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

You’ve heard me say many times that you don’t need to go very far to get good photos, and that includes just stepping out into your own back yard. Even so, it’s been a while since I posted a picture here on Weekly Fifty that I shot literally in my own back yard. Most of the time I’m out with my family and my camera is used for snapshots of people, and not the kind that I share here on the blog. But on a mild afternoon late last year I had my D750 and 50mm lens outside, as opposed to the Fuji X100F I normally use when taking snots of my wife and kids, and realized I could use it to get a really cool picture of this leaf by the fence.

I did have to alter the scene just a bit to get this shot, which I don’t normally do but in this case I thought would be OK. This one leaf was initially part of a triad with two others sticking up near the top of the frame, so I gently picked them off to get just the single leaf in the shot. I’m actually looking straight down here, not up towards a tree, which is one reason this image caught my eye. Normally you would have to contend with the bright sky for a shot of a single leaf, but in this case the dirt and brown branches gave a rich visual contrast to the image that I don’t often see. (Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say I see it, but don’t take the time to stop and really notice.)

Choosing the right settings for this photo was a bit tricky, since the leaf was so large and my camera so close that a wide aperture would mean too much of it would be out of focus. I knew any larger than f/2.8 wouldn’t work, both for depth of field as well as overall sharpness, but I did try a few shots at f/4 and f/5.6 just for fun. In the end I preferred this one, shot at f/2.8, the most because of the way it obliterated the background even though the right edge of the leaf isn’t quite in focus. It was worth the tradeoff, and it’s not something I notice easily anyway.

I didn’t spend too long outside taking nature shots while my kids were climbing the ropes and swinging in the swingset, but it was fun to try something different but also quite the same. I think I need to take my own advice and look for photo opportunities right in my own backyard a little more often :)

If this looks kind of similar to last week’s photo, you’re probably not too far off the mark. I shot this about two minutes after that one, about ten feet away, looking in the same direction using some of the same techniques. I even have the subject off center, just like last week, with the notable difference here being the color of the focal point: yellow instead of red. This image also bears a striking resemblance to another photo I put up last fall, with this specific type of flower backlit against a blurry horizon. The big question for me when I took this image was one of aperture: f/1.8 would obviously give me the most pleasing background blur, particularly with the spots of light. But the sharpness sacrifice isn’t always worth it and in this case wasn’t one that I was quite willing to make. So I stopped down to f/2 which might not seem like a big difference, but even that little bit of change can have a big impact on overall sharpness–not to mention the slightly wider depth of field too. And in a photo like this, those tradeoffs can be well worth it.

One of the exciting parts of shooting this picture was working to get just the right spots of light in the deep background. That bright blurry light just to the left of the flower was no accident: I set my camera to continuous high-speed shooting and waited for a car (not a bus or a big truck) to drive by, and after a few attempts I got just the right reflection I was aiming for. It’s those elements that you can sort of plan, but not quite, that make photography a lot of fun. I also enjoyed getting to shoot with my D750 and its famous flip-out screen which my D7100 sorely lacks. (Famous only insofar as it was a bit of a revelation when that camera was originally released, though in 2021 it’s hardly a feature worth writing home about. Or in this case, blogging about. Nevertheless, I do enjoy using it so I’m going to mention it here just because I feel like it.)

This is also a good example of how the time of day, combined with the time of year, can have a significant impact on your photography. I shot this on December 1 when the sun is low on the horizon in the afternoon, and for a good chunk of the year you would need to either get up early or stay up late to get an image like this. And in either of those situations you might not have the same level of traffic in the background, which would make getting the shot just a little more tricky. It’s neat to see how nature can have such interesting, and not entirely expected, effects on the photo-taking process.

This picture is kind of similar to some that I shot near the end of 2020 in that it has a single subject, in this case a leaf, with some wide-aperture artifacts in the background complementing the main focal point of the image. What separates this image from some of the others I have taken recently is the sheer level of contrast between the subject and the background elements. When I was walking towards Theta Pond one afternoon in early December my eyes were immediately drawn to this scene because of the bright red leaf set against a long row of green bushes, and thought it would be fun to show that extreme level of color contrast in a picture like this. It more or less worked out how I had hoped, but there was one thing I didn’t plan on that turned out to be the proverbial icing on the photographic cake.

