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

Ok I’m going to be honest here: I don’t exactly know what’s happening in this picture. I mean, I get it on a conceptual level but I don’t know any pertinent details. This airplane, the same one from last week’s photo, is spraying a mist of…something…over a field of sorghum. Is it fertilizer? Pesticide? Who knows. (Not me, anyway) All I know for sure is this was a fun photo to take.

This started with me driving from Oklahoma to Kansas, taking small highways and back roads as much as possible in order to see the scenery and have the ability to pull over for a break whenever I want to. As I was going east on Highway 15 I saw this crop duster doing its thing over a field just south of the road, so I pulled over to snap some photos. Ok, a lot of photos. Hundreds of photos. As many as I could given the time I had available, which wasn’t exactly unlimited given that I had places to go and people to see. I used my D500 and 70-200 f/2.8 lens, zooming in and out to capture images while keeping a constant f/2.8 aperture to freeze motion and blur the background and foreground ever so slightly. Having never photographed a scene like this before I wasn’t sure it would work, but I think the results turned out great. Certainly much better than I could have expected or hoped for, especially given that I never expected to be photographing a crop duster in the first place :)

As I was going through all my photos trying to pick out my favorites, I settled on this as one of my top three for a couple of reasons. First, the 3/4 view of the plane helps show it as a three-dimensional object compared to the profile view from last week’s shot. Also, I wanted to capture a sense of just how low this airplane was flying, and once you notice its shadow on the sorghum plants you can clearly tell that it’s only a few meters off the field. Certainly not a normal situation for an airplane to be in! Finally, I of course wanted to see the trail of fertilizer (or pesticide, or whatever it is) behind the airplane which clearly convey a sense of motion and energy.

This was an incredibly fun picture to take and a good reminder about keeping your eyes open, looking for photo opportunities when they present themselves, and being prepared with the right gear to get the shot.

I can’t recall a time when I was able to take a picture like this, and I don’t imagine I will have the opportunity again anytime soon. It also shows the importance of preparedness, and also of simply having the dumb luck to be in the right place at the right time. I shot this when I was driving along Highway 15 in the middle of Kansas, and spotted a small yellow plane flying low over a field with a cloud of fertilizer billowing out behind it. It was a crop duster! I had only seen these once or twice in my life and I was thrilled to get the chance to witness one in action up close and personal. Thankfully I brought pretty much my entire camera kit with me on this particular trip so I pulled into a driveway, got out my D500 and 70-200 f/2.8 lens, and started firing away. I took hundreds of photos as this airplane went back and forth across a field of sorghum and came away with a three favorites which I will be posting here on Weekly Fifty.

I wanted to start my series with this picture even though the crop duster is barely distinguishable from any other small single-engine aircraft. If you look closely you can see a bar across the middle just below the driver’s window which sprays fertilizer, but other than that it looks like pretty much any other normal yellow airplane. What I like about this image is that it shows a scene that is pretty different from what you might expect. Here’s this yellow plane clearly aiming for the ground as if coming in for a landing, but there’s no runway in sight. A long undulating road is perpendicular to the plane and there’s also plenty of power lines to crash into, and yet, this plane is diving headlong into the greenery despite having nowhere to go. Clearly this is not a normal situation!

Though I didn’t really plan this image–it’s one of a few dozen that I fired off in rapid succession as the plane descended–I like how perfectly all the elements come together to form a compelling composition: The cloudless sky, the empty road, the red barn, the rolling hills, and the trees in the background all serve to form a scene that is distinctly Middle America. I like the profile shot of the airplane and its position at the intersection of the top third and right third of the image, and the sense of anticipation as it is on its way to fill the empty space on the left. The 1/6000 shutter speed made it possible to freeze every bit of motion while still conveying a clear sense of activity, and shooting at f/2.8 resulted in a subtle background blur as well.

I’m extraordinarily pleased at this moment of photographic serendipity, and I’m excited to show the next two images in this series as well.

Spoiler alert: Over the next few weeks you’re going to see a lot of photos of wind turbines here on Weekly Fifty. I recently drove from Oklahoma to Nebraska, having not made that trip for a while due to the pandemic, and of course I brought my camera gear with me to take some shots along the way. I really enjoy taking back roads and two-lane highways as opposed to interstates because the scenery is so much more interesting, and because you can pull over almost any time you want to take photos or just stretch your legs. And sometimes you come across a scene like this that’s just begging to be photographed.

