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  • Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

    Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

    Rating: 9 out of 10

    Exceptional images are definitely not the exception with this lightweight, affordable, L–class ultra-wide zoom.

    I must admit that, when I first purchased this lens, I expected it to see limited use. I had only occasional need for an ultra-wide so, exercising great fiscal responsibility, I chose this model over Canon’s 1-stop faster, 3-times pricier 16-35mm f/2.8L. Since I would mostly use the lens for the occasional landscape or architecture shot—two disciplines requiring good depth-of-field—I wasn’t too concerned about the f/4 aperture. I would, in most cases, be using it at f/8- f/11 and, as I already mentioned, it wasn’t like I was going to use this lens all that much, anyway…

    Yeah, right. In 2008, I took more photos with the lens I “wasn’t going to use much” than with all my other lenses combined.

    What I didn’t know, when I purchased this glass, was that the bulk of my 2008 photographic income would come from landscape and architecture work — two areas that, until 6 months ago, were only hobbies for me. Instantly, this lens rose from “novelty” to “bread and butter” status, and not once did I ever think, “I wish I had purchased the 16-35.”  In fact, it was quite the opposite — spending a summer climbing mountains and hiking many rugged and steep trails made me appreciate every ounce I didn’t have in my backpack, and the 17-40 is one of the lightest lenses in my kit. Stopped down and mounted on a tripod, this lens is both an architecture and landscape-capturing machine. Handheld at f/4, it’s still surprisingly terrific, though a little softer in the corners than I would like. On the new breed of 21+ megapixel bodies, cropping away unwanted width (or softness) actually becomes a feasible alternative to swapping lenses. Never before has “thriftiness” actually worked out so well for me.

    Sample Images

    The following are just a few photos shot with this lens:

    ©2009 grEGORy simpson

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  • White Christmas

    White Christmas

    After spending so much time coding the new photo site, I finally deemed it “good enough,” and was ready to venture outside for a long walk around town. I’d suck in a little of that fresh Vancouver air and, if something struck my fancy, I might even take a photo or two. Normally, long walks are an essential part of my work day because, in my estimation, I solve about 90% of my most complicated problems while pounding pavement. It’s one of my many little idiosyncrasies that makes it essential that I work at home. Whenever I’m given a complex design task by an employer, the first thing I do is take off out the front door. Walking is how I accomplish my best design work. And there’s the rub — admittedly, it doesn’t reflect too well on me if, when presented with a big problem to solve, I’m seen immediately leaving the office for a couple of hours. Water cooler politics would, of course, dictate that I make a beeline for my desk and sit there shuffling papers with furrowed brow until the task is accomplished. But, for me, the desk is just about the last place where I’m going to be productive… at least when dealing with issues related to design or creativity.

    So these last few weeks have been an anomaly because I actually have been stuck at my desk. It’s not that web design isn’t creative. It’s just that, for every 5 minutes I spend designing the site, I have to spend the next 3 days getting cozy with Google — researching all the code, tools, and techniques required to actually implement the thing. I design while walking. I solve problems while walking. But research requires being chained to my desk.

    Choices Market

    After three weeks of research, I was more than ready to walk. Last time I was out, I was kicking through a shin-deep sea of beautiful red maple leaves. Now I’m kicking through shin-deep snow. Funny how much can change in a few short weeks. Vancouver has recently seen about a foot-and-a-half of snow, and more is falling as I write this. The air is fresh and crisp. The dogs are happy. The trees are enrobed in a shroud of white where, just last month, they were warm in their brightly saturated red, orange, and yellow jackets.

    When I captured the image at the top of this page, I was walking south across the Granville Street Bridge, nearly blinded by the bright winter sun, which hung low above the horizon. As I approached a park on the south shore of False Creek, the trees began to filter the harsh winter sun, making it look as if the snow itself was luminescent. In the distance was a couple walking a dog—muzzle burried in the snow. Regrettably, I needed a long lens, but had the 17-40 wide-angle mounted on my camera. The moment would pass if I switched lenses, so I took the shot with the 17-40; later cropping away at least three-fourths of the captured scene to get the composition I wanted. Those 21 megapixel images can really help save a shot like this.

