173 201108 - Southampton Uni Campus

I've recently started noticing limitations of my camera equipment. I resolved a while ago to not buy anything major, camera-wise because it was really difficult to justify. The distinct lack of funds made it substantially easier, but justification remained relevant. It's quite cool that I'm now able to say that my skill/experience behind a camera means that I could now easily justify 2 new lenses - one wide, one long. Be it ironic or not, these are both of the lenses that I wanted before I decided not to buy! <!--more--> Take this shot, for instance. I keep missing sunsets, so tonight I got out of the car in my favourite area of Southampton to try and catch the sunset surrounding something. For this, I easily need something wider so that the crane and the path frame the shot better. I nearly got hit by a car getting this right, and I'd still be happier with it if I could've zoomed to 15mm-ish. The telephoto isn't so necessary, I do occasionally find myself thinking of how nice it'd be to be able to get closer without scaring something away but that's a dent of £1000 that I definitely can't justify now!

I've pretty much settled on the Sigma 10-20 4.5-5.6 as my wide choice. I've used it before and I like the results (although I did whore it slightly in the hours I had it!) so logic and experience would dictate to go for it, but I'm open to suggestions (Charlotte: "or gifts")...anyone?