Today features something a bit out of the ordinary for The Daily Portsmouth. I’m renting a pair of Carl Zeiss lenses this week…a wide angle 21mm lens and a 50mm makro lens, and today’s shot was taken with the 21mm. These lenses have wonderful color reproduction with minimal editing, and have a razor thin depth of field. While a portion of the field close to the lens is sharply in focus, in this case the wood grain of the bench – the focus falls off incredibly quickly fading into a soft background with rich color. This is normally an instantly recognizable landmark…but I like that the shot forces you to examine the elements to distinguish the location. Any guesses? I’ll have the lenses for a few more days and hope to do some experimenting with their capabilities, and see how they handle more of my typical shooting. How do you like today’s image?
THE DAILY PORTSMOUTH 
Awesome use of dof, lines and angles Phil! Also love the blurred lights in the background!
I like the image, and would like it also if there were something small in the zone of focus – a cobblestone, Christmas decoration, crumpled lunch bag – because the narrow DOF forces your attention to the spot you’ve focused on. But this is so atypical of your work, it would create a huge difference in the way you shoot – lots more variety, different ways to see each subject. Go for it!
It’s the Athenaeum! Great shot, Phil. 🙂
Razor thin is right. Killer bokeh. Purchase one of those already! 🙂