As I was lining up this shot I saw that, much like some of my other photos, the light bounced off vehicles as they drove past in the distance which resulted in the bright football-shaped blob on the right side of the picture. What I didn’t expect was all the smaller, similarly-shaped bokeh balls along the lower-right side. I don’t even know what caused those, as the only thing in the frame was just…well, dirt really. Even though the sun was setting which led to the beautiful backlighting, I didn’t really count on the dirt in which these bushes were planted to create anything special in the way of lighting flourishes.

Unlike some of the other images I have taken recently, I shot this with my D750 instead of my D7100. Why the change? Mostly because as I left for work on this particular morning I still had my 50mm lens on my D750 and was too lazy to take it off and put it on my D7100. I think I could have gotten this shot with my D7100 but the crop factor would have meant a few compromises in terms of framing the scene, though I suppose I did end up cropping the original full-frame image a bit anyway. It’s nice to have a bit of wiggle room though, and the flip-out screen on the D750 is nice when framing shots that are at a bit of an awkward angle such as this. Mostly I just enjoy shooting with that D750 and 50mm lens, though. And that’s probably why I had that lens on that camera to begin with: after all is said and done, and even taking into account all the other gear I own, it’s still a joy to go out and shoot with that combo.

Those of you who have been reading Weekly Fifty long enough know that I like to schedule my posts well in advance–weeks, even months before they go live. As I write this it’s about a month prior to the post being published, and we’re coming up on the end of a pretty rough year for a lot of people. 2020 has been soul-crushing in a lot of ways for a lot of folks, and if you have been hit hard by the pandemic then please know my heart goes out to you and I hope you are doing OK and starting the new year with a sense of optimism and even excitement. It’s been tough to see the silver lining with everything that has been unfolding these past several months, and yet, it is there if we look hard enough. There is news of a vaccine on the horizon, and the Biden administration will undoubtedly bring a host of changes from the past four years, and even though you are reading this during the cold of January it’s only a few months until things warm up and the browns and grays give way to green grass and bright blue skies.

And this photo, I hope, brings a tiny bit of a sense of optimism to you as you start the new year.

I rarely share photos of my kids here on Weekly Fifty (and even when I do, I never show their faces) but I thought this would be worth posting as we all begin 2021 together. I shot this over Thanksgiving break when my wife and I took our boys to Lake Carl Blackwell just west of town and spent the afternoon walking on trails we had never seen before. We didn’t know where we were going and had no map or GPS to guide us, and instead just told our oldest son to lead the way while our youngest followed close behind. Some spots on this trail (which I think was an equestrian trail, but I’m not sure) were muddy, others were covered in leaves, and a few spots were nothing but knee-deep trenches through the dirt and mud. It was exciting not knowing where we were going or what we would find along the way, and through it all our kids just kept forging ahead without a plan other than to see what was just around the bend.

And that’s kind of how I feel going into 2021. There’s uncertainty, of course, but I also have a sense of hope and excitement as opposed to the overbearing foreboding which has characterized much of 2020. What lies ahead I’m not sure, but I know we’ll get through this with the Lord’s help, and hopefully we will soon leave COVID-19 and the pandemic in the rearview mirror for a long, long time.

Here it is, my final photo for 2020. And just like usual, there isn’t really anything special or noteworthy about the fact that this image is the one to close out the year but I hope you enjoy it anyway. I schedule my posts weeks or even months in advance, and it’s basically just dumb luck as far as which picture happens to land on any given Wednesday, but even so I do think there is something to be said for this particular image as we leave 2020 behind and head into a new year.

But first, the photo. This was the result of several attempts at capturing a backlit leaf at Theta Pond one morning in mid November. The first challenge was to find a single leaf, isolated against everything else in the frame. An inspection of a nearby gingko tree resulted in nothing noteworthy, as too many leaves were visible in the shots I was taking and nothing really stood out in the frame. Then I came upon this tree on the south side of the pond, and actually ended up removing two dead leaves from the foreground that would have obscured the leaf you see here. I put my camera in Live View because I wanted to get three specific balls of light to the left of the leaf just right in the frame, and thankfully the wind had died down a little because, let’s face it, my D7100 in Live View is…well, let’s just say it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of autofocus performance. The final composition is one that I like. Really like. I thought the greens on the top left, the bright leaf in the middle against a darker background, and the spots of yellow in the lower-left corner create a compelling composition that I enjoy a great deal. The backlighting worked perfectly, and there’s even a tiny drop of water on the bottom of the leaf–a little bonus I didn’t even plan on. It’s a great picture of a dying leaf, and yet it also fills me with hope to look at this too.

