Photo Tests

I got my camera body, so naturally I had to test it out. Here are some pictures I took around my backyard:

These are some dried cones on one of the juniper trees on my property. I loved how I could use their texture and the lens’ shallow depth of field to add some interest.

Leaves from a nearby tree littered the branches of the juniper trees. For some reason they attracted my attention. I’m glad they did. The full-sized photograph is extremely detailed.

I liked the curves of the hose and the downward angle of the nozzle. The thing that sells it, I think, is the up-reaching branch just poking in at the far left.

I was a little disappointed that the rose plants had no flowers to shoot, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything of interest. How about a stem loaded with thorns. This is the sort of shot I could never take with a point-and-shoot…making the stem sharp while throwing everything else out of focus and slightly fore-shortening the background.

While I was shooting, the vagrant neighborhood cat (who is apparently keeping well-fed) hopped the wall and observed my backyard wanderings. When it noticed me considering taking its picture, it sought cover behind some scrub. Little did it know that it actually improved the composition.

All in all, I thought it was a very successful test run. It was overcast, so the light was a little flatter than I’d have liked, but I made do. My exposures were pretty close, and even though I haven’t really played with these (manual focus) lenses in nearly twenty years, I did pretty well with getting the subjects sharp. No, I really didn’t take time to focus, as that’s not how I learned. Shooting sports you had to focus quickly or miss the shot. When I get around to an auto-focus lens, I wonder what sort of learning curve I’m going to have to endure?

I still have a lot more practice until I don’t have to think about my camera settings, but it shouldn’t be too difficult—just a little time-consuming. Next step? Shooting some sports. I’ve already written to the nearby school for permission. (Yes, I ask permission first. You don’t trash your rep at the beginnings of potentially professional relationships. People have long memories.)