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

This image is a bit of a departure for me, because there is nothing organic or earthy in frame at all. It’s a steel structure with a pole and valve sticking up, and I’ve given it the title “Control” because it’s most likely some sort of control valve to adjust the flow of liquid or steam. (Believe me, there’s no hidden meaning with the title. I promise. I’m just not very good at thinking up titles.) I saw this a few weeks ago when I delivered some mail to the campus post office, and as I exited the building I noticed a series of these control valves sticking up on the roof of the boiler station which takes care of delivering hot water to the University. Or at least that’s what I think it does. To be honest I’m not really sure, but whatever it is, it looks cool so I returned after several days and snapped this picture in the early morning. The entire palette here is blue, which contrasts severely from the usual colors I like to put in my photos, though as of late there has been a more monochromatic bent towards the images on here so maybe this is my way of subconsciously exploring a new photographic frontier. I dunno. I don’t know if it’s successful or not, but I tried to use leading lines to draw the viewer’s eye to the main subject of the photo: the circular wheel, which itself is a stark contrast to the rest of the image which consists entirely of straight lines and right angles. I’m not entirely happy with how the wheel is framed though, since the lower portion is bisected by the diagonal support arm, but there were not many angles from which I could realistically take the picture given the constraints of my 50mm lens, so we’ll just have to make do with what we’ve got here.

When I get to work the sun is usually just peeking out over the horizon, which means that pedestrians and passers-by tend to cast long shadows in the early morning light. This phenomenon is somewhat short-lived, since the sun rises fairly quickly, but the other day I took just a few minutes and sat down outside my building waiting for people to walk by in hopes of catching an interesting silhouette. But more than that, I wanted something that would capture a sense of motion and life. It is a college campus after all, and there is usually something happening around here no matter the time of day. Sure enough, a few people and bike-riders did travel past and I snapped a few photos of each one not really knowing what would happen. Since I don’t normally do this sort of thing I wasn’t sure what aperture to use so I tried f/4 just for kicks and figured I would adjust things accordingly for next time based on the results of this experiment. When I got back to my computer I realized that most of the photos were just not very interesting, and even though the subjects were moving when I shot the pictures, that sense of kinetic energy did not really come across in the photos except for this one. It’s clear that this girl is going places, and her cowboy boots lend a distinctly western feel to the photo as well. The bit of rim lighting on the front of her legs was a nice bonus too, and this makes me want to do more of these types of silhouette shots.

This is a classic example of how photo opportunities can be found in everyday life, if we take a little time to open our eyes just a bit wider to the world around us. The other day when my coworker and I left our building to run a short errand I noticed a small patch of mushrooms by the stairs, and at first didn’t think much of it. But as we walked past, I noticed how there was one tall mushroom and two shorter ones–almost like a father, his wife, and their offspring. Of course this personification is somewhat silly and childish, but it’s often through the eyes of a child that we see the world as it really is. Or perhaps, what it really can be.

I returned a short while later with my camera and lay flat on the ground, trying to get the framing just right. The overcast sky made for spectacular lighting, and I wanted to get the background just right so that this fungal family seemed almost ethereal and even a tad dreamlike. I shot this at f/2.8 since f/1.8 resulted in such a shallow depth of field that the middle mushroom was out of focus, and used ISO 200 to get things all nice and silky smooth. One thing that caught my eye in Lightroom was a bit of chromatic aberration along the top side of the mushrooms, which I am guessing was due to the extraordinary contrast between the white subject, dark background, wide aperture, and relatively inexpensive glass (higher-quality lenses handle this better at wider apertures, but a $200 Prime lens is a far cry from a high-quality L-series lens). Thankfully, software can fix these issues fairly easily and I am quite pleased with the result.

I shot this on a day when I really wasn’t looking for much in particular, but instead was mostly interested in taking a brief walk in the rain. Days like this are about as close to ideal as can be, at least in my humble opinion, and few things in life are more enjoyable than taking a stroll through the rain on a warm watery afternoon like this one. Since I had my D200 with me I figured I might look for a photographic opportunity, though that was not exactly my goal per se. I strolled around campus for a few minutes taking in the rain and slight breeze, and as I was on my way back to my building I saw this lonely bike sprawled out on the sidewalk chained to a bench. My thoughts went to the poor owner who, no doubt, was caught unprepared in the precipitation and rushed to chain his or her bike to the nearest stationary object until the downpour abated. Thankfully some people soon wandered past, including this fellow who was sporting a campus-themed umbrella to augment his college-style attire, and I was able to snag the photo you see here. I hope Mr. College Dude got to his destination safe and dry, and I hope for many more days like this one in the coming weeks and months.

This photo is a good example of the limitations of a 50mm lens on a crop-sensor camera*. I went to see a demolition crew tear down a building on campus recently, and brought my trusty D200 and 50mm 1.8G to document the experience. Thankfully I had my iPhone as well, because there was just no way to realistically show the scale of the destruction with that particular body/lens combination. With the limited field of view offered by this lens, I would have had to stand way, way back from the building in order to get enough of the action in frame. For example, this photo was taken from across the street, and while it is kind of interesting there are many things it does not show: the building, the excavator, the existing rubble, the crews of workmen, and the spectators. In other words, there is almost no context for the image, which severely limits its utility. My iPhone, by contrast, was able to capture the full scale of the scene with remarkably clear detail.

However, the challenge that every photographer faces is to work within his or her limits in order to produce the best images possible. My solution was not to walk a block away and try to squeeze everything into my DSLR’s field of view, but to re-think the situation entirely. How could I utilize composition, framing, lighting, and other elements of photography to capture a compelling picture? While my iPhone was fine for a large-scale view of the situation, I decided to use my D200 to capture a more intimate and personal image instead. The open maw of the excavator looks almost like a massive jaw, ready to consume whatever stands in its way. The debris falling on the right side gives the viewer (I hope, anyway) a sense of motion and controlled chaos. Decaying window frames and the shell of an A/C unit speak to the overall poor state of the building. And the torn-out wreckage spilling forth on the left-hand side teaches the viewer the sheer power of the wrecking forces at work. Clearly the excavator has been busy, and has much left to do.

That’s my hope for this picture, anyway. I’m not sure if it works and conveys everything I want it to, but if nothing else I at least got to watch a building get destroyed. And photographs or not, it sure was cool.

*A simple Google search will turn up all kinds of information on crop vs. full frame, but this video does a better job of discussing the matter than most I have seen.