IFLC Week 1 Day 4

Work was too crazy last night. and I didn't get the opportunity to shoot anything. After reviewing some of the other incredible shots I see people posting, I'm almost ashamed to show my work anywhere. I guess we all have to learn. Maybe I should have started with a more beginner course instead, but I love macro photography and I am learning. That's the important thing. I was able to spend some time again today. I took some shots using selective focus and shots working on depth of field playing with small and large apertures. I even spent a little time applying some of the concepts I have learned and took a few shots using a non-macro lens to play with minimum focus distance to see depth of field. Most of the shots are not very exciting as I'm working on concepts rather than creating art. Hopefully in the end I'll be able to create some things I'm proud of.

I got to take a few shots in the day light today. I played a bit with depth of field. I took this shot at f/5. I am still very unsteady when shooting. I need to be more steady to try hold where I'm aiming my focus.


I close the aperture down to f/10 and back off a bit from minimum focus distance to get more in focus this time.


I decided to try tackling the inside plant again from the other night. I had my flash on the camera and it was mostly blocked by a leaf. I started at f/4.5 and missed the focus. I guess this is a bit over exposed too.


I then dropped down to f/22 with the flash to get the entire pod in focus. I finally hit my focus (thank you f/22). This is a bit underexposed, but I like the affect. Cool shot, but I can't take credit for the final product since this wasn't my goal.


I decided to take a few shots working on selective focus. It was quite dark in the house. I added an extra lamp to try giving a bit more light on the subjects. It helped some, but set camera on the counter to shoot this at 1/50th of a second.


Here I moved the focus to the top book.


I then realized I had been using auto white balance for everything up until this point. I'm not very familiar with this setting, but changed it to the light bulb (I guess I need to learn light temperatures betters) and retook the last 2 shots. Much better.


...and much better.


I then moved back to playing with the aperture and using the same lamp to add extra light. This is f/5.


And f/13. I had to bump the ISO up to 800 as I was back to hand holding these last 2 shots. Since the lens is 105 mm, I tried to keep the shutter speed to a minimum of 1/100th of a second.


A light shower was off and on so I took a couple more shots outside to get some water on the leaves. I left the ISO at 800 in order to keep my shutter speed over 100. This one was at 1/125s at f/13. At this point, I'm a bit random with my aperture. I don't really have a feel for much of anything. I like the how this shot ended up, but I guess I didn't give it a thorough analysis before shooting to know exactly what I was trying to capture.


I opened the aperture all the way to f/5 at the minimum focus distance again for this shot. I was trying to focus on the rain drops and missed a bit.


I hope to spend more time tomorrow playing with the different apertures again. I need to get a better feel for them. I am also quickly coming to the realization that the more I learn and shoot, the more I don't know.