nap time and the wind was quite cold.

Poor baby.

The parents were quite torn between meeting her needs and enjoying the beauty all around them.

Wide angle, cropped.

Also my new header.

You can see two of the three switch back roads.

60mm

 

Wide angle.

In this shot the sky is the color that skies really are.

And how I want all my skies to look like.

Wide angle.

60mm

60mm

At top of the canyon I turned around and drove back down the winding road, fighting the urge to shot all the pictures again as the light kept changing and making everything look even better.

The whole thing needs to be photographed again at sunset.

At least that's what I have seen.

A right turn at the canyon bottom took me into Emigration Canyon.

The flat terrain gave me a chance to walk around more with the wide angle lens.

I found I was walking up to scenes to get the details I wanted.

This group of bushes look like they were in a game of tag, or follow the leader to me.

I kept walking close and closer with my wide angle lens to get the closeness that I wanted.

Then I switched back to my 60mm and had to walk about 50 yards back to get the same intimacy in the shot.

That taught me a little something about myself.

The "far away-everything" isn't as interesting to me as "close up-one thing" is.

About now I was wondering if I really wanted to own a wide angle lens after all.

 

To be continued.