Nature Photography

Hello again, this is my second post for today, this time on nature photography. I got some good shots I think you guys will enjoy while I was walking on the Soos Creek Trail I mentioned in my last post.

So the first photo I have here is a close up of some moss on a fence post.

Closeup of white-ish moss on a post.

I really liked this picture. Something about the moss up close and the huge difference in depth really makes it look good in my opinion.

This next picture is another closeup of moss but this time it's on the side of a tree.

Moss on the side of a tree I saw.

I think I like this picture for the same reason as the other picture, but also because of the amount of color in the moss, along with the contrast between the grayness of the tree and the yellow-green of the moss. Onto the next picture, this time it's not just a picture of moss I swear.

I thought this picture was pretty good but the I don't like the amount of blur in this. Too bad this was the only tree picture I got. Regardless, I think the contrast of the gray sky and green trees looks pretty alright.

I'll leave this last post with the question of what is your favorite angle to take pictures from: below, on the same level, or from above the subject?

Perspective

Today while I was reading Digital Photography Essentials, I came across a page on perspective and view points. I thought this would be a fun thing to experiment with because I've done depth of field before and as I was experimenting, I noticed how perspective and depth of field really go hand in hand. You can see the results of this experimentation in the following pictures.

You can see with this first picture that perspective can create depth of field, and show distance, i.e. the stones in front being really up close, and the tree in the back far away. If used correctly, perspective can be quite useful in taking a good picture, which you can see an example of no perspective in this next picture. 

This is an example of a bad use of perspective, and you can see the difference it had on the quality of the photo. It’s difficult to judge distance and makes everything seem bland and have no detail. 

This third picture, while not up close and personal, is still an example of perspective. This is because it has the railing in front up close, and the patio and tree in the middle/back, giving a sense of depth.

I’ll end this post today with this: what is your preferred perspective: up close, far away, or maybe something else?

Depth of Field

I personally find that pictures where the background is blurry compared to the object that is the focus of the photo itself. This is known as depth of field. In my book Digital Photography Essentials by Tom Ang, he says “Depth of field is the volume of space in which objects appear acceptably sharp: it extends in front of, and behind, the zone of best focus – the sharpest area in the image” (79). I used this to snap these three photos:

Here I'm focusing on the foreground with the stack of two candles.

Then the foreground with the wooden reindeer.

And then finally the background with the happy little snowman.

I liked doing this exercise because I learned how to make a camera focus manually, along with how to actually hold the camera. This will definitely be very useful in the future when I am taking pictures of different things that aren’t placed in perfect planes of focus. Ang also believes that an images is made greater with the use of depth of field and focus (82). I completely agree with this philosophy and I think I will make more photos using this method, hopefully getting better at it as I practice.

I leave you with this question: What is your favorite style of photography?