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| Knoxville Skyline, March 2012 |
I’m very slowly experimenting with my camera. I’ve tried most of the pre-settings. I still lean on “automatic” a good bit, but I’m pretty fond of other settings, such as “flash off,” “landscape,” “portrait,” and “sports.” The camera does really well with minimal light and no flash, avoiding the “washed out” look of a harsh flash. Of course, I can see a nice flash in my future.
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| Market Square, Knoxville, March 2012 |
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| Tomato Head and Cafe Four, Knoxville, March 2012 |
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| Reading on Market Square, Knoxville |
The latest attempt is using the zoom lens which came with the camera. It’s a 75 – 300mm and when I first took these pictures I was having a hard time seeing the lens as that useful to what I do. Most often my photographs are to supplement the story and so I had a hard time imagining the usefulness of a zoom lens.
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| Daylight Building, Knoxville, March 2012 |
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| Sunsphere, Knoxville, March 2012 |
I’ve seen people using zoom lens on Market Square many times. Sometimes it looks as if their lens is a foot long and now that I’ve sat at Market Square with my camera, I’m not sure what those people are doing. I sat at one end and could take perfectly good pictures of people across the square or at the other end. For that matter, I could take perfectly good pictures of someone’s cell phone at the other end of the square, but nothing nearby.
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| Holston Building, Knoxville, March 2012 |
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| View to the Northwest from Downtown Knoxville, L and N in foreground |
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| Church Street United Methodist from the Locust Street Garage |
I walked down Union Avenue and tried to take a picture of the Daylight Building, but had to back up several times to get it all in the frame. I wound up, as those of you who know the city could probably deduce, atop the Locust Street Parking Garage for these shots. It’s definitely the way to go in these cases, though I had to work to include much of the skyline because it does zoom so powerfully.
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| UT Conference Center, Knoxville |
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| Kendrick Place, Knoxville, March 2012 |
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| Duncan Law School, Knoxville, March 2012 |
So, there you go, Urban Guy can zoom, but he’s not sure how to control his new superpower. Stay tuned.*
*Update: Since I wrote this post I’ve fallen in love with the zoom lens. Specifically, it is great for photographing concerts, though it isn’t easy. Many of the recent close-up shots you’ve seen on this blog have been with the assistance of a zoom lens. Still, when I see the many people walking Market Square with monster lenses, I’m not sure what they are doing and I wonder if they know what they are doing. Maybe they know secrets I have yet to discover.
