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

When I was driving through central Kansas recently on a quick trip to see my sister I tried to keep my eyes open for any interesting photo opportunities that would also not delay me too much. I like to do this sort of thing if I’m ever on a long drive by myself, partly to pass the time but also to explore new opportunities for photos that I don’t get in town. Somewhere on Highway 81 I saw this irrigation sprinkler about a half mile down one of the intersecting dirt roads, so I pulled over, got out, and walked around for a few minutes trying to get a good photo.

The first thing that came to my mind was a Krayt Dragon, and it seemed like this massive center pivot irrigator would be right at home with its fictional four-legged counterpart from Tatooine. I imagined this huge device lumbering across the landscape, its wheels carving out paths as it watered the plains in a wide circle, and for a fleeting moment this city-dweller was transported to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It was pretty cool.

My challenge, then, was how to convey this sense of awe and wonder with a simple 50mm lens? I walked around and tried a few angles, and soon realized that I had to be on the east side or else Highway 81 would show up in the picture–definitely not the feeling I was trying to convey! As such the sprinkler is slightly backlit, but I think the overall effect works quite well. I shot at f/8 using ISO 200 because there was plenty of light to work with, and tried a few different vertical positions as well. I liked this one the best not only because of the way the horizon bisects the picture right along with the axels of the irrigator but because if you look closely in the distance you can see another one peeking out over the prairie.

Something about that second sprinkler really sells the photo, in my opinion. It almost feels like these are giant monsters crawling along the barren cropland, undoubtedly part of a much larger heard that can’t be too far behind. I pondered this for a minute, then put my camera away, hopped in my car, and left the scene in my rearview mirror. Because at the end of the day family is way more important than photographs of farm equipment :)

Contrary to some of the other photos I have here on Weekly Fifty, nothing about this was planned at all. It was just one of those moments of sheer serendipity that I was lucky enough to capture on (digital) film, and also serves as a reminder to me about the importance of knowing the basics of photography.

I got this shot at our annual trip to a cabin in Nebraska when I went out with my brother, his wife, and some other friends to find a geocache and just enjoy the beautiful scenery and mild weather. Near the end of our walk my nephew asked if he could hold hands with his friend, who is the daughter of one of my best friends from clear back in the fourth grade, and the two of them walked like this for a hundred yards or so. Of course all us adults were marveling at how cute the scene was, and since I happened to have my camera with me I was able to snap this quick photo.

I’ve learned over the years to quickly set a few parameters on my camera for a given condition, and then fine-tune things as needed. Case in point: on the day I shot this picture I knew it was bright and sunny, and whatever photos I was likely to take would probably not require ultra wide apertures. So when we set foot on the hiking trail I put my camera in aperture priority, F/4, ISO 200. I knew there would be plenty of light for any picture I was likely to take, and all I would have to do is change the aperture if I needed to instead of also altering shutter speed or making sure my ISO was low.

An hour later when I saw the kids walking hand-in-hand, my camera was already pre-set to just the right parameters. Instead of fiddling with my camera I was instead free to just pay attention to the lighting, the overall composition, and where I wanted to position my body. In the space of a few seconds I got the shot I was looking for, and then shut my camera off so I could get back to spending time with friends and family instead of taking pictures all day.

It’s probably an old refrain at this point, but here’s another photo I got rather unintentionally while I was simply out for a short walk. As I often do, I brought my camera with me in case something caught my eye and ended up taking a few shots of trees, some native grasses…you know how it goes. It was spring break when I shot this, which meant campus was quiet and calm–a stark contrast to the vibrant effervescence that pervades the school this time of year. I saw these things in one of the well-manicured gardens and thought they looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, but the only problem was how to get that across in a photograph with only a 50mm lens at my disposal.

A couple problems presented themselves here: First, almost every angle from which I shot these ended up having some kind of man-made features in the background like windows or a staircase which sort of detracted from the whimsical sense of fantasy I was hoping to capture. I solved this by using a giant flower pot as an intentional background element, as if it was some sort of building or obelisk looming over the landscape. I also had to find the right vertical perspective, which meant I once had to lay down on the ground in order to get these five-inch-tall stalks to have more of a sense of presence and character. And finally, the ever-present problem of depth of field reared its head once again: too much and the photo would not be interesting, but too little and the background might be entirely obfuscated.

