You have heard about fisheye lenses and have often seen them used for many weird images: people with huge distorted faces, pets with massive noses, bent horizons, bizarre buildings, etc.  Do you want to use one?

Of course!

The fisheye lens can create absolutely amazing images unlike any other lens. The distortion of the fisheye compared to a rectilinear lens adds a completely new dimension to photography: creativity. And as photographers we want to be creative, don’t we? But as with all good things, there can be bad results, therefore the lens must be used with discretion and only when it adds to an image, not detracts. It is important to remember that the field of view of a fisheye is 180 degrees; the nearest rectilinear lens is the Canon 11-24mm with a 126 degree field of view…the fisheye takes in a lot of real estate and if you’re not careful an image can get very busy. And remember, you can get extremely close to objects; mine will get as close as 12 inches…

I have a Canon 15mm F2.8 fisheye.  It goes everywhere with me;  do I use it a lot?  No.

A fisheye lens is very light and usually small, therefore it is easy to bring along in your bag or in a pocket. You don’t need filters, it would be hard to fit one on the bulbous front lens element, so if I am shooting, the bracketing ability of my camera takes away the element of surprise when I review images. By bracketing, I can combine the sky in one image and the foreground in another if necessary…many times it is not…

I have found that there are certain times a fisheye can do wonders for an image. Night sky images can be incredible. My thought process is simple: if it looks like a fisheye will add something to my composition, I try it…at least by trying the lens, it can be ruled out if the composition fails.

There are even telephoto fisheyes… many manufacturers have fisheye lenses: Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Rokinon.

The lens I have was about $600…they are usually under $1000…some can be found used at Amazon for a lot less.

Here are some examples that may get you motivated to rent or purchase a fisheye:

Q. What are my options when I am shooting raw,  but running out of space on the memory card and forgot to bring another?

A. Switch to shooting in jpeg large..you will have a lot of space on the card…better to get a jpeg than nothing.

Q. My camera gives me an error message or stops working: How do I prevent myself from tossing the camera into the ocean?  (start with #1 and work your way down the list if nothing is working.)

1. remove and replace the battery; power up again.

2. replace the battery with a new one.

3. after doing the above, and camera isn’t right, return to default camera settings.

4. upload the latest firmware

5. Call a rep from the manufacturer. (Actually, this happened to me. The ability of my camera to auto focus was lost, I couldn’t get the center focus to even appear on the viewfinder; the rep was able to talk me through some repeated button pushes and the auto focus worked afterward.)

Q. The sky is bright blue, I’m shooting with an ultra wide angle and there is a dark blue blob in the middle of the image. What do I do?

A. Take off the polarizer or turn it so there is a negative effect…polarizers cause uneven skies on ultra-wide lenses.

Q.I am photographing a waterfall, it is cloudy but the water is still very reflective..what should I do?

A. Use a polarizer to cut the glare and slow your shutter speed to get flowing soft water.

Q. I am at the beach at sunset, but the darn sun is too bright on the horizon..How do I control it?

A. Use a reverse Neutral Density filter…it is darker in the middle, put the darkest part on the sun.

Q. I am at the beach and want the water to look misty and ethereal..what do I do?

A. Use a polarizer and a 5 stop  or 10 stop ND filter for a long exposure…use an aperture of around f16 or f18 and ISO 100.

Q, I am stuck shooting in the middle of the day on vacation…it is sunny, bright, blue skies with harsh shadows…how do I handle this?

A. Bracket three images.  convert them to an HDR image, then use a program like Silver Efex Pro to convert to black and white…because of the HDR treatment, the image will be dynamic in black and white.

Q. It is a cloudy, windy, overcast day…not good for photography…Is there anything I can do to shoot?

A. Pull out a 10 stop ND filter…it will give the clouds movement and drama, convert to black and white if necessary.

Q. I am shooting some scenes in the forest during the fall..it is windy as hell..what should I do?

A. Don’t fight the wind, let the grasses and trees move in the image for a unique shot; the stability of tree trunks will ground the shot.

Q. It is sunny, but I want to shoot a waterfall and there are specular highlights and too much brightness..

A. As a last resort, put on a 10 stop ND and polarizer, sometimes it will give an interesting result..otherwise use a telephoto lens and zoom in on a shady part of the falls, if possible.

Q. The sky is too bright in all my images, what will help?

A. Use a graduated ND filter to control the brightness of the sky and even the exposure…the 3 stop is my favorite, because a 1 stop is almost totally useless, and a 2 stop is often not enough.

