Viewpoint - Wide As You Like

                       We were set the task of going on a photo walk from college to shoot some images from a different perspective but more importantly with the widest angle lens we had available. Now I do actually own a Sigma 10-20 lens which isn't suitable for the full frame camera as there is a danger of mirror strikes but it is perfectly at home on my 400D, which, as luck would have it, were both perfectly at home in a camera back behind the couch , so it was down to the next best thing my Sigma 24-70, which I much prefer as the 10-20 can be prone to a certain amount of barrel distortion at its wider setting (think lamp posts leaning in towards the centre of the frame). 
                        One of the wonders of shooting with a wide angle is that it leads to a certain amount of creativity via the magic of perspective distortion which in lay mans terms means that parallel lines can appear to converge at wide angles so when shooting up at a building from a low angle then the building can appear to be leaning backward and another example of a shift in perspective for creative effect would be say shooting the sole of a foot of someone sat on the ground would make there foot foot appear remarkably large compared to the rest of their body sat behind it .
                         With this in mind I set off towards the centre of Didsbury to see what I could come back with .....


                        This first one goes a good way to showing you just what can be achieved in a tight space as this was taken with the camera more or less resting on my shoes and pointing up       
                           

      

                             This second one is just a classic example of of shooting low and pointing to enable you to get the full height of the subject in yet make the subject appear more interesting than it actually is by twisting the camera to get the 2nd point of interest on or about a point of thirds and in an ideal world I would have decreased the aperture to enhance the sharpness through the frame but perfection wasn't the point of the exercise, well not yet. 

       

                              This time I choose to shoot from the horizontal perspective to show some indication of how the converging lines can become greatly exaggerated and giving the impression that the garden wall may go on a lot longer than it actually does. 

         

                          Another one looking up but this time to show how it can completely throw things out of perspective by making the closest subject matter look completely out of proportion to the rest of the subject matter it is attached to.

         

                        I put this one in because even though it may not be the most interesting photograph I've ever taken, what it does do is show you how shooting at a wide angle cane be used to bring things together the frame in an abstract way which you wouldn't really be able to do when shooting at a narrow angle.
       

                   

                               
                          My final entry is another cliched shot but I thought it was worth including because I feel it shows how you can take the most mundane of subject matters and turn them into something worth looking at even if   my overall composition is slightly off the rails.   

                  

                          My overall conclusion on shooting at wide angles is that they are primarily ideal for landscape situations and even street photography if you can keep them around the 24mm mark but they do have a distinct advantage if you decide to shoot any lower than 24mm for expanding your creativity levels especially when shooting modern architecture where a stormy sky can work wonders within in the image.