Shooting at f/1.8 gave me almost exactly what I was looking for: the stalk on the left draws your eye right away (though a few of the front branches are a tad bit out of focus since the DOF here is so shallow, but it’s a tradeoff I was happy to make), which then causes you to look to the rest of the photo to see the similar stalk on the left, the circular tower in the background, and maybe even notice the texture of the ground. It really is quite an ordinary scene, but my goal in photographing it was to show something that appeared a bit whimsical and otherworldly.

When I taught at Meadow Creek Christian School (now Legacy Christian Academy) I often attended an early morning bible study led by John Ferret, one of our instructors who was an incredible follower of Christ with a passion for studying the Hebrew roots of our Christian faith. One morning he was telling us about how he prayed: alone, in the morning, wrapped in a blanket to symbolize being wrapped in the arms of the Lord. It was an image and practice that has stuck with me over time, and ten years later I still try to make this part of my morning routine. I miss days every now and then, but most mornings after I get out of the shower I spend about ten minutes looking out on our back porch (often with a blanket wrapped around me) and pray. It’s a simple practice that has made an enormous difference in my walk with the Lord over the years, and is also a really nice way to start the day by praising my creator, praying for my family and friends, and laying any burdens at His feet.

On the morning I took this photo the whole town was covered in a layer of dew and mist thanks to a healthy dose of rain from the previous day, and as I stared out the window I saw tiny spots of light on our metal fence surrounding the porch. Our neighbor’s outdoor light was shining just enough to reflect off the twists in the metal, so after my prayers I grabbed my D200 + 50mm combo along with my tripod and stepped out to get a photo. I knew exactly the type of picture I was aiming for, though it was kind of difficult because there was almost no light by which to focus or even compose the shot.

Things might look bright in this photo, but this was a 20-second exposure at f/1.8, ISO 200. In reality things were so dark I couldn’t even see well enough to focus manually, and my camera had no chance of nailing focus automatically. And with each exposure taking 15-20 seconds it added a significant amount of time to what would have been an otherwise very simple photo. I ended up clipping a clothes pin to the section of fence on which I wanted to focus which gave the autofocus something to work with, and also positioned my camera in such a way as to get a dim street light in the frame as well, which resulted in a pleasing glow in the top left corner.

I did use a bit of Lightroom trickery to finesse this image too: along with the standard black/white level and saturation adjustments, I over-sharpened the white glow in the upper-right corner in order to draw the viewer’s eye while deliberately under-sharpeneing its counterpart on the lower-right corner. As I’ve mentioned before I’m generally not a big fan of excessive alteration in postproduction, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to get the image you want :)

p.s. The title seems not only fitting, but is also a reference to a song from on of my favorite albums of all time

Right off the bat I want to make it clear that this was not the photo I had intended to take when I went out in the snow with my camera. Not even close, to be honest. I was really hoping to get an image with snowflakes swirling around, not unlike a few photos I have taken in past months wherein you can see raindrops falling (appearing as streaks across the frame) in front of or behind the subject. We don’t get a lot of snow in Oklahoma, and on this particular day I happened to have my camera with me right as a bout of wintry mix started falling so I ran outside to capture what I could. I even brought my cheesy little travel tripod (aka World’s Worst Tripod) with so I could get a half- or one-second exposure in order to capture the snowy streaks left by the flakes as they meandered towards the ground.

That was my idea, anyway. Let’s just say it didn’t exactly work out.

The fatal flaw in my plan, as you have probably guessed, is that snow is very very reflective. Even on an overcast day, the snow on the ground reflects so much ambient light that it’s like shooting at noon on a summer day. The only way to get a decently long exposure was to stop my lens down all the way to f/16, set my ISO to 100, and even then I was only getting about a 1/8 second shutter–way too short to capture falling snowflakes, though it would have been plenty for getting some raindrop streaks. To get a decent image I really should have had a Neutral Density filter, but alas, the only ones I have are for my 35mm lens (note to self: buy an ND filter!)

I tried a few shots but quickly realized that my lack of a Neutral Density filter along with my terrible tripod meant that I was never going to get the shot I was hoping for. So I did what anyone on the OSU campus would do when looking for a picture: go to Theta Pond and find some ducks! It’s a bit cliche but I didn’t want to leave empty-handed, hence this duck photo. It’s nothing special, but sometimes you just gotta do the best you can with what you have. The lessons I learned were more valuable to me than the photo itself, but I’m posting it anyway because it serves as a reminder to me that sometimes you really do need to have the right gear to get the shot you want :)

Incidentally, if you listen to the audio commentary you’ll hear a bit at the end when I mention the eye of the duck which you can’t really see on the original file. If you’re curious, here is the original file for comparison.