I didn’t notice it yesterday, but then I went out shooting at my usual time (if not for the time change event) and so I wouldn’t have.
But today, when I left work, Wow! What a difference an hour makes!
Given the relatively flat landscape, the numerous houses, and very many rather old trees, the afternoon light filtering through the trees is pretty much gone by the time I get home, and it’s only going to get darker between now and ~December 21.
By going to the ends of alleys and intersections of streets, I was able to find some lovely light, as you can see here, but it’s going to take me awhile to get used to it, probably as long as it takes my biological functions to reset themselves to the new numbers on the clock.
Should I ever convince myself to stop at a park or something on the way home from work, though, the light should be much more conducive to creating nice pictures, and so I suppose it’s worth it.
Anyway, I noticed something curious about the pictures I shot yesterday with the Tokina: the center is sharp, yes, but the corners were blurred, even at f/8, so I set out to run some tests.
Any idea how hard it is to find ~8°10″ worth of natural things worth shooting all in the same plane of focus, especially at any distance worth mentioning? I found two wooden fences, and I’ll need a tripod and remote release to shoot them at f/8 at 4:15pm, even at ISO800, and I’m loathe to go much higher, even on this camera.
Sheesh.
D7000. Tokina AT-X 35-200mm f/3.5-4.5 at 200mm. ISO800, 1/200th (AP mode), f/8. About 7 minutes of slider play in Aperture: the Tokina is pretty flat when it comes to reproducing contrast and saturation.