Q. I am photographing the horizon on the ocean should I use a graduated ND or a hard edge ND?

A. Use a hard edge ND on a hard edged horizon.

Costa Rica is a rugged, rain-forested Central American country that exuberates with color. Hummingbirds have always fascinated me but unfortunately for us here in the Northeast we see just one kind – the Ruby-throated. Costa Rica is known to have 54 species, of which I saw around 25! It is hard to remember all their names , especially since I am more of a nature photographer than a birder. I can tell you that there is a distinct advantage to being good at both ….some day.

Having chosen to visit Costa Rica, I had to decide whether to do a pure wild nature trip or go with a organized group that would make my life easier and in the process increase my yield tremendously – I chose the latter – with Greg Downing and Greg Basco, who knows Costa Rica thoroughly.

I am a Nikon shooter, used D4s and D810 bodies . For flash set-ups, the 810 worked great – lots of pixels to play around with. For high shutter speeds and frames per second, the D4s was more appropriate.

After landing in San Jose, the capital, we spent the first night at Hotel Bougainvillea . They have a nice backyard with a variety of birds and more importantly, excellent food – the fruit especially. The next morning we were off!

First stop – in the Atlantic Lowland Rainforest. Lodges in Costa Rica are built on slopes. They are geared for “ photography “ if you will. Birds will fly in and on to perches and trees that are at eye level with the lodge platforms – how better to make that eye contact that we all yearn for. Here is a Chestnut Mandible and a Keel-billed Toucan.

It was here that we were treated to several Coatimundis (raccoon family – behave a little like “monkeys” ) and the Great Currasow among others. Lowish light , hence f 3.5 to get decent shutter speed. But that’s the beauty of Costa Rica  – a nice photographic challenge!

We did see a couple of woodpeckers including a Black-cheeked family that had a young one in its hole and yes – at eye level from the lodge – However we had to watch this Long-tailed Tyrant try for at least 2 hours to get to it and the poor parents simply had to watch and pray.

One evening we got to photograph the Long-tongued Pallas’ Bat that loves nectar. This was made possible using infrared triggered flash. All one had to do was make sure the shutter was open!

Reptiles are a plenty in tropical Costa Rica – I did photograph a couple of snakes and frogs. Here is a Red-eyed Tree Frog.

Next onto the Atlantic Slope Cloud Forest – 4500 feet above sea level. We drove through rushing mountain streams, cool air and orchid, vermilion and moss-festooned trees. On the way we stopped at a local ranch for lunch where we were treated to a flock of the endangered Scarlet Macaws  and Great Green Macaws . I got my exercise here trying to anticipate their movements and in the end I felt rewarded.

A bonus here was the White-faced Capuchin monkeys who showed up out of nowhere . They kept climbing up and down trees and there was a moment here that I felt I might run out of card space!

By that evening I was exhausted and found myself in a nice lodge with a stream running through the grounds and a different variety of hummers feeding at the lodge feeders. For the next couple of days we photographed these hummers either in natural light or using multi-flash set ups and the natural flora around. I was fortunate not to clip the tail of this Long-billed Hermit.

Hummingbirds can be very small or large like the Violet Sabrewing – my favorite and it can be difficult deciding which lens too use –I used the 300mm  2.8 for the most part.

In between hummingbird sessions I got a view of this chestnut-colored woodpecker in the tropical forest.

Here is an innovative night-like effect – reduce the background light flash power.

And finally into the Talamanca Cloud Forest 8000 feet above sea level – did get quite chilly here. Again a whole bunch of hummingbirds via set ups or purely wild approaching a flower or feeder. There were plenty of opportunities to photograph other birds too when not in the set-up rotation. One evening we witnessed a gorgeous sunset – tough to get the White balance right – managed a Green Violet eared and a Fiery-throated perched together.

We did get a half decent look at the endangered Resplendent Quetzal – just wished he would have shown us his red breast!

All said and done, this was my best trip for “birds“ so far. There is so much more to photograph in Costa Rica – not just birds. Landscapes too are amazing. I have to make it back there sometime…… soon.

Unfortunately there simply isn’t enough space here to reveal all that I was able to photograph in Costa Rica. But please do visit my website if interested.

Here is an example:

If you position the horizon low in an image, the shape will be inverted and give a totally different feeling to an image, such as this example:

If you position the horizon dead center in an image, the distortion is reduced and gives an extreme wide angle effect of about 120 degrees
Here is an image with the horizon almost dead center:

My own fisheye lens is 15mm…

It is also important to note, that if you have an APS-C or smaller sensor, the effects are minimal.  I would recommend a fisheye lens only on a full frame camera.  There are adjustable fisheye lenses available…this lens can give an image great impact; it can also ruin an image.  It must be used with discretion.

Minimalist Lighting

Photoshop CS5 Pocket Guide

Fotoblur Magazine

…

and the list goes on. You will be surprised at the variety of subjects and the quality of available resources. Give it a try. Share your finds and comments here with others if you like.