I have been wanting to get more familiar with my 17mm lens, so I decided to go to a few different places and walk around to get some shots. It has been pretty rainy today, so there wasn't any sun, but the storm clouds did look cool in a few of the pictures.
I started off at the MTECH Campus near my home. It is a smaller technical college that offers some interesting classes. My son went to some of their welding classes while he was still in high school and learned a lot. They also have some cosmetology classes that my daughter is a bit interested in. It is a pretty good school that offers some great classes without all of the extra general courses that normal colleges make mandatory.
After MTECH, I headed over the Thanksgiving Point, which has a lot of different buildings. The movie theater at Thanksgiving Point is the one that I normally go to, but they also have some really cool places, like a butterfly sanctuary, dinosaur museum, a little farm with animals for the little ones and even a place that teaches you how to do glass blowing. I have wanted to go and do the glass classes because I have always been intrigued by that whole process.
There are some really cool garden areas in Thanksgiving Point. They are pretty snotty about people taking photos on their grounds, especially when you have a tripod and a real nice camera. I have had people try and kick me out before because they thought I was doing some professional shoots and those require permits. It's pretty stupid when they try and kick you out of a place for taking pictures just because you aren't using a cell phone. But luckily I wasn't bothered by anyone today. They did have a pretty cool reception area for weddings or something and it even had a little waterfall feature.
Taking landscapes with this super wide lens is getting easier. One thing I learned was that when the sun really isn't out, you don't need to shoot bracketed for HDR and it is basically a waste of time to do that. It's always nice to get out and get some fresh air and take photos.