Tag:eiffel tower
Wide angle lenses can make for powerful images, with a field of view significantly wider than a regular lens or even the human eye. If you have had your camera a while, you have probably considered buying one. But do you really need one? How do they work, and when do you use them? Or maybe you already have one but aren’t happy with your shots?
What is a wide angle lens?
The commonly accepted norm is any lens wider than the human field of vision is a wide-angle. Lenses in the 24mm – 16mm range are considered a wide-angle lens, and less than 16mm is deemed to be ultra-wide. Fisheye lenses are those less than 8mm. The most popular range is 16-35mm.
So What’s a “normal” lens?
A standard lens is one that, on a full-frame camera, has a focal length of 35mm or more. This is multiplied by 1.6 for canon and 1.5 for Nikon on a crop sensor. This makes the “normal” lens for a crop sensor 24mm, as this equates to 36mm on a full-frame camera.
When to use a wide angle
Wide angle lenses are used for capturing as much of the scene in front of you as possible. Therefore, they are convenient for interiors in real estate photography. Landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes and architecture are the other main categories that shine. However, as they include so much, you need to be especially mindful of not having distractions or negative space in your image.
How to use a wide angle
The most common mistake people make when using wide angles lenses for landscapes is to use them for every big vista or a standard lens. i.e. straight horizontal or vertical. This, however, creates a scene with the horizon across the centre. However, if you angle the lens down, the horizon becomes the top third of the image, and the foreground becomes the star.
It becomes more important to find a foreground subject because your background being pushed further to the back. Otherwise, everything in the frame will be too small to be of interest. So get as close or low as you can to your foreground and have a definite subject, preferably in the midground (to avoid distortion) in the image. My subject was the lake with autumn trees leading the eye in the picture below. I was on a sloping hill and couldn’t get closer to them than about 8ft – but the ‘trees’ in the lower edge of the frame were really only low shrubs though they look like small trees.
Not for every landscape shot
Bear in mind; the wide-angle lens won’t be the right lens for every big vista. A wide-angle will make everything in the scene look further away. Unless you are shooting close to the ground, in which case the foreground becomes much more significant. While you will fit everything in, you need to be mindful that the background will appear further away and smaller. So if you are going for dramatic tall mountains, then the wide-angle may not be the right lens for the shot. However, if you have an interesting foreground leading to an interesting distant element, the image retains its impact.
drawbacks of wide angle
The two drawbacks of a wide-angle are barrel distortion and lens flare. All wide angles distort the image, especially at the edges of an image, the cheaper ones more than others. You have to be especially mindful of what is in the edges of your images. Anything at the edges will bend inwards and require straightening in your editing. It follows then that you should never have a person on the outer edges of your image. You can minimise distortion by moving further back and zooming in slightly or later in post-processing.
Lens flare – you may like it in images – sometimes it helps, sometimes not. Apart from trying to remove in PS or the like – you can get around this by adjusting your angle, using a lens hood or (my favourite method) blocking it with your hand.
They do take some getting used to, if you have never used a wide-angle before. Like a macro, they aren’t a lens you can just put on and shoot with, which was the mistake I made when I got my first one. I’m not a read the manual kinda girl. You need to understand HOW they work to use them to their best advantage.
Practice makes perfect
When I first bought one, I went out all excited, got some shots, downloaded them at home and was disappointed. The images were uninteresting and had distortion. It then didn’t leave the bag much as I regretted buying it. Shortly before a big overseas trip, I changed camera systems and bought a wide-angle as well as a zoom and walkaround. I knew I wanted to get interiors of churches and views from the Eiffel tower, so a wide-angle was going to be needed. Lots of youtube and practice before I left gave me a basic understanding; though I still made mistakes, these were ones I could correct in post. Having said that, it’s not a huge learning curve – and once you have nutted it out, you will be able to capture more interesting and powerful images.
