Hello Again, Everyone!

So it's been a few days since I've been able to put up a new post.  Since then, I have received a wide angle lens.  I'm very happy about that.  It's a Tokina AT-X 16.5 ~ 135mm F/3.5 ~ 5.6 DX.  (Try saying that three times fast!)

So, first impressions.  This is a SOLID lens.  The weight is listed at 1.34 pounds.  This lens seems like it could take about anything you could throw at it.  I usually manually focus when I shoot, but when I tried out the automatic focus, it locked in very quickly.  One little complaint that my friend Jill pointed out to me is that there are no focus points when you look through the view finder.  I think that is more a matter of preference.  Personally, I don't really use them when I shoot.

One thing that I think I am really going to like about this lens is the zoom length.  I currently have an 18-55 and 75-300 lens.  That means, I have a gap between 55 and 75mm.  That's problem number one.  Problem number two is that I constantly found myself not being able to shoot as close as I wanted to with the zoom lens, or as long as I wanted to with the smaller lens.  At a range of 16.5-135, this lens fills that gap nicely.  That means I can shoot close and wide, but also be able to zoom in a decent distance.  This will come in quite handy when I shoot my cousin's wedding this summer.

Ok, so enough of the boring stuff.  I went out today after work to test the new lens out.  In the city of Richardson, TX, there is a rec center at Huffines Park.  This is a great looking place.  I stopped in a few weeks ago to submit some pictures for a photography contest.  The center itself has a number of rooms for yoga, meetings, basketball, volleyball, etc, etc.  Outside, there around around 4 or 5 baseball fields, a duck pond, and a nice scenic bridge, which is what I focused on with my shots tonight.  I know that the complex is fairly new.  I would guess around 1 - 1.5 years old.  Kudos to the City of Richardson.

Since I was short on time before the sun completely went down, I chose to shoot only HDR shots.  Here is what I came back with.

I'm not sure how I feel about the black and white HDR.  I liked all the shadows and tone differences in this picture, so I included it.  I will need to tweak it a bit to see whether or not I will continue to use black and white HDR

This is the bridge.  It looks like it has been aged to look rusted.  The colors in the sky were great tonight.

I like this shot, because I feel it's a great encompassing view of the park.  The rec center to the left, the bridge to the right and the duck pond down below.  I think this picture "just works"

So that's it for now.  I don't know if I'll be able to get out and shoot again before the weekend.  Luckily, the weather looks like it will be pretty nice, so I should be able to get some nice pictures Saturday and Sunday.

Until next time...