At the Temple ...

Fo Guang Shan Temple, Flat Bush, Auckland, New Zealand

I'd gone to see the Police's Family Day at the Sir Barry Curtis Park, but it was pretty hot with no shade and I soon decided a change of location would be a good idea!  Just across the road is the Fo Guang Shan Temple which, I have to admit, is a bit of a sanctuary of peace and tranquility.  Plenty of shade and quite a lovely place to just unwind.

There's a number of buildings on the site and I really wanted to take some images that gave the viewer the sense of space inside the complex.  The first shot in this post was taken with a fisheye lens and gives a wonderfully wide view of the place.  The next two shots I've added so you can compare the difference between the fisheye and a 24mm lens which, when I was much younger, was a dream wide angle lens to have in your kit bag!

Fo Guang Shan Temple with a 24mm lens

Fo Guang Shan Temple with an 8mm fisheye lens

I haven't attempted to correct the distortion on either image.  The 24mm shot seems surprisingly free of distortion, but the 8mm lens is very bendy!!  Maybe let me know what you think?

One thing I do find difficult with the fisheye lens is exposure.  I'm not sure if it's because, as the field of view is so large, the difference in light levels within the scene is often greater than my camera can capture with a single shot.  As such I usually bracket the shots (5 with the sun behind me, 7 when shooting into the sun) and then blend them together later.  Each of the fisheye shots above are 5 image blends done with Photomatix Pro.  The 24mm shot is a single shot.