I finally decided that I needed a wide-angle lens for my camera, because I just can’t take any landscape or even cityscape photographs with my lovely 50mm — the pictures I have been taking since February have all been intimate, because that lens pulls you closer to your subject, forces you to look at it from a friendly speaking distance. You can’t distance yourself, can’t see it with a sweeping eye. And I wanted to get my new lens in time for our Montreal trip this weekend, because if there’s one thing a tourist needs it’s a wide-angle lens. I mean, mountains, and islands, and Olympic Parks! Those things deserve to fit in the frame.

And since I don’t intend to buy too many more bits and bobs for my camera in the near future, I figured I’d go a little crazy and get reaaaally wide.

Fisheye wide.

So now I am the proud owner of a cheap (for a fisheye), kind of crappy, kind of wonderful Belarussian 8mm fisheye called a “Peleng” (anyone know what that means in Russian?), and it came today. It’s quite delightful. My camera’s aperture controls don’t work with it, so I have to set the f-stop on the lens itself — not a problem, since I did that for years with my Minolta. But the camera also has no idea what f-stop I’m using, so it can’t help me meter correctly and I have to make a (somewhat educated) guess as to the appropriate shutter speed I need to expose the shot. It’s also a horror to focus if you’re trying to get something in the foreground sharp, because it has a very large field of view, and it’s really hard for me to tell when I’m all clear. So for right now I suck.

But look! I can take a picture of my desk that shows objects that are Right In Front of Me. Dude. That is pretty cool.

And then I can swivel around in my chair and take a picture of my entire room, including three different walls, while I am sitting at my desk. It’s totally ridiculous. I kind of wish my eyes worked the same way, you know? :-)

*******

I have too much to do and too little discipline. Why don’t they sell discipline in bottles? I know I would work hard to save up for a case.