    The extra-blustery winter scene, shown above, was captured with my little Panasonic LX3 on my way to buy ice cream (I kid you not) at Choices Market on Christmas Eve.

    snowmobiles

    The “his and hers” scooters, above, caught my eye because the snowmobile was invented in Canada. Of course, despite all appearances to the contrary, neither of these are representative examples.

    The snowlady, below, fascinated me not just because she was so well realized, but because she’s so indicative of the city in which I live. She’s standing in a downtown public park. I walked by her in the morning then, again, in the afternoon — yet no one had stolen her purse, her earrings, her beads, her fur color — nothing!

    snowlady

    ©2008 grEGORy simpson

    If you find these photos enjoyable or the articles beneficial, please consider making a DONATION to this site’s continuing evolution. As you’ve likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site — serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls.

  • Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM

    Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM

    Rating: 10 out of 10

    Physics? Try magic. This lens is, quite simply, the best glass I’ve ever had the pleasure to use. Adjectives like “stellar,” “remarkable,” and “extraordinary” don’t do it justice. It’s that good. It’s just a shame this quintessential Canon glass occupies such an awkward focal length because it possesses the preternatural ability to absorb light where there is none. Wide open, it’ll render a sharp, almost 3–dimensional look to any subject in its field of vision.

    Its uncanny capacity to paint contrasty, saturated images in the dark makes it an ideal concert lens and, if you’ve got enough room to take a few steps backward, it’ll deliver portraits gorgeous enough to hang in the National Gallery. This lens might just be supernatural.

    Sample Images:

    ©2008 grEGORy simpson

    If you find these photos enjoyable or the articles beneficial, please consider making a DONATION to this site’s continuing evolution. As you’ve likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site — serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls.

  • Lensbaby 3G

    Lensbaby 3G

    Rating: 7 out of 10

    Optically, this 50mm is even more “suspect” than the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II — but it’s so much more fun. Mounted on a miniature bellows, the 3G is focused by manually pushing or pulling the lens toward or away from the camera body. If you do this asymmetrically, you’ll create some bizarre selective focus effects. Want to change the aperture? Just insert some magnetic washers!

    Although a bit awkward for handheld use, the 3G’s ergonomics improve drastically when the camera is mounted on a tripod. The optional “close up” adapters let you apply its glorious fuzziness to the macro domain. Totally useless for photojournalist work and, like the fisheye, a bit wearisome if used too often, the Lensbaby 3G succeeds by putting a little fun back into photography.

    Sample Images:

    ©2008 grEGORy simpson

    If you find these photos enjoyable or the articles beneficial, please consider making a DONATION to this site’s continuing evolution. As you’ve likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site — serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls.

  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

    Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

    Rating: 7 out of 10

    Cheaper than a tank of gas, this little plastic prime seems to be in every Canon shooter’s kit. Although better than it should be, the lens is easily out-resolved by today’s crop of dSLR camera bodies.

    Unless I simply can’t bear to carry a couple more ounces in my bag, I will always opt for either the 35mm f/1.4L or the 85mm f/1.8 — either of which will deliver far superior results. That’s not to say the lens doesn’t have its uses. Lately, I’ve been reverse–mounting it, thereby pressing it into service as a poor-man’s macro.

    Sample Images:

    ©2008 grEGORy simpson

    If you find these photos enjoyable or the articles beneficial, please consider making a DONATION to this site’s continuing evolution. As you’ve likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site — serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls.

  • Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

    Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

    Rating: 9 out of 10

    Never has a lens taken so long to grow on me. Purchased as a fast, wide-angle to compliment my 135 f/2L, three things immediately impacted my enjoyment:

    First, the focus varied erratically between soft and very soft. Second, unlike the 135, this lens does not excel at its maximum aperture. And third, I discovered that I didn’t really “see” in 35mm — my eye tended to gravitate toward 24mm and 50mm focal lengths.

    Fortunately, all three of these impediments to lens nirvana were easily removed. The softness problem was alleviated with a trip to Canon’s service center, where they repaired and calibrated the lens. To alleviate the “softness” at f/1.4, I simply pretend this is an f/2 lens, only resorting to a wider aperture when the softness is preferable to higher ISO noise. And finally, to eliminate the third problem, I practiced the art of patience and perseverance and, at long last, I’ve grown to love the focal length.

    The 35L is now one of my three most-used lenses, delivering great environmental portraits, group shots, landscapes and low-light interiors.

