WARREN, CONNECTICUT – I occasionally experiment with odd or eccentric bits of equipment to help keep the daily photo grind fresh. For the last few days I’ve been shhoting with a 12mm rectilinear (as opposed to fish-eye) lens on my full frame Leica M9. This lens is so wide that it’s a miracle that it even forms an image. When I say wide, I mean that I often find myself having to crop my knuckles out of the frame. Ultra wides offer huge depth of field so near-far compositions with everything in focus are possible.
I’ve sworn never to post pictures of pets. Why? I’ve explained this before. Pictures of pets remind me of the millions of pictures in online forums the read something like this: “This is my cat Wallace taken with my Canon Superturbulator 600 mm lens. You can see every whisker!” Lonely guy stuff. Nothing better to take a picture of than the pet cat. Anyway, this is my second exception in almost a year. Basil, our Norwich Terrier, wandered into the frame as I was exploring near-far. Leica M9 and Voigtländer 12mm lens.
