I just got a fisheye lens for my Canon 5D/II: Sigma 15mm F2.8 EX DG Diagonal Fisheye. It is designed for a full frame DSLR camera and offers a 180 degree field of view. It was difficult choice between this lens and Canon 15 mm fisheye, but the Sigma lens had better reviews.

My primary reason for this lens was to shoot caricature portraits (including self portraits) inspired by the work of Sharon Dominick. Of course, I am also going to have some fun with that lens outdoors with landscape and paddling. So, here is my first series of pictures with the Sigma fisheye shot during recent paddling with Sea Wind canoe on the Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins – just trying different angles and distortions. The last picture was shot after sunset with a tripod.

I am sure more fisheye pictures will appear here in the future. I am going to mount a camera with this lens on kayak front deck and, also, shoot more from a kayak cockpit to add something to my old post A View from a Kayak Cockpit – 3 Paddlers, 3 Cameras, 3 Boats.

What do you think about the fisheye perspective for paddling photography?

You can find a lot of good fisheye pictures including shots from sea kayaking in Flickr photostream of Mark Payton. He is shooting with the Canon lens.

Every year I try to visit the Gross Reservoir located west of Boulder at least once. It is one of mountain reservoirs owned by Denver Water. The Gross is opened for paddling during summer months (the Memorial Day weekend through September 30), is very scenic and quiet (with exemption of a few trains going to the Moffat Tunnel).

My recent 10 mile paddling on the Gross Reservoir was on July 3, 2009. I paddled the Surfrigger (outrigger canoe) and Rob his new/old Sawyer Loon. Loon is much lighter and faster than my Sea Wind.

All pictures below were taken from a boat with Pentax Optio W30 camera. If you check my previous trips reports you will notice that I am shooting at the same spots. The inlet of the South Boulder Creek is my favorite place to visit. I am also checking a burnt forest every time.

Rob posted some of his pictures on Facebook.

Related posts:
9 Pictures from Paddling Gross Reservoir in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains
Gross Reservoir – Fall Paddling in Colorado Rocky Mountains
Gross Reservoir – A New Paddling Destination in the Colorado Front Range

Pentax has released 5 models in their Optio “W” line of compact waterproof cameras: WP, WPi, W10, W30 and W60. I have been using three of them: the original WP, then W10 and W30. Number of models in Olympus Stylus SW line of waterproof and shockproof cameras is equally impressive: 720, 770, 790, 1030, and 1050 (models available on US market).

Below, I tried to compare selected specifications of the newest models from Pentax and Olympus. Pentax Optio W60 seems to be a progression from earlier W30 while Olympus Stylus SW 1050 is adding some new features (a tap control) but at the same time is packed in less robust case than the 1030SW.

Related posts:
Poll: Your Paddling Camera
Waterproof Digital Cameras for Paddling and Water Sports – A Shopping Guide
10 Reviews of Pentax Optio W60
10 Reviews of Pentax Optio W30
3 Reviews of Olympus Stylus 1050 SW
3 Reviews of Olympus Stylus 1030 SW

After posting the “Paddling in Clouds” picture, I’ve got several questions: How did you do it? And, I had troubles to provide a reasonable answer since this shot was technically really trivial.

It’s time for a big move …

I started blogging about 4 years ago. My first blog, Wayfarer on paddling and photography, was just an addition to my static web site, Mountain Wayfarer.

After a couple of years I had to move my blogging to another server under my own domain, fit2paddle.com, and at the same time the original blog split into three: Paddling with a Camera, Fitness Paddling, and Virtual Racing. It was a quite big migration.

For all these years, I have been using iBlog to write post from my Mac Power Book laptop …