    Sample Images:

    ©2008 grEGORy simpson

    If you find these photos enjoyable or the articles beneficial, please consider making a DONATION to this site’s continuing evolution. As you’ve likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site — serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls.

  • Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L

    Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L

    Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L

    Rating: 9 out of 10

    Believe it or not, this is not the oddest looking lens in my collection (a distinction currently held by the Lensbaby 3G). Like a fisheye or macro, this highly underrated gem is a specialty lens. However, unlike those lenses, owner satisfaction requires patience, knowledge and skill.

    The tilt and shift functions make this lens ideally suited to landscape and architectural photography, where the shifting mechanism keeps parallel lines from converging and the tilting mechanism provides extensive control over depth-of-field.

    Best used at f/8 on a tripod (though I’m fond of handholding it), this manually-focused mechanical wonder delivers vibrant, geometrically accurate photos that far exceed the quality obtained by software-based perspective solutions.
    Sample Images:

    ©2008 grEGORy simpson

    If you find these photos enjoyable or the articles beneficial, please consider making a DONATION to this site’s continuing evolution. As you’ve likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site — serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls.

  • Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye

    Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye

    Rating: 9 out of 10

    Although I could be happy mounting this lens on my camera and using it exclusively for an entire week, such merriment would be “self indulgent.” For the majority of people, the fisheye effect (like its namesake), begins to smell funny rather quickly. Consequently, I use it somewhat sparingly — though I still press it into “non standard” service (such as portraits) whenever possible. Also, with a little post-processing, it’ll de-fish nicely into an ultra-wide angle alternative. This is one sharp tube of glass.

    Its only fault (and it’s minor) is the “friction fit” lens cap that, more often than not, detaches itself from the hood, leaving the bulbous front element exposed. Though it’s still perfectly unmarred, I live with a certain modicum of fear whenever I take this lens into the field.
    Sample Images:

    ©2008 grEGORy simpson

    If you find these photos enjoyable or the articles beneficial, please consider making a DONATION to this site’s continuing evolution. As you’ve likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site — serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls.

  • Out With the Old

    Out With the Old

    My creaky, antiquated web development methodologies were beginning to show their (and my) age. After spending the better part of 2008 convincing myself that this simply infused my web sites with a certain quaint “charm,” some recent modifications to my business model dictated that I get on with the renovation.

    Of course, I didn’t enter the modern age of web design without a fight. After spending the last 10-12 years laboriously coding my own sites, I wasn’t ready to give up control to a bunch of structured, open-source Web 2.0 techniques. Nope. I had my own way of doing things, and I didn’t want my site looking like every other Web 2.0 site. So I cracked open Dreamweaver CS4, rolled up my sleeves, and got to coding. It took only about 15 minutes before I was programming “over my head.” Since I’m more of a “sit on the edge of the pool and dip my feet in the water” kind of web programmer, I tend to thrash around whenever I enter the deep end of the programming pool. And, for me, the deep end means anything beyond basic HTML and CSS.

    After about a week of struggling, I’d created a site structure that I rather liked. It looked great in both Safari and Firefox on my Mac. It looked great in Firefox on my PC. In IE7, it started to resemble a “cubist” representation of a website and, in IE6, it was more Jackson Pollock than Pablo Picasso. So I dove back into the deep end and, after another week of thrashing about, I was no closer to having that architecturally beautiful website running on that abomination known as “Internet Explorer.” Regrettably, I knew that over half my clients would be accessing this site through either IE6 or IE7, so there was only one thing left to do: surrender to the call of Web 2.0.

    I now know that, not only was resistance futile, but it was stupid. I installed WordPress on my website and, using the highly-customizable iThemes Flexx template, the site was up and functioning (essentially) the way I needed. Sure, it lacks the visual pizazz of my beautiful though IE-hostile effort. But, the very fact that I no longer need to stay up until 5:00am trying to find work-arounds to Internet Explorer bugs means I can do what I’m supposed to do — photography.

    So with this post, I present the latest incarnation of the ULTRAsomething photography site. And, as a reminder to myself — don’t be so stubborn to adapt to the ways of Web 3.0 when that day inevitably comes.

    ©2008 grEGORy simpson

    If you find these photos enjoyable or the articles beneficial, please consider making a DONATION to this site’s continuing evolution. As you’ve likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site — serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls.