Exploring the wonders of creation through a 50mm lens...and other lenses too.

As usual I have no idea what kind of plant this is, and when I tried to find out by submitting the picture to a Google Images search all it came up with was “fruit,” which I am fairly certain this is not. I shot it while (what else?) out on a walk on campus one afternoon with my D7100 + 50mm lens, and in looking back on the picture later on I came to a realization about not just this picture but several of my pictures. It might seem obvious to anyone who reads this blog but I don’t think I ever quite thought about things like this before, and now that I look back at my images with a particular frame of mind I really do think I have come to a conclusion about my photography. Or at least my nature photography. Basically, in looking at this image I think I finally understand what my style is.

If I scan through past images of flowers, greenery, or even man-made objects that I have posted here I think it’s safe to say that this image, of some kind of bulb or seed pod, illustrates a few things that are common in much of my photography. Apparently, as I’m finding out is often the case, I like to place my main subject on the left or right third of the frame. Of this I was well aware, and sure enough I have done it again on today’s photo. (Incidentally, no cropping was involved here. What you see is what I got.) This is kind of an basic rule and one of the first techniques any photographer learns when it comes to composing an image, and yet I think I like it so much because, so often, it just plain works. Others might come along and say the rule of thirds is a crutch, shows a lack of creativity, or is meant to be broken but at the end of the day I find that I really like placing my subjects a little bit off center–usually along one of the thirds.

What this image has helped me realize is a few other elements that show up here also appear in many of my other pictures, and I do think this indicates some sense of an overall style–albeit one that I don’t think I have been implementing intentionally, but is nonetheless present. Along with my subject on the left or right third I also tend to include context clues in the background, often on the opposite third. I like to use a somewhat shallow depth of field, but not so much that the other contextual elements are blurred out so much that you don’t know what they are. I prefer a bit of foreground elements if possible, though there aren’t a whole lot in this picture. I let my subject exist well within the margins of the frame, usually occupying its own small part of the image and not so big that there is nothing else for the viewer to see.

The thing is, it’s good to try new techniques and experiment with different ways of taking photos, but it’s also good to develop your own style over time. Find a type of shot, a type of composition, a certain way of framing your subjects, that you can work on and perfect over the course of your photography life. It’s not a crutch so much as it is your own unique way of seeing the world, and while it is of course good to explore other things it’s nice to have a cushion to fall back on–a home, if you will, that you can return to when you’re not sure what else to try or what other things to do. This photo, I now understand, is an example of what I like and what works for me. It’s simple and quite uninspiring, and won’t win any awards, but it’s comfortable and I enjoy it.

What’s your style?

I remember the first time I was given a Gideon Bible. I was in elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraska, and came across some gentlemen handing out little orange copies of the New Testament, accompanied by Psalms and Proverbs as kind of a biblical bonus. My young fourth-grade mind didn’t quite know what to make of the situation, but I took the Bible in my small little hands, brought it home, and leafed through its pages with wide-eyed curiosity. I believe I already had a bible of my own, but what struck me about my new Gideon Bible was the manner in which it was given. The men who were handing them out at school that day were kind, friendly, and not judgmental in the least. Some kids kept their bibles, some threw them away, and I distinctly remember one being literally torn apart. It was a very literal scattering of seed, some of which fell on some on rocks, some on the path which was then devoured by birds, and some on fertile soil where it might eventually take root and produce good fruit of its own one day. The experience was not lost on my young mind.

Over the years I learned more about the this organization and their mission to spread the word of God to all corners of the world, and I still get a little twinge of joy when I look in a dresser drawer or end table in a hotel and find a small copy of the Bible emblazoned with the succinct yet powerful phrase “Placed by the Gideons.” It’s comforting to know that they are still out there, doing the work of getting scripture into the hands of as many people as possible. That short description is the background for this picture, which I shot on a chilly Wednesday morning in mid-April when the Gideons were on the OSU campus doing what they do: handing out free bibles to anyone who wanted one.

I brought my D7100 + 50mm combination to work on this particular day and actually spent a few minutes mentally debating whether I should go out and take a picture of these men. It seemed like a perfectly benign course of action, and yet I had a hard time bringing myself to do it. I knew all I had to do was ask one of the Gideons if I could take his photo and I was sure he wouldn’t mind, and yet I was lost in a series of mental gymnastics trying to justify my own inaction. “What if they think I’m weird?” “What if they say no?” “What if they get annoyed?” I finally mustered up the gumption to go out and snap a few pictures because, as finally told myself, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

As usual my fears and anxieties were entirely unfounded. I struck up a conversation with this man and his colleague who were standing on a corner about 50 yards from my building at work. We chatted for a few minutes about college, campus, bibles, and photography and they said I could most certainly snap a few pictures. I took four shots (two of this man, two of his friend), said Thank You, and went back to my office. This image is my favorite and captures so much of what I like about the Gideons. He is smiling and engaged in a genuine conversation with this young man, and the two of them are each clutching a precious object: one, a bible and the other, a phone. I don’t know if the student took the free bible or not, but hopefully he walked away with a positive impression of the other man and possibly a newfound respect for this type of street ministry.

To the guy in this picture: if you’re reading this post, thank you for doing what you do. It means a lot, to a lot of people.

Every now and then you’ll read (or hear, if you listen to the audio commentary) one of these Weekly Fifty posts where I discuss the photographic opportunities that abound right in front of our eyes even in the simple mundane activities that make up our daily lives. Photo opportunities are all around us if we are willing to look for them, and this image is an illustration of what I mean when I say this sort of thing. To wit: it’s not an exceptional image in terms of the sheer artistry or composition, but it does serve as a bit of a visual reminder to me, and maybe even to you, that you don’t need fancy gear or special subjects to take good pictures.

I shot this about 6am in mid-April when I was getting dinner ready before the rest of my family woke up. My wife and I are big fans of slow cooker dinners, and we will often get supper ready many hours in advance so we can just sit down with the kids for family meal time without having to prepare anything right in the moment. On this particular morning I had just finished cutting up a pepper and some onions and was in the middle of slicing this tomato when I thought of using it for a bit of an impromptu photo-op. I ran to fetch my camera (this time my D7100 + 50mm lens) made three images, all at f/1.8 about ISO 1100 (it varied slightly between each shot) and went back to dinner prep. The whole thing took about 40 seconds from the time I put down the knife to the time I picked it back up, and when it was done I felt like I had a cool little image of a sliced tomato while also learning something along the way.

This brief photo session also served as an object lesson in providing a bit of context to a given photo. The first two pictures I shot were just of the tomato itself, and then I realized that this by itself would not be sufficient. The scene was lacking something, and I soon realized what it was: the knife itself which was used to slice the tomato. See for yourself in this photo which was right before I put the knife in the frame:

This would be a perfectly serviceable photo if it was the final product, but it’s not. I didn’t make a sliced tomato for dinner, and as such this photo feels incomplete and a bit empty. After I realized this I quickly grabbed the knife I was using to slice it, put it in the foreground, and took the third and final picture which is much more well-rounded and interesting than this one. I also made sure to include the small chunk of tomato on the right-hand side in the final image as well, as it adds a dynamic element to the image–it helps tell a story that there was more to this photo than what you see, and clearly there is still more work to be done on this round red fruit. Or vegetable. Or however it’s classified.

I now realize that I have written over 500 words on a sliced tomato, which is about 450 more than a photo like this needs. My point, though, is that you really can turn just about anything into a picture. You just have to look a little harder and, of course, make sure you have your camera with you :)

By the way, the recipe I was making is Slow Cooker Pork and Rice:
Place in slow cooker:
2 or 3 Pork Steaks (not pork chops)
2 medium onions, chopped (it seems like a lot, but it’s fine.)
1 or 2 tomatos, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Mix together separately, then add:
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Cook on Low for 6-8 hours. Remove bones from pork steak when done, and use forks to pull the pork apart
Serve with rice ( ~2 cups uncooked basmati rice is about what I use)

Before I discuss this photo I want to ask you, the reader, a few questions. You don’t need to answer these in the comments but I’d like you to think about them before continuing on…

1. What emotions, if any, does this image make you feel?
2. Do you have any memories of a scene like this in your own life?
3. What clues are in this photo that give a sense of context beyond just the fishing pole?
4. How were elements such as framing, composition, and depth of field used to create this image?

Now this isn’t supposed to be a quiz per se, but I do hope in looking at this picture you see more than just a kid with a fishing pole. In truth what’s happening here is rather quite mundane and perhaps only meaningful to me and maybe a few others. That’s why I want you to make your own interpretation of the image without really finding out too much about it from me. In a sense, the backstory here is kind of irrelevant since my real purpose in taking this photo was to maintain a sense of ambiguity so the viewers could attach their own meanings and draw their own conclusions. (I mean it: I specifically shot this image to be posted here on Weekly Fifty, and had this in mind when I took it.)

Who is the kid? Is it a boy or girl, and does it even matter? Where is this happening? Is it his or her first time using a fishing pole, or is he or she already familiar with such tools? I could answer all these questions but I don’t really want to since that’s not the point. What I set out to do here is show how photography can be used to elicit feelings, emotions, and help the viewer connect with the image on more than just an observational level. Of course all this sounds a bit narcissistic and you might, at this point, be rolling your eyes at the audacity of an amateur photographer like me who thinks a silly picture of a kid fishing could possibly be meaningful to anyone!

Anyway, I hope at the very least this image at least works on a technical level when you think about things such as composition and framing. I also tried to choose appropriate exposure settings to get the image I was thinking of in my mind when I shot this, and overall I’m fairly pleased with the results. I hope you are too, and I’m curious to find out what you think of the image in the comments below. Not the mechanics of it, but whether it did anything for you on a mental or emotional level or maybe even caused you to stop and think just for a tiny bit.

Alright, that’s enough of this for one post. Thanks for reading this far, and hopefully next time I’ll step down from the esoteric ladder and just post something fun :)

Ok, I’m going to be honest with you all: I have no idea what’s happening here. I was out for a walk around Theta Pond here on campus with my coworker when I saw this tree stump next to the sidewalk with…a bunch of orange glitter on it for some reason. I took this during spring break so there wasn’t really been any parties or any big activities at all on campus, and yet someone had seen fit to place, spill, or otherwise deposit a large helping of orange sparkles on the ground. As so often happens on these Weekly Fifty photos I walked right past it and thought “Huh. That’s interesting.” A few seconds later I turned around and, with my D7100 + 50mm lens in hand, decided to see if I could use this scene to make some kind of an interesting image. I’m not sure if I succeeded or not, but I do know I haven’t really taken a photo quite like this before.

As I knelt down to make this image I knew it would succeed or fail based on two things: the right depth of field and whether I could get the composition just right such that the sunlight would be dancing off the glitter. The latter wasn’t too difficult, as I quickly found an angle and position that I thought would work well but the former was a bit more tricky. I knew I wanted the stump to be in focus and the background to be blurry, but I also knew that the wider my aperture was the cooler the background would look. Ah, tradeoffs. That’s what photography is all about, isn’t it? Some focus stacking could have helped me but I have neither the time, the inclination, or the equipment necessary for that sort of thing so instead I just did the best with what I had.

I took a few frames at f/1.8 and then, remembering how many pictures I have ruined with depth of field that was simply too shallow, I closed my lens down to f/2.8 and took two or three additional pictures. I didn’t go any smaller than that because I knew f/4 wouldn’t get me the background I was aiming for, but I did get a few shots at f/2.4 just for good measure. I briefly checked the back LCD screen for composition but at no point did I examine the details to make sure I was getting the depth of field and sharp focus I was hoping for. I honestly was just trusting my instincts on this one, partially to see if it would work and partially because I didn’t want to spend ten minutes agonizing over, and trying to perfect, this image. After all my coworker and I were on a five-minute break, not an hour-long sabbatical.

Later on in Lightroom I did a few tweaks to the color and added a bit of sharpening on the stump, but mostly the image you see is how it looked in camera. This did give me some ideas for a few pictures that might be fun to try with toys and some glitter of my own, but if nothing else I think it made for a fun image that I felt lucky to be able to capture.