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

In the past few months I have shared a handful of pictures like this here on Weekly Fifty, and I’ve learned that this is the type of image I really enjoy making. One single subject, usually a flower or plant or other similar thing, illuminated against a bright background but surrounded by darker elements of the background. I feel like I’m getting better at taking these but also at noticing situations where these types of images present themselves. Here is a magnolia seed pod set against the background of a magnolia tree, but shot in such a way that the spaces between the leaves crate a white spot to help the subject stand out–this is not a groundbreaking composition but it’s colossally fun to shoot these types of pictures because of the element of discovery and then fine-tuning the shot until you get what you want.

To wit: when I first came across this seed pod I didn’t really think it would be a great photo opportunity. It’s kind of shriveled and wrinkled and there’s not a lot of color, but then I started doing what I often do. I examined the subject from different angles and moved myself around while adjusting my camera settings until I found a situation that created an interesting image. I had to hold my Nikon D500 up at an awkward angle and use the flip-out screen and Live View to get this shot, but it didn’t take long for me to arrive at a photograph that I really liked. I shot at f/2.4 to get a good mix of sharpness and background blur, and at this point you might be thinking to yourself This post sounds an awful lot like several other posts from the past few months. And you’re right! But that’s the fun part of photography: finding something you like and then practicing it so you can get better at it. And this is definitely the type of image I want to keep practicing so I can keep improving.

So, part of this picture was unintentional. Most of it, actually. All I wanted to do was take a picture of the “Hole 5 Par 3” sign with the disc golf hole way in the distance, kind of like an alternate version of the image I posted last week. Something about the trees on either side of the straightaway, combined with the overhead lighting, created an interesting scene that I thought would make for an interesting image. At least that was my plan until my son stepped up to toss his frisbee. (Or am I supposed to call it a disc? I have no idea.) Initially I was going to ask him to step aside so I could take a picture but then I thought I might as well incorporate him into it as a way of making the scene more interesting and dynamic.

I had my D750 and 50mm lens with me which was great for this type of shot. The angle was neither too wide or too narrow, and I was able to frame the shot almost exactly how I saw it in my mind. I used a wide aperture of f/2.8 and focused on the sign, knowing that most of the background would be blurry. That was kind of the point: give the viewer two things to see right away, with more to consider the longer they looked. I used continuous high-speed shooting which, despite topping out at only about 6fps on the D750, was just fine to get this picture. I was hoping to catch my son in the act of tossing the frisbee, and from what you see her I think it worked pretty well.

One of my favorite parts of this shot is the purple disc (did I just use the term correctly?) just to the right of my son. It’s a small line that’s easy to miss, but once you see it I think it elevates the image just a little. Clearly my son is in the act of throwing something, but seeing the frisbee like that adds a fun extra element of action to the whole scene. I’m really happy with how this turned out and this was a good reminder that even casual daily activities like this can yield some really fun photographs :)

I was recently interviewed on The Beginner Photography Podcast about my Weekly Fifty photo blog, and I wanted to share the interview with my readers in case you’re interested in learning a bit more about me, the site, and my approach to photography. Special thanks to Raymond Hatfield for asking me to be on! I thoroughly enjoyed this interview and I hope you do as well.

BPP 264: Simon Ringsmuth – Balancing Family And Photography

I’ave always had an affinity for pictures where there is some kind of road, path, or track leading the viewer’s gaze off into the horizon. I’ve put a few like this up on Weekly Fifty over the years, and something about this kind of scene just feels like…possibilities. I dunno. It’s kind of comforting to come across a scene like this in real life, snap a picture, and have the image be a fairly accurate representation of the time and place that you experienced in person. That’s what I have here, and I hope it gives you, the viewer, a similar feeling.