If you really wanted to (and I’m not saying I do, but…if you wanted to) you could turn this picture into a bit of a metaphor for this past year. I tried writing a few sentences about it and deleted all of them, because nothing I can say here on my little photo blog can hope to console those who have lost family, friends, and loved ones due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Make of this photo what you will: I have some thoughts in my head, but that’s probably where they will stay until I can find a better way to share them in written form. But whatever you think of this image, I hope you can focus not only just on the withered leaf but on the bright spots behind it, the green trees full of life, and the sunlight streaming through the frame lending an iridescent glow to everything you can see. Let those parts of the picture not be absent from whatever thoughts and interpretations you take from this.

And may all of us, Lord willing, look forward to a bright and hopeful 2021. May God bless you and keep you, may He make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you, and may He look upon you with favor and give you his peace that passes all human understanding.

Cheers, everyone. See you next year :)

It’s amazing how much difference it can make to shoot photos in the morning. Or in the evening. Or any time the sun isn’t higher in the sky. I have always enjoyed taking pictures at the extreme ends of the day, and not just because the light is better. In the morning the air feels fresh and there is a sense of newness about the day that falls away as the sun reaches into the sky, and in the evening you can feel the calm and order settling on the earth as things wind down before the final rays recede into the distance. Taking pictures during those times feels like a slightly more tangible way to explore the world, and try to capture just a glimpse of what it feels like in person. Not that I want to be melodramatic here; the point I’m making is that it’s really cool to go out and shoot pictures in the morning and the evening. But especially the morning.

This was a classic scenario of finding a good subject, but not seeing (at least immediately, anyway) a great way to shoot it. I literally walked around this rose for a minute or two thinking about what angle to use or what I wanted my composition to look like, and then I realized I could use the backlighting to my advantage. With the sun relatively low in the sky the petals on top had a really nice glow to them, and the background foliage was brilliant-lit as well. I spent a few minutes scooting from left to right and back again, taking photos the whole time, trying to get a good combination of a well-lit subject, an interesting background that complemented the subject, and placing other elements like the dark green branches of the rosebush in the frame in a way that accented everything else. It occurred to me as I was shooting this that I had taken a similar photo earlier this year which used not only backlighting, but the sun reflecting off passing cars to create bright spots of light in the background too. As I often do, I borrowed from that idea and tried to wait until some cars were going by on University Avenue to get a similar effect here, but with almost no traffic on the road that idea just wasn’t working out.

I think the photo is better off this way though, because the absence of background bokeh balls invites the viewer to focus more closely on the flower. I shot at f/2.4 to get a clean, crisp image and edited the final result just a touch in Lightroom to make the colors stand out a bit more. While this picture in and of itself isn’t really all that special, it was a fun shot to take and a good reminder of why it’s nice to take your camera out early to see what difference that can make for your photos. It might be a lot more than you think.

I took this picture eight days after one of the worst ice storms in a while, but you would almost never know it unless you look really carefully. After a week of intense cleanup most things on campus, and around town, are almost back to normal. There are piles of tree limbs and branches on almost every curb, but most of the debris is gone from campus thanks to the tireless efforts of the groundskeepers and cleanup crews. If you look carefully at the red tree you’ll notice that it seems incomplete, almost like someone took a pizza slice-shaped chunk out of the top. That is most likely a missing branch that broke off in the ice storm, but other than that this seems like a pretty normal scene for this time of year.

With one exception: there are no students. Not just an absence of pedestrians in the image, but an absence of evidence that any students are here at all. To be fair, I did shoot this picture at 7:25am (though if you look at the EXIF data on Flickr it probably says otherwise, since I had not yet adjusted my camera clock for Central Standard Time) but even so, it’s clear that this sidewalk has not seen much traffic. During a normal school year you would never see one of the main walkways on campus covered with so many leaves! That only happens when there are no people walking around to shuffle them around, but such is the nature of college during COVID. If this picture makes you feel a sense of calm or peace, that’s pretty much how the entire school year has gone. There’s a low hum of activity, but it’s a shell of what we normally see around here. Not that it’s a bad thing, and I’m glad both students and professors are finding ways to adapt to education during a pandemic. It’s just different, and something I’m still finding it a little strange to adjust to.

As I write this it’s about seven years after I got my D7100, which is the camera I used to get this shot. It’s really interesting to me how well that camera has held up over the years, and while I certainly prefer my D750 for image quality and D500 for sports and action, that D7100 remains a formidable photographic force especially when paired with some good glass. Or even average glass, as is the case here with my trusty ol’ 50mm f/1.8 lens. I kind of wish I had something a bit wider for this shot, but in hindsight I think the constrained field of view of a 50mm lens on an APS-C sensor fit just right.