We travelled to the arctic circle, Cairns, Qld, NZ, Melbourne, Stonehenge, and Norway on the first part of our imaginary travel journey. Then, we left Norway and sailed across to Greenland, continuing our imaginary journey. Finally, with a white wolf as our guide and a nosey penguin demanding to know why we were breaking quarantine, we observed the passage of Jupiter and Saturn across a dawn sky.
Before leaving Greenland, we checked in on the polar bears we repatriated. Two of them were off hunting, but we spent a pleasant half-hour with Brutus. Unfortunately, he had stayed behind due to an injured toe (he’d stubbed it on the nosy penguin).
We said goodbye to Brutus, ducked out on the nosy penguin, and sailed to Paris. We planned to shoot a sunset from the top of the Eiffel tower during the annual migration of the Dodo bird. Being an imaginary travel journey, our planning and timing worked perfectly with no real-life nasty border problems, and we arrived just in time to catch them fly past.
From Paris, we took the train to Munich, just in time to catch the second wave of Dodo’s as they flew past. Our view from the top of the town hall clock tower was superb.
After a few beers in a German beer hall, we climbed the narrow staircase to the attic and went through the wardrobe to Wilsons Prom, where Aslan was waiting for us.
We strolled along the beach with Aslan and listened to how things were going in Melbourne (badly), but he felt the tide was turning, and it was time to go. With that, we hopped in our boat and made our way to Kangaroo Island. Our guide this time was Gandalf. He had just arrived via eagle express and, knowing the SA police would be on our tail for sneaking in a back way. He was anxious to be on our way.
We travelled around Kangaroo Island for a few days – trying to look like locals and keeping to the backroads. Our last stop on KI was Seal Bay – a fabulous spot and final landfall before Antarctica – which we weren’t going to. We had enough of the cold in the arctic circle. So we were heading home now. One night at a curiously named hotel and then back to Melbourne.
We did wonder, though – if Hotel Hell would live up to its name or it was just a tourist trap.
That’s the end of our journey… I hope you enjoyed travelling with us.
The Eiffel Tower, La Tour Eiffel in French, an iconic symbol of France, was the main exhibit of the Paris Exposition or World’s Fair of 1889. It was constructed to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution and to demonstrate France’s industrial prowess to the world
The History (and some little known facts)
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“many were against the building and voiced their concern in a letter entitled “Artists Against Mr Eiffel’s Tower“, stating the tower to be a threat against the aesthetic nature of Paris. An iron tower erected smack in the heart of Paris was considered unacceptable, a stark contrast to the elegance and refined beauty of the city. For example, Verlaine nicknamed the Eiffel Tower the “Skeleton of Beffroi” to demonstrate the giant tower’s ungainly appearance that was bound to “disfigure” the city.”
Paris Vision History
Building the tower wasn’t all plain sailing. Iron was a new building material, previously only used in unimportant buildings or as internal bracing where appearance didn’t matter. (Eiffel also designed the internal iron structure of the Statue of Liberty in NY). Eiffel’s design used iron as a design element for the tower. He created an intricate latticework that structurally made the iron as strong as stone.
Engineering Wonder
Each of the 18,000 pieces used to build the tower was constructed specifically for the project in Eiffel’s factory on the outskirts of Paris. The wrought-iron structure comprises four massive arched legs. These are set on masonry piers that curve inward until joining in a single, tapered tower. The tower is 300 metres tall and 328 metres wide at the base.
Construction of the tower required 2.5 million thermally assembled rivets and 7,300 tons of iron. Workers painted every inch of the structure to protect the tower from the elements. A feat that required 60 tons of paint. The tower has since been repainted 18 times, on average, every seven years Going from a reddish-brown colour for its opening to yellow, yellow-brown, and chestnut before taking on the ‘Eiffel tower brown’ in 1968. The tower is painted in three shades. Each shade is progressively lighter as the height increases to augment the tower’s silhouette against the sky.
