Head in the clouds

Mount Etna shrouded in cloud – as it was for my duration in Sicily (apart from the first day when I hadn’t unpacked my camera!).

This photo was taken from the exact same spot as the shot in the previous post (ie from the Greek theatre atop of Taormina), but this time I zoomed in to the full extent of my lens – my trusty Nikon 18-200mm VR  (equivalent to 29-320mm on a 35mm camera).

This is what I love about this lens: I can go from wide angle to tele, then back again, in a turn of the wrist; no need to change lens. Which suits the way I work perfectly, because I’m constantly changing my mind about how I want to approach a shot and like to experiment; I often end up taking dozens of shot of the same subject from a variety of perspectives, framings and focal ranges (I’m not an efficient photographer!). Sure, there are downsides to such a wide focal range, mainly barrel/pincushion distortion at the two extremes, but it’s within acceptable limits and can be tweeked/corrected for in Photoshop.