February Photo Project, Part 2--Depth of Field

One of the most important things I learned as a photographer over the course of this month is that I've got a ton to learn, and taking a bad photo teaches you more than taking a dozen pretty good ones can.

This one, for example. I wanted to show how much fun they were having on the swings, but I just couldn't capture the shot. I tried a smaller aperture, faster/slower shutter speed, but nothing worked. Too much movement. Too unpredictable.

This one is a little better, but I wanted to have Evie in focus--not the ring--and I couldn't do it.

Here are a few shots of spring blossoms. I had always thought that the widest aperture would yield the best bokeh effects and guide the eye effectively. I discovered that 1.8 often leaves much of what you're shooting out of focus and it's difficult to get a good shot. A few of these are like that--especially the one on the bottom left.

 The ash tree--recently revealed from my allergy test to be the source of most of my misery.

These two photos demonstrate depth of field. In the one on the bottom, I didn't use a small enough aperture to get all the leaves (and the cursed pollen balls) in focus. The one on the top has the cursed pollen ball and the sidewalk both in focus.

This photo was an accident. I don't know how many shots I took of this leaf--maybe ten?

I was trying to focus on the elephant ear philodendron, but the leaf is uneven and has a huge depth of field. as I adjusted the aperture for the afternoon light, I had to go much deeper than I initially thought, but I was able to get the leaf in focus and the rocks still out of focus.

I don't know why I like this shot--maybe because ti is a summary of spring in AZ--lots of planting and digging and maintaining. This hole was dug to find a broken sprinkler pipe.

Before this month, I would have focused on one of the two shovels, but I was able to get them both and tell a more complete story.