The Fisheye Lens - A Different Perspective

Back in January I purchased a fisheye lens, thinking it would give me a new way to look at the world, but it mostly sat in my camera bag for the first few months, waiting for me to take the plunge and start experimenting with my new toy...

This first shot was taken at Kachina Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument in southern Utah, during a trip to the area last April.  I had brought my fisheye lens along for the hike down to the arches on a whim, and I was glad that I did.  In several instances the scene was so expansive that the only way I could include an arch in its entirety was to use the fisheye, with its sweeping 180 degree angle of view.  For this shot I walked through Kachina Bridge and looked back, pushing in tight to use the bridge as a natural frame for the photo.

This was taken at the Big Tesuque Campground in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains above Santa Fe last September, a great place to catch the trees as they begin the transition from vibrant summer green to the more colorful hues of autumn.  Normally a fisheye lens introduces too much curvature to a scene, unless held relatively level to the horizon, but it can also be useful in that when tilted it "warps" the scene and introduces excessive curvature which can lend an "artistic" look to the scene.  With this shot I was looking straight up, and I stopped down the lens to get a nice sunburst on the sun rising over the ridge in the background.  

I took this shot of Broken Arch in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, last October.  I climbed up pretty close to the arch and simply "looked through" the arch when taking this shot.  Again, since the fisheye lens was tilted slightly upwards, it emphasized the curvature of the arch.

During that same trip to the Moab area last October I also did a morning shoot at Grand View Point in Canyonlands National Park.  After several minutes of shooting, once the sun had clearly broken the horizon, I switched out lenses to the fisheye and took a few shots.  I liked the look the fisheye lent to the scene, the slight curve of the horizon emphasizing the grand scale of the scene (and I'm always in love with the sunburst I get when using the fisheye).  Later, when processing the shot in Adobe Lightroom, I cropped the scene into a narrower landscape look since this fitted the feeling I was trying to convey, the broad expanse of the canyon lands.   

Last month I was on an assignment at Georgia O'Keefe's Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu, New Mexico: a morning shoot at the labyrinth.  After I got the shots I needed, I put my fisheye lens on and took a few more shots, getting close and kneeling down, trying to get a shot that took in the labyrinth in its entirely, emphasizing the circular patterns, incorporating a sunburst in the background.

A few weeks ago I went back to the Route 66 Auto Museum in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, specifically with the intent of using the fisheye lens.  For this shot I was literally two feet from the front of this old coupe, with the lens slightly tilted down to add a little "warped perspective" to the scene.  

It took a little while for me to explore the use of the fisheye lens, and it's not a look that suits every scene, but when the time is right, I love the aesthetic it gives a scene....

All photos taken with a Nikon D7000, Nikkor 10.5 DX Fisheye lens

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