It Was Never planned to be permanent
Originally the tower was intended to be pulled down after 20 years. However, Gustave Eiffel provided 80% of the cost of the tower’s building budget. Therefore, he was allowed to manage it to recoup the costs. After this, it was passed to the Parisian Government, who planned to pull it down and sell it as scrap. Seeking to save the tower, Gustave erected a radio antenna on top and financed experiments with wireless telegraphy beginning in 1898. In 1909 when the concession expired, the government saw the benefit of using it for wireless messaging This was especially for the military and decided to keep it up.
During WWI, it played an essential role in the interception of German radio messages. One occasion enabled the french to organise a counter-attack during the Battle of Marne. Three years later, they intercepted a message leading to Mata Hari’s capture. Today there are over 100 radio antennas atop the tower.
Our Visit
We met our guide at the appointed location. We had a fast-track entry ticket, and the host was to take us through security and into the correct fast-track lane before she left us. Having the host smooth our way through was fantastic… we would have been totally lost without her. Eight million people visit the Eiffel tower each year, making it an excellent magnet for terrorism seeking a PR victory. Initially, the tower was open with grassy parks under each leg. Now it’s surrounded by inch-thick bombproof, bulletproof glass. Armed soldiers patrol the base, and getting in through the checkpoints is no easier than passing through airport security. How I would have loved to have seen it like it was 20 years ago before ISIS and terrorism reared their ugly head.
The ground floor elevators take you to the second level. From there, you change elevators and take another to the top level.
Going Up
Naturally, the 360-degree views are superb. There are gift shops and cafes on the second floor. The outside wasn’t too bad, the inside was packed with people
We took the elevator to the top level, the views were great on all sides. However, the sun was setting on one side, the view was great on that side and to the left. But, to the right and around the back, the wind was blowing us over. So we stuck to two sides
From the Top
At the top of the tower, Gustave Eiffel’s private apartment/office is on the third level. He used the space for entertaining and work. While invitations were rare, he did host a few ‘important’ people there. The space wasn’t large, but it was furnished comfortably with wallpapered walls, chintz furniture, even including a grand piano!.
Remaining largely untouched over time, you can’t enter the apartment but can view through the windows, still furnished and with wax mannequins of Eiffel and his daughter hosting Thomas Edison for a visit.
We were booked on the Illuminations tour – so we were mindful of time. We did, however, drag our feet longer than we should as the sunset looked like it was going to pop.
Then the sun went down. The lights came on. Considering how much I didn’t enjoy the illuminations tour – I wish I had stayed here and got some more night shots
Reluctantly leaving the tower to meet the rest of our travelling party for the illuminations tour, we waited forever for a lift.. we got one down to the second floor and had another long wait for the next left. In the end, we decided to take the stairs.. we were only on the second level, after all, umm the second level isn’t like the second floor – it was 376 feet up!. About 400 steps and jelly legs later, we reached the bottom… and got some last-minute shots on the way out of the tour lit up.
The Illuminations tour
Ummmm, nothing good to say about it. It was part cruise part bus. The boat part was on a huge boat that seemed to seat half of Paris… no outside area, so if you didn’t get a window seat, you had no hope of getting any sort of photo, let alone a decent one. The boat moved quite fast along the river, which added to the challenge even if you had a window. Landmarks moved past too fast to get anything better than phone pics or happy snaps on a camera. Ditto for the bus. They drive down the roads. Tell you what they are going past, not slowly, but by now, it’s in the rearview mirror. The only hope for photography is if they have to stop at the red light.
I didn’t take one image on the boat (I wish I had stayed at the Eiffel tower) and settled for street photography at red lights. The worst tour we ever did. (Before Salzburg)
Next: Munich Old Town
About 12 months ago, a group of us (all amateur photographers) signed on to do a 3-week trip covering Tromso, London, and Paris. The price looked excellent – too good to pass up. Add the lure of northern lights chasing, and we were all keen. But the initial cost proved to be only the beginning. I found there are many hidden costs of planning holidays.
