RainPacket
03-24-2007, 08:32 AM
Well, I've been utterly swamped lately... but I've still been taking pictures. I've got a few lately that I liked, but this one in particular I thought I'd share since it was a bit of an experiment.
http://static.flickr.com/147/425738100_ee8867464c_d.jpg ('http://flickr.com/photos/37273045@N00/425738100')
While I have ume (flowering plum) trees outside of my house, in the 'downtown' area of Fremont -- the Seattle neighborhood I live in -- there are a ton of sakura (flowering cherry) trees instead. Sakura bloom a bit later, but the blooms are often thicker.
Walking past one of the trees, I saw one lone bunch of blossoms on a longer branch. The light and the clouds in the sky behind them, the position... hey, I had the camera, I had to do it.
I did not have a macro lens with me; the camera had my beloved "nifty fifty" and a polarizing filter on it, and that was it. So to get the effect I wanted, I used a reasonably large aperture (f/3.2, which seemed about as low as I figured I could go and still keep the blossoms in focus). Since it was handheld -- and not in an easily braced position -- I had to go with a higher shutter speed, 1/400. But I took a wild, flying guess that even with the polarizing filter on, the sun was bright enough that at f/3.2 I could make do with ISO 100 and avoid grain.
I braced the camera as best I could even though I had nothing to lean against; I pressed my arms in at my side, slowly exhaled, and shot.
The above picture is the result. And the reason I'm particularly pleased is threefold.
I had time to try about four pictures (crowded sidewalk, alas), and I tried a few other settings without reviewing; this is the first of the four shots, my 'gut instinct' for the settings. Second, I've been taking various flower pictures over the past few weeks, and they culminated in this; it's a visible example of learning through earlier experiments.
And thirdly, a lot of the technique for trying to get a crisp shot in a non-ideal situation -- for instance the "press arms, breathe out, click" -- has been picked up from discussion here on these forums. :)
http://static.flickr.com/147/425738100_ee8867464c_d.jpg ('http://flickr.com/photos/37273045@N00/425738100')
While I have ume (flowering plum) trees outside of my house, in the 'downtown' area of Fremont -- the Seattle neighborhood I live in -- there are a ton of sakura (flowering cherry) trees instead. Sakura bloom a bit later, but the blooms are often thicker.
Walking past one of the trees, I saw one lone bunch of blossoms on a longer branch. The light and the clouds in the sky behind them, the position... hey, I had the camera, I had to do it.
I did not have a macro lens with me; the camera had my beloved "nifty fifty" and a polarizing filter on it, and that was it. So to get the effect I wanted, I used a reasonably large aperture (f/3.2, which seemed about as low as I figured I could go and still keep the blossoms in focus). Since it was handheld -- and not in an easily braced position -- I had to go with a higher shutter speed, 1/400. But I took a wild, flying guess that even with the polarizing filter on, the sun was bright enough that at f/3.2 I could make do with ISO 100 and avoid grain.
I braced the camera as best I could even though I had nothing to lean against; I pressed my arms in at my side, slowly exhaled, and shot.
The above picture is the result. And the reason I'm particularly pleased is threefold.
I had time to try about four pictures (crowded sidewalk, alas), and I tried a few other settings without reviewing; this is the first of the four shots, my 'gut instinct' for the settings. Second, I've been taking various flower pictures over the past few weeks, and they culminated in this; it's a visible example of learning through earlier experiments.
And thirdly, a lot of the technique for trying to get a crisp shot in a non-ideal situation -- for instance the "press arms, breathe out, click" -- has been picked up from discussion here on these forums. :)