One thing I’ve learned about taking pictures of these wind turbines is that you have to find a way to put them in context or give the audience a sense of scale. You can’t just take a snapshot of a turbine and call it a day. You have to give your viewers some way to place the subject in a physical space so they know how massive these things really are. Trouble is, it’s really tricky to actually pull that off. This photo here is one solution, and while it’s not perfect I do think it helps capture the feeling of just how tall these things tower above the fields and hills of the midwestern prairie.

There’s a couple key elements in this picture that help it be a bit more effective at conveying scale. First, the foreground. I positioned myself (along with my Nikon D500 and 70-200 f/2.8 lens) in such a way as to have those large round bales in the lower-left corner and slightly out of focus as well, thanks to the depth of field afforded when shooting 120mm at f/2.8. Those foreground elements give the picture a sense of depth and perspective, and without them the image would feel kind of empty.

Next, the background. While I had very little control over this, I was glad that I could capture a scene in which there were dozens of wind turbines receding away on the far side of the hill. When you see how tall the turbine in the center is, and then see many more turbines behind it, you start to get a sense for the true size of this power-generation operation. It feels like these turbines go on for miles and miles which, if you have ever seen a field like this, actually is the case. This wouldn’t happen without the downward slope behind the subject and the many turbines behind it, and it was really cool to be able to capture this in a photograph.

Finally, the subject itself. The gleaming white turbine just left of center is the one that caught my eye initially as I was driving down Highway 15. It was facing the road as well as the sun, and while I could have cropped this image to make the subject smack-dab in the center of the image, I left it just off to the side a bit so as to give the wide-open blue skies and clouds a bit of room to breathe within the frame. All in all I’m quite pleased with how this picture turned out, and if you ever get the chance to see a scene like this in person I hope you’re able to pull over, get out your camera, and take a few shots to help remember it.

This picture looks a lot like the one I shared two weeks ago, but there’s some interesting differences too and a few things that, in my mind, elevate it above the other one. First of all, it doesn’t exactly follow the same compositional rules in that the subject it not illuminated against a bright spot of light in the background. There are lots of bright spots of course, but it’s not a dark background with one giant blob of light in the middle to accentuate the subject. Instead, in this picture, there’s a couple distinct elements that all come together to make the complete composition:

• Foreground elements such as the green leaves
• The subject itself, with a reddish hue to offer contrast with the green leaves
• White spots in the background, which accentuate the subject
• The very dark background

These four things work in unison and help create a picture that is much more interesting and compelling than if any of them were not present. Also, I shot this photo with a +2 close-up filter so I could get just a little close to the seed pod and make the background spots of light much larger too. Finally, you might notice dark spots on most of the circles of light which almost look like sun spots for any astronomers out there. In fact those are just bits of dust and debris on the front of my lens, and a reminder that I really need to clean that thing every once in a while :)

There’s a good photo in here somewhere, but I’m not sure how to coax it out.

I shot this on my way to work one rainy morning in late August when I stumbled across this scene quite by accident. I biked to work while it was raining so my wife could have the car to get the kids to school and then drive herself to work. (Our other vehicle was in the repair shop getting worked on.) When I got to this bridge the rain had let up a bit, and I noticed this maroon umbrella just sitting there at the edge of the pavement exactly as you see here. Why did someone leave an open umbrella on the sidewalk? Were they going to return to come and get it? Should I take it with me so as not to knowingly leave litter lying around? I didn’t know the answer to any of these questions, but what I did know is that the scene might make an interesting photograph.

I had my D500 and 50mm lens with me so I parked my bike, got my camera out of my backpack, and composed what I thought might be an interesting picture. I only spent about 30 seconds on it since I had to get to work and didn’t really have time to consider all the normal elements of exposure and composition that I normally would have, and I think that’s one reason this image isn’t quite as compelling as it might be. A better photographer might have found a more interesting angle or a unique way to take a picture of this umbrella, but this was all I could do given the short amount of time I was working with.

I shot it at f/1.8 to get a bit of background blur, and I should have moved myself much closer to the umbrella too. This image is cropped quite a bit: the original has a Chili’s restaurant sign on the right side and a lot more sidewalk in the foreground too but again, I didn’t have much time to work with. I don’t mean to be so negative about this image because I do think it’s decent, but mostly this was a learning experience for me and a good reminder that it helps to be prepared in case a photo opportunity presents itself. If I hadn’t thought to bring my camera to work I wouldn’t have any picture here, and a halfway decent shot is better than no shot at all.

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.