While the price was undeniably great, there were hidden costs. Costs that I didn’t consider as a first-time long-haul overseas trip at the time before I said yes. Things you don’t think to factor in with the glow of excitement over an overseas trip to far-flung places. And no, I don’t mean travel insurance and spending money, which I had budgeted in.
No Regrets (do it all)
Considering the vast distances we are travelling to get there, (35 hrs travelling time Australia to Tromso with three plane changes). Add in the likelihood that, most likely, we are never going back due to distance and cost. Therefore, we all wanted to get shots worthy of bringing home. The last words I wanted on my lips at the end of the trip was “I wish”. I wish I had bought a wide-angle lens. I wish I had the new filters I have been looking at. I wish I had a better/bigger/smaller bag; I wish I had better clothing for the cold; I wish I could have afforded to take that extra tour. I wish, I wish, I wish. You see where I am going.
Gear
As it’s a photographic trip, we have upgraded our camera gear. Three of us have new cameras (two wholly changed over from Canon to Olympus. And yes, add all the new lenses that go with that. All of us bought extra batteries to cope with the cold. Some have new filters, others new camera bags, additional memory cards, lighter carbon fibre tripods, new smaller lighter laptops and externals to back up the images, and bigger camera bags to fit in snacks, water, and wet weather gear. The shopping went on and on and on and on.
Clothing
Also burning through the credit cards and savings was clothing. It’s forecast to be between 1C – 5C in Tromso. So thermal underwear, snow boots, waterproof hikers and photography gloves were on the shopping list. We also bought photographers gloves, designed to keep the hands warm but engineered work the cameras were purchased.
Add down coats, thermal hats, snow socks, and windproof, waterproof pants. London and Paris will be a little warmer. We had two nights booked out northern lights chasing. Plus day trips out on arctic wildlife spotting and night trips elsewhere, the arctic gear was the first thing we ordered
Hot Hands and Toes
Hot Hands (little heat-activated pouches that give off heat for 8-10 hours) have been purchased and stockpiled over the winter months to take with us. Sorry if you went to chemist’s warehouse and there was none left. But we needed them? One hot hand in each pocket to keep batteries warm (they go flat quicker in the cold), plus one in each glove. Buy packing cubes to find things when I need them instead of going through my suitcase like police with a search warrant. Add a couple of small laundry bags and cubes!
Electronics
Travelling overseas, everyone realises you need special power adapters. Travelling to Europe and the UK, we need one for each country. Add a powerboard to simultaneously charge camera batteries, watches, iPhones, iPods, and laptops. A power bank for charging phones on the go and recharging batteries quickly after being out shooting all day before going out again most of the night. Add a double camera battery charger.
Tours
Since we had some free days and followed on from the ‘no regrets’ mantra, we also planned to see and do as much as humanly possible while there. Cram as much in, see as much as we can, photograph everything, sleep when we get home. So, we needed to fill our ‘free days’ with tours, right?
In Tromso, add an arctic wildlife experience and add another night of northern light chasing to maximise our time. Add tours in London to Cornwall, white cliffs of Dover, Cotswolds, Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, Tower of London, Alice in Wonderland High Tea. in Paris, add a skip the line Eiffel tower to the summit and Mont St Michel. Stay an extra few days, travel to Germany, and take the train rather than fly. It’s all about the experience, right?
Add tours to the Castles and another to Salzburg, Austria. Oh, excellent, look, another $2k gone. Tetanus shot (doctor’s orders). Oyster cards, global sim, convert Aussie dollars to cash in three currencies, so we have some folding stuff on landing. Letter from the doctor for medications. New packets of said medications have to stay in their boxes and not be in pillboxes.
Forgotten Anything?
Ummmm, I don’t think I have, but despite that, we have more gear, backups, and planning than Roald Amundsen or Scott of the Antarctic. Despite covering every eventuality I can think of, I am confident when I get on the plane. I will remember something I should have bought or packed!