Depth of Field

In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. Although a lenscan precisely focus at only one distance at a time, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions.

Source - Wikipedia

So. Depth of field. A natural effect of using a lens that is often exploited and overdone. However, with portraits, and some pictures of inanimate things, it looks absolutely spectacular. it allows everything but what you want to be seen to be out of focus, thus focusing one's attention on the subject you are photographing.

Both of these shots of my niece were taken using a 70-300mm telephoto lens from a distance. Why? Because often if you hang back people are alot less aware of a guy with a camera in their face. You are more likely to capture moments in some circumstances that you would not normally capture. People and animals showing natural traits and emotions.

This one was taken with a 50mm. Once again, the only thing in focus is the subject. your eyes naturally go toward the thing that is in focus, not what is around it.

Life's Money Shots

I said it. Money Shot. I'm not being dirty. There is a list of photos that get taken that everyone does their own version of.. Landmarks in towns, certain parts of nature, etc. Here's a few I've done:

















Port Denison, WA

Nikon D3000 / 18mm
1/125s / f4.5 / ISO100

Perth from Kings Park, dawn.

Nikon D3000, 18-55mm
ISO100 / approx 4 sec exposure

Celebration as an amatuer.

I have a theory. When I'm at an event, I try to take as many shots as I can. Storage is cheap, and there's no reason why you shouldn't utilize it. If you are prepared you wont have problems with storage or running out of electricity.

On this afternoon I took something around the 1400 photo mark. 1400 photos in a day. That includes pre-ceremony, ceremony, post ceremony and reception. I'd say about 250 or so photos made the final cut in the end. One in particular however stood out for me. This one.

I really like how everything lines up just right in this. The fact that the groomsmen line up behind the bride really frames her.

Amateur Gear.

So, I should probably let you guys know what I'm running.

• Nikon D3000 - 10.2mp
• 5x 4gb SDHC cards
• 2x Card Readers(incase of failure, card readers are cheap)
• Macbook Pro, i7 w/ Photoshop CS5/Lightroom/8gb ram
• 1tb ext HDD
• 7 spare batteries(I travel alot)
• Standard kit 18-55mm
• Tamron 70-300mm
• Nikkor 50mm f1.8
• Hoods for all 3 lenses
• UV, Polarising and FLD filters for all lenses
• 2x eBay speedlites (variable intensity, remote flash, and slave mode, 4xaa per flash)
• 24x AA batteries
• Various gels for said flashes
• Flash ring (attaches to tripod mount on underside of camera, and will hold a flash on each side of the lens, fired by 2xflash cables off hot shoe)
• Tripod
• Cleaning gear
• Roll of gaffer tape.

That's what I carry when I travel, or when I know I'm going to be taking photos.

Normally I just carry a reasonable Point and shoot in the car.

And so you progress.

When you realise you really enjoy it, you start trying to be more creative. You learn how light works, aperture, depth of field. You start to see that colours in focus not only look amazing but colours out of focus can really but a gorgeous frame around something you want people to look at.

So you experiment. For me, I take my camera to work everyday, with 2 lenses. At lunch time I walk around the grounds and take photos of things. With today's SD cards you can take 500 photos then just dump them onto any one of your enormous hard disks.

On this particular day, I'd just recieved my new lens. It's not special by photography standards, but it's special to me. It's a Tamron 70-300mm.

Beginnings - Pt 2.

So, you get a shiny new DSLR and you take normal camera photos or people at parties and shit like that, but what is the point of having a really nice camera when you can do all that with a 100 dollar Kodak EasyShare?

There comes a time if you enjoy using your camera you start to get creative. I'm still trying to get my creative juices flowing -- I spend alot of time looking at books and photo blogs and things like that. I try to draw inspiration from what I've seen, this partly helps me understand the concepts of creative photography.

learning to see things through a lens is so different to just having normal vision. Its something that captures a moment in time, and is static. It never changes. To be able to capture someting that gets someone's eye is a special thing.

Which brings me to This picture. This was my first attempt at actually being creative.

This source of water is there the pipeline that runs from Mundaring in WA to Kalgoorlie ends. It provides the Goldfields with water. It takes approx 2 weeks for the water to make its journey, and even after that, the water is still cool when it comes out. Here where this picture is taken, is where it sees the world outside the pipeline for the first time.

Beginnings.

So, I did photography in high school. I took a pretty keen interest in it, developing my own film in the darkroom etc. wierd angles, everything a kid in high school would normally do. Then i found computers. everything else stopped.

Recently I've been plagued by back problems, and I've been forced to find something to do that doesnt involve me sitting about all the time. So I started taking photos.

With that, here is the obligatory beginner shot of the city.