This is a path at a park not far from our home, and I shot this while I was out playing frisbee disc golf with my two boys on a hot August morning. We have a few spots for disc golf here in town but none with this level of shade or this easy to get to, and that makes it an ideal place to while away the hours with our boys especially during the summer. Most of the time when we go here I don’t bring my camera but on this particular day I figured I would take my D750 and 50mm lens just for fun and see if I could get a couple good shots. This image wasn’t difficult to capture and there’s nothing especially noteworthy about it, but that’s not really the point. I had fun taking this shot and I learned a few things in the process, which is good enough for me :)

So what do you need to take a picture like this? A small aperture, a fast shutter or a tripod, and a point of view that’s kind of close to the ground. If you use a wide aperture like f/4, f/2.8, or greater you run the risk of having the foreground or background out of focus due to a shallow depth of field, and most lenses aren’t quite as sharp at wide apertures either. I shot this at f/8 to avoid both of those issues and also knelt down to get a more interesting angle, took just a couple shots, and then went back to tossing frisbees with my kids. This was the kind of picture I didn’t want to over-think, and I’m glad I didn’t. Maybe I could have gotten a different (possibly better?) image with a lot more time and tinkering, but that would have been time I didn’t spend with my kids. And that’s a tradeoff I didn’t want to make.

This picture is a bit of a departure for me. Normally I like to shoot subjects and scenes with lots of colors, but here it’s mostly just earthtones: browns, greens, and blacks. Looking at this image reminds me of the old Dynamic UNIX system (DYNIX for short) that my local public library used to use in the 1990’s as the tried-and-true card catalog slowly faded into obsolescence. Maybe this could be the logo for a Magnolia UNIX system (MAGNIX for short)? Note to any aspiring OS designers: contact me for licensing details :)

Anyway, this shot is fairly simple but it actually took a bit more planning and preparation than you might think. First, the subject: a magnolia seed pod midway through its life cycle. It’s not super interesting to look at without any bright red seeds poking out, and initially I was not going to take this picture at all. Then I thought about how I could frame the subject against the background in such a way as to make the seed pod stand out and be a bit more interesting to look at. I took a few shots at f/1.8 using the just-blur-everything approach but, as I expected, depth of field was too shallow and the seed pod suffered from a severe lack of sharpness. I stopped down to f/2.8 which mean the spots of light in the background weren’t as pronounced, but the tradeoff in sharpness was worth it to me. I then thought about where to position the subject (or, rather, where to position myself since I was not keen on moving this branch with one hand while trying to get a picture with the other).

My first thought was to repeat the idea from last week: put the seed pod against a bright spot of white light in the background. That idea didn’t really work out too well, as it left the viewer with a bit of a feeling of unease and uncertainty about what to actually look at. Then I realized I could put the subject against a dark part of the background, thus giving the image some complementary elements. The white spots of light on the left serve to guide the viewer’s eyes to the seed pod just to the right of center. It’s a more complete composition this way, with the different shades of green and yellow serving each other rather than competing with one another. I’m curious to return to this scene after a few days and see how it’s changed, and maybe I’ll even try to take another image of the same seed pod after a while to see how it looks after some time has passed.

This picture was a bit of an exercise of pulling something from nothing. Or, rather, something from very little. I was walking near Theta Pond with my camera on a sunny afternoon in mid July, determined to find a photo opportunity even though I kept coming up with nothing. With Spring firmly in the rearview mirror much of the bright colors and unique sights around the pond just aren’t what they used to be, but I did eventually find this patch of flowers not far from where I have taken similar photos in the past. I didn’t have my close-up filters on hand which means it was tricky to compose a photo that felt interesting or compelling, and I tried the usual tricks like just shooting down from above or straight-on from the side.

I took a couple snapshots but nothing I would really be proud of, and then I realized I could take some inspiration from similar images I have shared in months past. By looking slightly upwards at this yellow flower I could put it against a brilliant background, and suddenly we were off to the races. The variables that mattered to me most were aperture (to control depth of field, not to get a fast shutter speed) and composition. I went back and forth between f/1.8 and f/2.8, preferring the former for background blur but the latter for subject sharpness. Something wasn’t really clicking though, no matter what I did. It just wasn’t turning out to be an interesting image, and I wasn’t sure why.