Hope you’re doing well, and here’s to a better 2021 and the hope that we will get a vaccine soon.

I shot this on a Monday afternoon while my wife and I were out on our usual walk with the kids–the same walk, on the same route, that has netted several Weekly Photos this past year. The air was chilly and the rain was falling, and little did we know it but our state was about to get hit with the worst ice storm in a long time. When I shot this photo we didn’t know any of that was coming though, and all I was thinking about was how the lightly falling rain just bordering on sleet would make for some interesting photo opportunities. Unfortunately I didn’t really see anything until I noticed this lone read leaf as we were making our way back home. My wife and the kids went on ahead while I paused to see if I could capture a good shot, and I think it worked pretty well.

One thing I ask myself when taking a photo, almost any photo, is what I want the viewer to focus on. If the answer isn’t immediately apparent, it’s usually not a great photo. (Though not always, as there certainly are exceptions to this.) I saw a lot of trees, leaves, branches, twigs, and other things on our walk that looked interesting in person but didn’t make for great pictures. Without a clear subject, or contrasting elements between the subject and the other elements, nearly all the things I saw just didn’t turn out to be great photographs. This one leaf sure did though, and by itself I think it would have been just fine but the rain and ice added a bit of a shine to it (as well as subtle touches to the surrounding scene) that elevated the image to a better place. At least in my opinion anyway.

I didn’t have long to take this shot since I didn’t want to make my family wait in the rain and cold, so I had to make a few quick compositional and exposure decisions on the fly. I shot it so enough of the leaf was against a green background to make it really stand out, especially the bottom tip with the drop of ice. I also shot this at f/2.8 to get a good compromise between sharpness and background blur, and when I looked at my two or three version that I shot at f/1.8…sure enough, the background was smooth but the leaf was just a bit too blurry. I also got this with my trusty D7100 and 50mm f/1.8 combo, and as I have said many times recently it’s still fun to shoot with that even after all these years.

I don’t mind being more than a little out of the loop. I’m usually not the first person to jump on new social or technological trends, and I can’t really tell the difference between a DVD and a Blu-Ray. It’s nice existing relatively free from the one-upsmanship that sometimes exists in other circles, but this photo is kind of a very small example of how it’s a little weird at the same time.

I was biking to work on a cool morning in mid October when I saw the fountain outside the Low Library on campus filled with…pink ducks. Why pink ducks? I dunno. Strange things happen on a college campus sometimes, and you just have to go with the flow or go mad trying to make sense of it all. I didn’t really try to make sense of it or figure out these ducks’ raison d’être, but I did think that the scene might make an interesting photo. I hopped off my bike, busted out my Classic Combo (D7100 + 50mm f/1.8) and got to work.

One thing I didn’t want to do was create some type of artificial scene. I’m not sure exactly why, but I felt like it wouldn’t be right to pose the ducks or otherwise alter the scene just to get a photograph. Even though the entire ordeal was artificial, I wanted to essentially just work with what I was given and not create some type of false photogenicity. (Is that even a word? If not, it should be.) I looked around to see if I could spot a single duck isolated from the rest, and soon I settled on the one you see here. As luck, and time of day, would have it there was a bright yellow bulb in the background which showed up as a really cool bokeh ball when shot with a wide aperture. Really the only thing I changed in this picture was the aperture; I didn’t move my camera forwards or backwards, and once I lined up my shot in Live View (because I had to set my camera on the edge of the fountain which made it tricky to see through the optical viewfinder) the only question was which aperture to use. I cycled through the old standbys: 1.8, 2.4, 2.8, and 4 and wasn’t really sure which one I liked best. It never hurts to have some options though. In the end I ended up picking the f/1.8 image because the silky smooth background was just too good to take a pass on. The other shots were fine but the more the pink ducks in the background became clearer as the aperture got smaller, the more distracting they got and the less interesting the composition became.

My only regret with this image is that I didn’t take the duck’s reflection into account. If I had been more careful I would have scooted my camera back an inch or two in order to get the full reflection in the frame, but I’m just glad I got its eyes.

Side note: A week later I did find out why these ducks were in the fountain. The OSU Wellness Center organized an event to raise awareness for breast cancer, and I happened to stumble on the scene right before all the ducks were cleaned up later that day.