With a London trip coming up soon, and hearing about one or two fellow photographers enjoying the experience of shooting with a fisheye lens, it was something I wanted to try.
Fisheye Lens – skip if you don’t want a geek out on specs!
I could pick up a full frame 11mm fisheye lens for Nikon Z mount by a company called TTArtisan for £259, which is said to provide a 180o perspective.
The only potential thing to consider is that it is manual focus and does not record the aperture in the EXIF data – hardly showstoppers.
When talking to a fellow photographer about the manual focus, he advised me that for such a wide angle view, focus should not be a problem at all. Also, on my Nikon mirrorless cameras, I have focus peaking to assist if needed.
Walkabout in Pakefield, Lowestoft
As we approached Lowestoft, it looked foggy which was disappointing as I had the drone with me, and Kathryn seemed keen for me to get some footage.
I took a shot of Pakefield church but it’s no different to a straight on shot but you can see how foggy/misty it was on our arrival.
We began walking from Pakefield church down to the beach and along where the beach huts start.
Walking along the path, there was another beach hut shot to test out the extreme side angle of the fisheye lens.
I was keen to try a groyne shot, so I walked over the shingle to the nearest one and tried to get some swooshery.
Walking back towards the huts, I saw an opportunity for another shot.
We walked further along and I thought getting a shot of this cafè looked like it would be a good test – according to Kathryn, we’re now into Kirkley.
Walking further further down the seafront towards the pier, I stopped and captured what I think is a superb fisheye shot of Piranha Joes Beach Bar.
We decided to walk back to Pakefield via Kensington Gardens and I captured the boating lake as it looked like the perfect subject to shoot with the fisheye lens.
Kensington Gardens
This shot really does show off the capability of a scene like this, and I was learning that some scenes work well with this lens, and others either provide a distortion that’s not useful, or a similar shot to an ultra-wide lens.
We walked up to the bowling green where there’s a bench in memoriam to Kathryn’s Mum Pam and Dad Peter.
The image below is another example of what can be captured with a fisheye lens.
The bowling green was one of Pam and Peter’s favourite places where they spent many a happy time playing bowls.
When we’re in the area, we always visit here as well as Pam’s resting place in the church grounds.
I had the pleasure of knowing Pam in her later years but sadly not Peter, but I know they were role models for how to live life. Robust moral values, family-oriented, hard working, selfless, and fun.
Kathryn often comments on some of my traits which she says remind her of her Dad.
While I’m sure in no way do I match many of the values mentioned above, examples of similarities are… eating tinned fruit with custard and a cake on top, being a fan of football and watching snooker, and a regular tot of the good stuff – for Peter, it was rum and for me, it’s whisky. But I have a feeling we would both take either of those if it were on offer.
Fog clears
As you can see from the later images, the fog had cleared which meant I could get the drone up, and show my son Michael the drone in action.
We wandered back up to where we had started at the huts, and I quite like the S bend effect of the shot below:
It was time to launch the drone.
Drone shots
We moved onto the beach and I found a spot with plenty of space to ensure anyone passing by would not be hindered.
Although the fog had cleared, the late afternoon was now leading to the light dropping fast.
With a modest camera sensor on-board the drone, I didn’t get the best quality images, but I got a couple I’m reasonably pleased with, such as Pakefield church below:
The other still image I like (despite the noise) is the one below of the Pakefield beach huts and the shape they display along the seafront.
I would like to get some video and stills here again in future, perhaps with better quality images when the light is more favourable, and also of the cliff erosion nearby.
And that was a wrap.
My son Michael was impressed to see the drone in action, and he admitted he didn’t think he would be so impressed as he was seeing how high and fast it can move.
We had a lovely afternoon out, with a nice walk, sea air, and paying our respects to Peter and Pam.
I had fun testing out the fisheye lens – it was easy to use, focus was easily achieved by simply ensuring the focus ring was twisted to the infinity end all the time.
This test meant I was most definitely taking this lens to our London trip coming up next.
Onwards and upwards…