Then it hit me: the center of the flower was dark and I was framing the shot so it was against a dark part of the background. I realized the obvious solution to my problem, Like Bill Murray when he finds out Dr. Leo Marvin is vacationing in New Hampshire, and simply repositioned myself such that the flower was in the middle of the bright blue sky poking through the trees.

This isn’t a complicated shot, but it does show the importance of taking a few minutes to consider various compositional elements when getting a photo. I’m usually not one to give advice, but I do think it’s worth thinking about these sorts of things a bit more even if it means slowing down or taking fewer photos. The next time you pull out your phone or camera to snap a couple shots, make sure you’re considering all elements of the shot and not just the first thing that comes to mind. Chances are, you’ll end up with pictures you like a lot more as a result :)

Each year in June or July you’re likely to see a picture like this here on Weekly Fifty. It’s usually some kind of sunset or nature photo, and it’s always taken at Acorn’s Resort in Milford, Kansas where my family has gone for vacation for the past ten years. Every year I try to find either a new type of picture to take, or a new way of taking a familiar type of image, and the latter was certainly the case this time. I brought a slew of camera gear with me but since most of our time was spent visiting with family, most of my pictures are relatives: siblings, parents, nieces, and nephews. There was one evening when my brother’s wife tipped me off about the sunset, so I decided it was worth a quick break from talking around a bowl of chips and queso. And she was right: this one was awesome.

I grabbed my tripod, Nikon D750, 50mm lens, and 10-stop ND filter and ran out behind the cabin several of our families were all sharing together. The sun was rapidly setting so I didn’t have much time to try various locations and vantage points, so I just decided to set up my camera in one single spot and see what I could get. I chose a location just up the hill between the cabin and the shoreline, switched to manual focus, metered the scene, screwed on the ND filter, and took a 30-second exposure. I liked what I got but I adjusted the view just a bit, took another exposure, and repeated that process just a couple more times before the sun went down over the horizon.

I’ve taken a lot of sunset shots over the years, but this just might be one of my favorites. I like virtually everything about this image: The brilliant colors, the rays bursting outwards from the sun, the lens flare on the right, the still surface of the water, the sharp treeline…you get the point. Everything about this image just worked, and I’m so glad I had the opportunity, the gear, and the photographic knowledge to make this shot. This image is not possible with a mobile phone for several reasons:

• Mobile phones have a static aperture, which means you cannot get sunbursts like what you see here.
• Mobile phones do not have the ability to shoot with ND filters, though there are some third-party companies that make clip-on options. These are nowhere near the quality of a proper screw-on ND filter like what you can put on a dedicated camera lens.
• The field of view on most mobile phones is between 25-30 degrees, which means the sun in this image would be much smaller and the scene would not have the same sense of warmth and personality.

I’m not disparaging mobile phones here, I’m just saying that as great as they are in 2021 they still have some important limitations. And sometimes it helps to get a dedicated camera and spend some time learning how to use it to get the shots you want :)

Would you believe me if I told you this picture was taken in Oklahoma? I don’t think I would believe you if you told me, and yet, that’s exactly where I shot this. I stood near the southwestern edge of Mount Scott, situated at the east end of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, Oklahoma, and took this picture with my Fuji X100F while my wife and kids climbed around on some nearby rocks behind me. This was the third of four visits to Mount Scott during our recent trip and I was glad I could capture a small sliver of what the magnificent view looks like from this spot high above the plains. The previous evening my wife and I both noted that as the sun was setting, the hills surrounding the mountain came alive with brilliant contrast, as the western side was bathed in light while the eastern side of every hill below was shrouded in shadow. During most of the day the view looks quite different as the surrounding scenery is evenly lit, but as the sun descends on the horizon everything is transformed and it really was majestic to behold.

