Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Day 70 of 365


I have a new toy...a Canon 50mm 1.8 lens. This is one of the first shots I took with it tonight while walking between classes. Nothing special...just straight up f/1.8 with some 6pm sunlight coming in from the right filtered through some trees. I think if I wasn't already married I would probably ask my lens to marry me...I'm so in love with it.

I'm still a little overwhelmed by the response I've gotten due to Scott Kelby's mention. It's great to have so many of you visiting and leaving me comments. I guess I really never thought of my posting unedited photos as being unusual but it apparently it is. I do post some edited photos to my Flickr if you're interested in seeing those. I'll tell you though...the more I learn how to use my camera correctly the less I find myself in post process, which gives me more time and energy for being behind the camera. This was my whole goal to this project.

A few people have mentioned they may want to start a project much like mine. I found the tips for a "One Photo a Day" project on Jason Webber's blog quite useful. I've adapted them to suit my needs. While I think a theme would be cool...I found that doing a theme was more pressure than this process needs to be. I originally was going to shoot photos of my old Army boots all over the place but found that was unrealistic and stressed over it. That's why I built a lightbox in the garage. If I don't have the time to do something outside I have the lightbox to fall back on. There are plenty of things around the house that can be shot creatively. Pic_Chiq on Flickr posted some photos of forks today. I see utensils visiting my lightbox soon. :)

5 comments:

Ron a.k.a. Danudin said...

Love your work, especially the cat, Glad Julie suggested we visit, and that I am following your blog. Now for learning. It appears that what I thought was a feather is actually refracted light, how does the lens achieve that please, if your sweethearts secrets aren't too much to part with.
Ron

Mr. Salad Bowl said...

Thanks Ron!

I'm more than happy to give out any secrets I have. This is one thing I've learned about creative people...for the most part they are a very giving of information group of people. So please feel free to ask any questions...if I know the answer I'll be glad to answer. I'm still learning all this so you may not get a very good answer :)

The lens I used has an aperture of 1.8 so the depth of field is quite shallow. Check out the Wikipedia article on aperture. I think it may explain what you are asking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture

Anonymous said...

I acquired a 50mm f/1.4 lens a year ago, and I had the same reaction as you. I don't think I took it off the camera for months! I find the shallow DOF to provide magical results, like in your shot here. Nice!

Anonymous said...

Rob, you inspired me to take a similar path. I am going to start my own picture a day project. I'll let you know when I start.
Jason

Jen said...

Uh-oh, am I on the cusp of becoming a photography widow?? Have you named your new girlfriend yet?