Ultra Wide

I bought some glass. I'd been debating between various Nikon lenses, most of which were well over a grand (and worth every penny but I'm not made of money). This was the one argument, as an enthusiast, against getting an SLR: I knew I'd never quit coveting glass.

Finally I went third party. There are some kickass lens makers out there who don't make cameras at all, they just make glass. There's peaks and valleys among them and the buyer had better beware, sometimes the reason that sucker is a bargain is you can only focus it manually (which is a problem if you can't see through the viewfinder better than I can, it's fine for framing but I suck at manual focus).

So there's a few lenses I want. But one thing I run into is shooting tags in alleys, I want a wider angle and one that shoots fast. My kit lens, the one that came with my D7000 is an 18-105mm, admirable for its zoom range, but a total piece of shit when it comes to shooting fast. F3.5 at the wide open 18mm.

So I bought a Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 DX ultra wide zoom lens. It's about a third to half the price of a similar Nikon lens, and it's got great clarity and it must be sturdy because it outweighs my camera.

I'm still trying to learn to use it to advantage. At first, even chimping on my LCD preview, I could see my shots weren't in focus. There's a focus ring on the camera, and you can pull it in or push it out to switch between manual and autofocus, and I think I had it slid the wrong way for a couple of hours before I realized this.

So anyway, I said goodbye to the Four Seasons. They'll be uninstalled in a couple of days I guess, though they're so popular the Nelson had to put wood chips down to offset lawn damage caused by popularity.

And there's a lot of distortion at the edges with this sort of lens and that's something I'm going to have to adjust to. These shots show it, and they've had Photoshop's corrections for such run on them.

And as if there were tears of joy on every aisle at a store. I guess that's better than HyVee's claim of a helpful smile on every aisle, the way Vermin Supreme's free pony promise is better because as long as you're making an empty promise it might as well be a good one.

Me and Mo went to a matinee on the Plaza (Cinemark, same as what we do in Merriam but a posher theater and more capable concession staff, probably will be our regular from how time, and Deadpool again, yes for the hat trick).

So one thing and another we ended up a the Sonic on Westport Road, and there were people lined up at the Royals sign with Savlie dunking whoever stands under it. So we got in line. Time was when rooting for the Royals in a given season was like watching Star Wars and rooting for Alderon.

We finally got up there and there was a wedding party in lie by then, in their formalwear and with a limi holding across the street.