My traditional happy place is shooting wildlife with telephoto lenses, although I have shot landscapes and some interiors with lenses down to the EF 17-40L, it's been a rare occurrence. Recently I decided to expand my efforts and take advantage of the new RF 14-35mm f/4 L lens, and yesterday went to explore MOTAT.
Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) is a great place to find historical buildings, reconstructions, documents and memorabilia from Auckland's past. It's not just a static site either, and there are enthusiasts who go there to run trams, operate machines and all manner of things. Included in this is a working smithy and I came across a youthful blacksmith busy with the creation of converting a steel billet into a specialized hammer.
While he is an arts student at Auckland University, he really enjoys the skills and techniques involved in turning raw metal into objects of practical use and artistic value. He has been volunteering there since he was a boy and now that his mentor has retired, he has taken on the role to keep the smithy and the skill going. We talked for over half an hour as he worked away, so I had to record the moment.
The space was very confined, so I was very glad to have the flexibility of the lens to let me include some of the environment to give the image context. I am always careful with wide angle shots to try to get the verticals vertical and make the image look as normal as possible, considering our brains make the corrections for us when we look.
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