A Distinctly American Pyramid

Last Wednesday I was scouting downtown for a series of statues called the Corporate Goddesses. My goal was to figure out if I have gear which can photograph them in a manner which does justice or not. The jury is still out. While I was in downtown, I stopped by the Trans America Pyramid to get some architectural shots, for fun.


1/60th, f16. I've read criticisms of this lens for being dull or unsharp. I agree it is difficult to focus. However, when focused, it presents incredibly sharp details and nice contrasts. The color rendition is also very good. Color rendition is important when photographing in monochrome. Poor color rendition translates into poor tones and contrasts. Good color rendition improves tonal range and increases photo quality.


1/60th, f4. This lens' only problem is that at its widest it's an f4 lens. This directly relates to the focusing difficulty noted above. Because it's an f4 lens, it lets less light into the viewfinder than an f2 or f1.4 lens. That complicates focusing as details become obscured in shadow and fine focal points are disrupted by the darkened viewfinder.


1/60th, f16. This lens is never truly 'soft' like some wide-angle lenses. But at f8 and smaller, this lens become exceedingly sharp. This image loses some sharpness because it was heavily keystoned to correct for the drastic upward angle.


1/125th, f8. Here the lens' abilities are on display. For an ultra-wide, it does a marvelous job of correcting horizontal lines. A few of the coming images, as well as the first image in this series, have full-frame horizontal lines. This was intentional to explore how well this lens maintains plane at 18mm. This lens does quite well.


1/250th, f8. Honestly, not my favorite shot. I needed to be a step or two to the left to make all the lines even out on plane.


1/60th, f8. Inside the Pyramid's footings. This is an interesting place if the goal is photographing merging and diverging lines.


1/125th, f8. Along the top you can see the amount this lens bends horizontal lines. Are there better lenses for rectillinear correction? Of course. Are there better lenses that would cost me $52.15? No.


1.60th, f8. An interesting quirk of this lens, the bottom of the lens corrects for barrel distortion better than the top half. Curious.


1/125th, f4. Let's end today on a note of whimsy: Trans America Pyramid topiary.