To get this shot I used a tripod, a small f/8 aperture, a low ISO of 200, and a 1/60 second shutter speed. The 35mm (equivalent) field of view here is maybe a bit too tight to capture the grandeur of this scene, but it was what I had to work with so I tried to make the most of it. I also wanted to get something interesting in the foreground, hence the rocks and trees you see here. I tried a couple different locations for this shot but didn’t have a lot of time since the sun was going down and I didn’t want to leave my family for the whole evening while I fiddled with the camera. In the end I quite like how this turned out, and while the low-lying clouds obscure the blue sky just a bit I don’t really mind since it adds a bit of color and contrast to the image overall. And this gives me something to think about, and new ideas to try, the next time we return to this area. Which, hopefully, will be soon.

One of the first posts I ever put up on Weekly Fifty was a shot (well, two shots) of a prairie dog from the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, OK. Those images were pretty neat for the time, especially considering how little I understood about photography as well as my gear: a humble Nikon D200 and a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I still have that lens and use it regularly, but have since replaced the D200 with other much more capable cameras, and have learned way more about photography as well. As such, it was fun to revisit that scene eight years later for the shot you see above. I took this picture of a prairie dog poking up between two rows of purple flowers at the same location as the original shots from 2013, but this time I was thinking about more than just the subject. I considered the whole frame: foreground, background, subject, angle of view, and of course the fundamentals like aperture, shutter, and ISO. The result is a much more interesting image but also one that could not have happened without first taking the original.

To get this shot I used my D500 and 70-200 f/2.8 lens, and my goodness it sure would have been nice to have a mirrorless camera with a flip-out screen! I had to get low to the ground for this shot which was difficult not just because of the fire ants, but because the optical viewfinder on a DSLR is so much better than using the LCD screen. I realized it was nearly impossible to shoot pictures of these fast-moving creatures using the slow, sluggish contrast-detect autofocus on the LCD screen which meant I had to use the optical viewfinder instead. And while that is normally just fine with me, it’s not so great when you have to basically lie in a prone position on hot gravel while getting bitten up by ants. I opted instead to crouch at a weird angle to get this shot instead of lying down, and while I think the end result is OK it did make me long for a Z6II :)

This was a fun one to shoot though, partly because these little prairie dogs are so darn cute but also because my kids were so excited to see them. It was basically a solid 15 minutes of “Hey Daddy, look over there!” and “Mommy, I see another one!” When I look at this picture I of course see an animal in its natural habitat but it’s those memories of spending time with my family that come flooding back to me, and are the real reason I enjoy pictures like this so much.

Way back in 2013 my wife and I took a weekend trip to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, Oklahoma, and it seemed like we stepped into some kind of warp in the fabric of spacetime. Oklahoma isn’t exactly known for its soaring peaks and grand scenic vistas, and yet, just two hours from our home is this beautiful, expansive, majestic spot tucked away behind an army base just waiting to be discovered. We visited again a few years later and this spring as we were eager to get out with our kids after a rather…different…school year we once again turned our attention to the Wichita Mountains.

The first spot we went was Jed Johnson Tower, an old fire watch tower that sits near a lake which bears the same name. We spent a few hours just hiking around, looking at scenery, and of course taking lots of photos. Unfortunately the tower is sealed off and visitors cannot enter, but it still makes for an amazing sight and the kind of thing you just don’t come across very often in Oklahoma. To get this shot I used my Nikon D500 and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens set to f/2.8 at 140mm. I thought carefully about the composition: I could have just zoomed in on the tower, but without context it would have been dull and almost meaningless. I wanted the tower to be set against an interesting background, and shooting at 140mm gave me just the right composition with the mountains in the rear, the tower to draw the viewer’s eye, and plenty of foreground vegetation and natural elements (including that beautiful dead tree just off center) to make the image more interesting. Shooting at f/2.8 gave me just enough depth of field to separate the subject from the background, and on that particular lens you don’t really sacrifice sharpness even when shooting wide open.

This spot, and the entire Wichita Mountains area, is filled with beauty both natural and man-made, and it really is worth the drive if you live anywhere near.