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I had the camera in the office one day and as I had to leave a little early that day I photographed a few interesting buildings and things around my office whilst I walked to the car park.

I only had my new Sigma 50mm f/1.4 lens with me so it was a good experience to be forced into using just one focal length for all shots. I would highly recommend other budding amateur photographers also give this a try - I think with the current pervasiveness of very good zoom lenses these days, more and more people are just standing still and using the zoom for composition rather than using their feet to zoom and create interesting perspectives and images. Using a fixed focal length forces you into physically moving around to get the shot and to think more about what you are composing and shooting.

Feedback and critique welcomed please...

This first is a small abandoned? (or at least closed) church just down the road from my office. With a 75mm equiv short telephoto lens it's not possible to go wide and fit the whole building in, so instead I tried to get closer and point almost directly upwards to focus on a particular portion of the building against the interesting backdrop of a cloud filled sky. A handheld HDR - I also applied a slight sort of toned effect to give it more gothic feel.


NIKON D90 + 50.0 mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm, 1/125 sec at f / 8, ISO 200

Some interesting Christmas decorations hanging in the open space inside a tall office building nearby - this shot was taken wide open (f/1.4) and looking through both the decorations and the building itself out the other side and into Hyde Park on the other side with the sun setting sort of behind me.


NIKON D90 + 50.0 mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm, 1/800 sec at f / 1.4, ISO 200

In Hyde Park there were some beautiful and bright flower boxes at the steps of the monument. It was extremely bright in the late afternoon sun so I tried taking a shot effectively facing towards the setting sun so as to backlight the whole flower bed and give the flowers a more "translucent" feel.


NIKON D90 + 50.0 mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm, 1/1600 sec at f / 2.8, ISO 200

... and the reason I had to leave early was to pick up my daughter and her friend from their jazz dance lessons. This was taken on the walk home with very strong backlighting provided by the sun (5PM) almost directly into the lens and almost silhouetting the girls.


NIKON D90 + 50.0 mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm, 1/125 sec at f / 5.0, ISO 200

The HDR image does not ring my bell, but hey thats why peeps are different!

The second last image of the rows of flowers is one that stands out for me, the collage of colours works nicely, my only suggestion relates to teh composition, a diagonal composition with the line that is created by the change in colours as the diagonal might have improved it from my perspective, at this point there is nothing leading me thru the image, however the brillant colour does mask that well

The last image seems like a good idea but needs something - now i have never taken a good portrait shot with the sun backlighting this so I am not particularly qualified, however I remember seeing some of Wendells shots and he had/has this technique really down pat.
Maybe someone with some good advice on getting these sun backlit style of shots can chime in, I would be interested in further comment also.

I also like the flower bed shot but do feel drawn into the image, even though a diagonal line may have been more apealing. Always good to push yourself out of that comfort zone.