Carol Fowler Photography: A Year of Photos

Now that I'm able to spend more time as a photographer, I made a New Year resolution to post a photo a day (with technical information about how the photo was made for my photographer friends and those who want to learn more about photography). Considering its already January 4th and I've posted no photos, it seems my resolution is slipping already. So, maybe the resolution is better stated as "trying to take a photo a day and posting when I get the chance".

Below are my first batch of photos. In these I have focused on using a wide open aperture on my 50mm Zeiss lens that opens to a 1.4 f-stop to show the variations in the depth of field, depending on distance of the camera from the subject matter (when the focal length of the lens (50mm) and the aperture (f1.4) have not changed). For those new to photography, "depth of field" is the range of distances over which objects appear acceptably sharp. Depth of field is a complex subject and is dependent on the focal length of the lens, the aperture and the distance from the subject. I will focus on depth of field in my first few posts.

The photos below were taken of a wooden Santa in front of my Christmas tree. The details of the distance from the tree is noted below each photo. As you can see, the farther the subject is away from the background, the more the background becomes blurred.

Useful photography technique: If you are taking photos of a subject and want the background blurred and you have a camera/lens that allows you to choose a wide aperture, take a photo, check the image and background to see if you captured the look you wanted. If not, move the subject further away from the background. If part of the subject is blurred, choose a less wide aperture and/or move back from the subject. Check the image again to make sure you got the look you wanted.