Hi Caleb,
Great shot there. I do agree that good control can yield great results, as clearly evinced by your picture.
I simply felt that events like conferences create limitations as:
- Low light conditions may force the photographer to shoot at apertures larger than f/4.
- Flash coverage may not be wide enough for the entire 10mm.
- The photographer is often not able to shoot at a plane that is perpendicular to ground. He/she may be forced to incline slightly upwards or downwards when shooting, thereby inviting distortion.
- Shooting at 10mm may be too unnerving for some of the guests. Imagine having the photographer standing less than 2 feet away from you. (I am not advocating the use of telephoto lenses either. I am merely pointing out the problems with the use of a UWA)
- There is a tendency of capturing a lot of distracting elements in a photo given its wide nature.
Having said that, I must assert right here that I am not precluding the use of a UWA lens such as the Sigma 10-20mm to shoot events. It is a good choice when:
- Things get really tight. (And example will be Caleb's picture, where people are swarming all around you. In such a chaotic environment, the 10-20mm will probably give you more options than any other lens)
- You might want to get creative by shooting at longer shutter speeds thereby capturing the entire scene with motion-blur, if the situation allows it.
There are probably more reasons, but I haven't figured them out yet.
In any case, in my limited experience in shooting events, I have my Sigma 10-20mm handy, and I do take shots using that lens during conferences, dinners and other social/corporate events. Nonetheless, photos taken by this lens usually take up only 10-15% of the total number of shots eventually submitted, as the novelty does wear off if you submit too many ultra-wide shots. (Besides, I messed up too many of my UWA shots everytime!)
In short, I do not think it is wise to use the Sigma 10-20mm or any other UWA lens as the primary lens to cover conferences. IMHO, I think the photographer will do better with a regular wide-angle lens as the primary lens, with a UWA lens handy whenever the situation calls for it.