Wide Angle Wednesday: Distortion

This is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB) and even earlier as the State, War, and Navy Building.  It is situated just west of the White House.  It was built between 1871 and 1888 in the French Second Empire style and was designed by Alfred B. Mullett.  It was referred to by Mark Twain as "the ugliest building in America." Harry Truman called it "the greatest monstrosity in America."  Historian  Henry Adams called it Mullet's “architectural infant asylum.”  It was for years the world's largest office building, with 566 rooms and about ten acres of floor space. Many White House employees have their offices in the massive building. (Thanks Wikipedia.)

Today is my husband’s birthday and one of his patients who works in the EOB gave us a tour.  It is a fabulous old building and we were able to get a wonderful view, rarely seen by the public, of the West Wing of the White House which is right next door.

They allowed me to take pictures inside, but I used my 35 mm 1.8 prime lens for those.  This outdoor shot I took at 16mm (24 mm equivalent). There is no B&W conversion here.  The building is gray and so was the sky. Here are some images that will give you an idea of the size of this building. 

This is my entry for Hobbs’ Wide Angle Wednesday challenge “distortion.” I took a number of shots for this challenge and was unhappy with the quality of the images at 16mm (16-50mm kit lens).  I am not sure if it was the photographer or it says something about the quality of this lens.  Anyway, this is as good as it gets. 

Sony ILCE 6000, f/13, ISO 500, 1/160, 16mm