Depth of Field

This beer sampler from the Saugatauk Brewing Co. nicely illustrates a "shallow" depth of field. Notice how the light American lager in the foreground is out of focus, as is the Porter and the IPA in the background; but the English bitter in the middle nicely stands out. This is accomplished with a zoom lens, a high shutter speed and lens aperture around f/5.6.

Framing

Very often "scenic" pictures, those that have a wide or far way view such as sunsets, mountain ranges and the like, need a "frame" to add depth and perspective. This is Lake Michigan.

Rule of Thirds

This is taken in Douglas, MI, with the zoom at 210 and a hi shutter speed to open up the aperture. Notice how imortant the background is to the impact and message of the photo.

The "Strength" of Black and White

Some pictures just are made for Black and White film. Sure, I could have enhanced and saturated the color in the image below, but I think B&W can make a stronger statement. This is the Michigan Dunes at Saugatauk.

Timing

This is a timing shot, sitting at an outdoor ice cream shop in Saugatauk, MI, over this past weekend, watching the crowd stroll by. Camera was on, lens was extended, and when this young woman stopped to lean against a lampost while her boyfriend went inside to get some cones, I was ready. However, it is a bit like "stalking," so I was prepared to show her the pic and offer to e-mail it to her if she wished.

Below, BTW, is the original jpg file, before I used the levels tool in Photoshop, with a bit of color saturation too in the image above.

A Little Tilt

I'm not a big fan pictures that are titled for no real reason (this was very popular and rather annoying at the end of the last decade), but occasionally an angled shot can accentuate a feeling of dynamic direction. Ths was take in Durham, NC.

Rule of Three

Blank sky/bright light/angular water tower; this picture was taken in Durham, North Carolina.

Lucky Shot

Sometimes timing is everything; this was taken in Durham, North Carolina.

The Power of B & W

I've wanted to get a good picture of Long's Peak, one of Colorado's 8 or 9 most difficult peaks, ever since I climbed it four years ago, but I never found a view that showed its real grandeur among the rest of the Rockies, until Susan and I and Addy and Julie hiked to a lookout spot in Garden Gate Canyon State Park a bit south of Boulder in the Front Range. Below is what I got on my first attempt. Below that, from a slightly different spot, is the Photoshopped view (think Ansel Adams!).

Back to Photoshop - The Levels Command

This is Monument Rocks, just south of Oakley, KS. Although when we got there I was immensely pleased with the light, particularly the sky, I felt the pictures were a little washed out (the heat made us feel, indeed, washed out). But a little help from the Photoshop "Levels" command produced what you see below, which is what I saw in my "mind's eye" when I took the picture with my Nikon D200). I find the middle "slider" in the Levels window particularly useful - just play with it.

This is a wide-angle shot, by the way, with my zoom lens set at 18 mm, giving the sky that "Kansas Bowl" look which characterizes the Great Plains.

The Three Basic Elements

This picture, that I took of the great Mayan ruins at Palenque, deep in the heart of the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico, in 1996, combines what I consider the three basic elements of good photography:
1. creative use of Depth of Field (notice that the jungle itself in the background is out of focus, thus pushing the ruins towards the viewer);
2. side lighting
3. the rule of three (you can actually see a diagonal from the bottom right to the top left that cuts the picture into 1/3/and 2/3; plus, the picture has just three elements - the temple at the top left, the stone terraces in the middle, and the jungle in the background.

Fun with DOF

Here are two pics from Chain o' Lakes State Park over Memorial Day that illustrate creative use of Depth of Field.

More Fun with Picasa

As fine as the D200 is, a gray, sunless day is just that. Enter Picasa. Here are some before and after shots, taken at Barr Lake (an old buffalo wallow) to the east of Denver, CO.

New Adventures in Photography

Now that I have a semi-pro digital camera, the Nikon D200, I've become more interested in wildlife photography. This is at 200mm, with the camera set for ISO 200. The D200 picked this up at f/9 at 1/320 of a second. It's cropped and saturated a bit in Picasa. Click on the picture to see how sharp it is.

Perspective

Mt. Meeker, near Estes Park, CO, is a pretty peak, but mountain shots on their own are often fairly bland. Here a Nikon 200 mm VR lens on a Nikon D200 puts both this church and and the peak into a rather dramatic relationship.

Framing

We were driving down the Front Range from Estes park when I saw this red walled butte against the deep blue sky. But my first shots were totally without life. I think framing the picture with the telephone pole and wires added a contrast that brings the picture more into perspective.

When Less is More

This picture, taken on Pearl St. in Boulder, CO, is an example, at least in my mind, of when a small amount of color goes a long ways. The charcoal gray "border" for the picture, coupled with the one poster in the deep shadow, causes the other poster to jump out of the frame.

ISO1600

Here's the dual advantage of a high-end digital camera: I was able to set the ISO on my new Nikon D200 to 1600 and also set the noise reduction to high automatic; also, because there is no shutter delay, I was able to capture the exact moment I was looking for. This is taken in the book store on Pearl St. in Boulder, CO, April 5, 2009.