We just finished painting the interior of our home and I took a few pictures to chronicle this make-over.  What struck me when I first starting reviewing my shots is that they were boring....pictures of walls and painting tools OR pictures of plastic over the furniture stacked in the middle of the room during the painting process.

So, I decided to stretch a bit and use a totally different lens, my Fisheye 8 to 15, and see what I could come up with.

The first shot was showing the painter's work from the perspective of standing in my kitchen and taking an action shot while they worked.  I rather liked the circular look of this, how the fisheye bent the upper portion of the picture and the windows provided a semi-circular aspect as well.

PAD Jan 10 360 painters view

Now, I am stepping into various parts of my home.  I intended to show my legs and feet, which oftentimes is the bane of using a Fisheye.  I also went into Nik filters and used the Polaroid look for the first shot.  I rather liked the look, but discovered that my feet and legs in the foreground were not obvious....

PAD Jan 10 Poloaroid filter

So, this shot has more of an obvious stepping into the room ...I like how the room bends as I stepped in, with just a little bit of my feet and legs to show my presence .  (This shot was not post-processed using Nik's Polaroid filter)

PAD Jan 10 Stepping into my living room one

Lessons Learned:

• Sometimes using a different lens can give you a very interesting and refreshing perspective.  Often, I find myself relying on three different lenses in my collection, without considering what I might do with something a bit different.  I think that's why I bought the Fisheye....to give me a totally different look and feel with the subjects that I normally shot.  
• Mistakes can often lead to new discoveries.  When I first went out to shoot with my Fisheye lens over a year ago, I forgot about making sure the tripod legs weren't showing. I got home and then ended up cropping the image that I took because I didn't want to include the legs.  I considered that day when I was thinking about my "painting compositions".  This time I thought, how could I include my feet in the picture so I could show that I was stepping into my newly painted rooms. 
• Having a mix of "usual" and "unusual" helps to tell the story.  As I showed some of the more unique shots to others, they asked to see the more typical shots to help them see how the whole painting project worked.   

So, in the spirit of having some "typical" shots, here is a shot of our cat, Mittsey, getting into the painting action.  

Using the ladder