Practice makes…oh, dear
I’ve been doing my photo class homework, but I’m kind of stuck in one gear. We learned about aperture settings, and I’m supposed to be practicing up and down the aperture scale. But as I review my pictures, I’ve noticed that I am a one note woman. 2.7, 2.7, 2.7…
So 2.7 is the lowest aperture that my camera will go to. This setting makes the depth of field very shallow, so the background is more blurry. If you follow my blog, then you probably already know that I love my close-ups. Now that I have some more information and can manipulate those shots a little, I can’t get out of that mindset – the closer the better. Argh! (That’s pirate for, “Pay attention to what you’re doing and start practicing instead of just shooting tons of pictures of things simply because you like it!”)
Anyway, here are some pictures I took last night and this morning. These are the same fruit trees that I mentioned in the Week In Review. The petals of one have mostly fallen off, almost overnight. The spiders seemed to have built their little nests overnight as well. I came out of the house Tuesday morning and they were just everywhere.
♦
steadily skipping stones 
Love the shots of the petals with the sun shining behind and the stamens making shadows, and the spider on the wet web. Really lovely photos!
Thank you! I had a lot of fun with these.
Wow! I’m not sure how yet, but these are totally going to make it into our lessons for tomorrow!
Yay! I hope it’s a fun lesson. You know, we never get to old to learn. I bet I keep on doing the same thing, sticking to that narrow focus. But I’m seeing that it doesn’t always get me the best results, and I’m trying to remember that in the moment.
Great photos!
But as to the photo class homework, I think the best way to give the viewer a sense of depth is to shoot an image that has multiple objects that are relatively the same short distance from each other … like looking down the line of an old cast iron fence, or several bicycle wheels from lined up bikes in a bike store. I’m sure that’s nothing new but maybe worth considering.
We’re just learning how to use our cameras (not composition), so I don’t have to necessarily show the depth. But I love your advice, because I’m stuck in this close-up mode, so I’m not getting a real feel for what I could accomplish. I’m going to take your advice and get out into downtown soon. Also, I am hampered by the limitations of my fixed lense, and I’m yearning for my telephoto lense that I have on my film camera.
I love seeing your experimentations. They’re lovely.
Thanks, that makes me happy!
Love the shots of the sunlight coming through the petals! Haha, don’t see an issue with loving close ups. Just shoot as much of the stuff you like – having fun with photography is the most important bit 🙂
Thanks for that! I sometimes feel like I’m doing something wrong because I’m not that versatile. But you’re right – why bother doing it if you’re not enjoying yourself and getting pleasure from the results?