Spring Light

As you might have noticed a few posts past, Old City Hall looked a bit curved and lean-ish in the photo. That's due to distortion from using a wide lens and shooting the subject off the plane of the film (e.g. the subject is not parlell to the face of the camera). Wide lenses tend to bend things (very noticeable in architecture, for example), while long lenses tend to compresses things (crowds of people look packed more tightly together in a telephoto shot, for example).

Anyway, in the tops of the buildings/sky shot here, you'll notice the blonde brick buidling (upper right) is actually curved away from the perpendicular (to the red brick buildings, which are across the street and parallel to the film plane of the camera). The distortion of a wide lens is made worse when the subject is near the edge of the frame. I like the effect, mostly 'cause I'm sure it drives architects and engineers crazy to view.