Extras

Using a wide aperture to reduce depth of field


Four shots taken while out shooting for the 'focus with set aperture' exercise:

This was shot with the zoom lens at 250mm; f5.6, 1/250 at ISO 100. The wide aperture has virtually got rid of the branches behind the seed pods, allowing the contrasting blue background to add impact.

My favourite from this particular exercise.  The zoom lens was at115mm and the camera was set at f5.6, 1/2000 at ISO 400. The stunning light from an early evening sun and the out-focus-background give the image an almost 3D quality.

The two shots above were taken from slightly different viewpoints, both around 200mm focal length, f5.6, ISO 400; the first at 1/250 and the second at 1/400 with the camera set to aperture priority. The early evening sun catching the wisps is what attracted me to this. The first, however, shows that when you choose the widest aperture you may not have sufficient depth of field to have the whole of the subject in focus, however I am not too unhappy with the overall effect. I could have done without the bright patches in the background of the second, but I really like the way that, from this viewpoint, the light caught the wisps at the end of the twigs.

Water

I was prompted to add this shot by some work on water as part of one of the projects. I was struck by the image created when children were playing with one of the water features in a public garden. This might be a possibility for inclusion in the contrasts assignment.

Fitting the subject to the frame


Three images where I went a little off-piste while completing the framing project.

I couldn't resist a multiple exposure shot of the windmill in action; three shots on the same frame at 1/250. It provides a much better representation of the windmill in action but, if I was taking this shot again, I would try a slower speed to get a bit of motion blur as well.

Prompted by the project instructions to provide a close-up showing detail of the subject, I cropped heavily to feature just the hub of the blades and this is the result:

I like the effect of the crop and I guess it would have been even better if I could have stood centrally in front of the windmill rather than slightly to one side. This was not possible without trampling over a school party's picnic.

And, finally, I wanted to emphasise the contrast between the windmill as a source of power and a more recent power station by cropping an image I produced for the project:

Because of the flattening of perspective and the cropping, there's a bit of poetic licence here, but nevertheless it makes the point. Any relationship with the work of the Bechers, I have to say, is purely coincidental.

Some shots taken at the end of a frustrating session practising panning 

I had been photographing water skiers doing circuits of a lake. It was pointed out to me by one of the skiers that they finished their circuit with a bit of a flourish so I went to take some photographs of this. The camera was set on shutter priority, ranging from 1/500 to 1/1000 to freeze the action and the focal length of the lens was mostly around 300mm. For a future project I would use slower shutter speeds to represent a little more of the action and movement.