We've sowed various wildflower seeds among the weeds that grow along our driveway and have the beginnings of a wildflower plot.
These shots were taken yesterday in late evening sunlight and this morning a little after sunrise.
All were captured with Canon EOS with 500mm sigma mirror lens(note donut bokeh)f8 manual focus, tripod mounted. Tweaked in Lightroom3.
Gorgeous color and light. Pretty awesome to catch such a shallow depth of field while accurately keeping your subject in focus at the same time with a telephoto; haven't quite got the knack of that; any pointers? I'm also curious about the mirror lens, what little I found indicated something about allowing a telephoto to be much lighter?
ReplyDeleteHey Rock, wish I could give some helpful advise but mostly I just take lots of shots and hope some are in focus. Seems I'm having to adjust my viewfinder diopter for every shoot(dang old eyes!)but really my best friend is the trusty old tripod. Of course that's not always feasible so just be as steady as possible. The mirror lens is helpful in that it is more compact than the typical tele, so easier to steady. Limitations are non-adjustable aperture, low contrast images and of course the somewhat distracting donut bokeh. Of course, with today's cameras and software these problems can mostly be overcome so I just shoot first and ask questions later! By the way, got my used mirror lens(actually 600mm) at KEH.com
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply. You have the steady hand of a seasoned gunslinger, for I have tried this technique and it is easy to discuss but much tougher to execute. With digital, I like the "shoot often" philosophy, however nothing beats out a good eye and good set up, which you seem to have gotten both with these captures. Thanks for the web site reference. I'm still in the game, however still have the beginer tendencies of wanting every shot to be perfect and in the meantime nothing gets done.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should start a new blog:"BAD SHOTS"! Of course all the photos would take an eternity to load and no-one would want to see them so what's the point? Keep shooting and enjoy the process. If you can manage 1/100 good shots then consider yourself lucky,and never short-change your editing software.
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