f/2.8 bokeh, around the store (and some f/1.4 bokeh for extra credit)

AKA: How I amuse myself on a slow night at work.


















and f/1.4 bokeh...



Date: 01.16.2008
Time: 8 PM

About all those close up weed shots...

I learned something today, quite by accident (or by my insistance on shooting so many of the same type of shot, whereby I was bound to learn something). I love all these shots, with the different textures and shapes, but it really enhances the shot when you have a background that creates interesting colors or shapes of its own.

Here's an interesting weed:



And here's one with a visually interesting background:



Even this soft focus (ok, blurry) one is interesting because of the color and patterns in the background:



And here are all the rest (they look better larger, but I did not want to take up vast amounts of blog real estate with the images, click through to the enlarged view if you so desire):















Yeah, I am definitely developing a thing for weeds. I think I am going to have to get a weed identification guide or something because you should see the ridiculous names that I have to come up with for the images to differentiate them.

Shooting wide open on the speedy little 50 mm is definitely my current favorite thing to do. I captured the frost on these leaves...



...and then managed to get so much light that the background disappeared! It's interesting that way, like they are just suspended there.



Speaking of frost, I will leave you with this last one -- not a weed!



Notes:

Location - Watkins Mill Road
Time - 9 AM

Christmas Bokeh

I put the camera on manual (thank you for your encouragement B*!) again last night, and even used the manual focus (fun!). Well, duh, it's much easier to get bokeh with a manual focus. Especially if you are shooting nothing but Christmas lights. :)











I was very excited about this last shot, with reflected bokeh, until I uploaded and saw that it was not-quite-perfect-bokeh. I'm going to try this one again, possibly tonight, and will post another if I can get a technically better shot.

I only took a few shots today. Since I'm sick, I hardly felt like it at all. I looked around our store to see what I might capture. Amongst other things, these stacks of discs on the counter caught my eye.

The lights were still off in the store, since it was before opening, but there was daylight coming in from the front windows.

I decided to open the aperature all the way and see what I could get. I shot about six shots at various angles. I like this one best, as it kind of slices the shot in thirds and at an interesting angle. I could probably photoshop it to boost some of the colors a bit, but my runny nose and aching head won't allow for it today.

f/5, 1/30 SEC, 65 MM, ISO-800

Post-processing: None