Posts Tagged ‘Wide angle’
Wide angling, at scuttle’s end
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the end of a walk that started up in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield, one encountered a series of park benches along Penn Avenue. I took the opportunity of a usable surface to swap out the lens I was using all day – a 24-240mm zoom – for a prime lens of 16mm. A prime lens has a fixed focal length, if you’re not a camera geek.
24mm is plenty wide, mind you, but you don’t get that ‘beyond the scope of human vision’ sort of thing. Theoretically, a single human eye sees things in the way that a 35mm lens does, so 16mm is essentially double that POV – and it’s a bit wider than human binocular vision is. I dig it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s important to carefully pick what you focus on with a lens this wide angle, as perspective distortion and ‘bowing’ are part and parcel of this sort of equipment.
The wide angle was chosen as part of the day’s ‘carry’ for specifically this section of the walk. Downtown Pittsburgh is quite urban, with tall buildings and fairly narrow streets, for an American city.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There wasn’t any sort of plan at work here, except finishing the walking of this length of Penn Avenue, if for no other reason than just to be able to say that I did so. This section of Downtown has been designated as ‘The Cultural District’ by the powers that be. The Yinzers call it ‘Dahntahn.’ I was planning on riding the T light Rail back to HQ.
My plan for getting home ended up getting ‘fablungered.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Downtown gets a lot of shade from these same ‘powers that be’ regarding a noisome population of street people who congregate in the area.
These ‘powers’ include a large number of commercial landlords who blame their business problems on a) the homeless, b) drugs, c) work from home, d) Covid, e) Millennials, f) socialism.
The problem isn’t that they’re charging usurious amounts of money to their lessees, nor that there are surrounding counties which have been luring corporations out of the center of Pittsburgh with promises of tax breaks and land deals for decades.
Reap. Sow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan for getting back home went up in smoke after I spent about 30 minutes waiting for a T light rail to show up at the Gateway Station. Bah.
I rode the escalator back up to street level and decided to get home the expensive way – in a rideshare.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, I scuttled over to a convenient location, one where a car can pull over easily. PPG Plaza was my choice, and I amused myself while waiting by shooting almost directly straight up at the mirror box building.
Back next week with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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