Photos I Took At The Ocean…

– April 1, 2009Posted in: Technology

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So I’m still loving my digital camera… It’s one of the best things I’ve ever bought… so much fun! I’m taking it to England to snap some shots of my family and homeland to show you on here :-)

Recently I was at the beach in San Diego and saw a guy flying two cool kites…and some beautiful yellow flowers too… Thought I’d try and capture it all on my Nikon!

Photos always remind me that life passes us by so quickly. David wrote in the book of Psalms that “life is like a vapor, like a shadow, like a mist”. Its here one moment, then it’s gone. Another great quote I read recently was “We don’t remember our life in days, we remember it in moments”. It’s true – our main memories of life aren’t categorized into years, months and days. They are simply snapshot moments of the times in our life that most powerfully affected us. It reminds me to stop, look and let me heart and mind take those snapshots – and to not miss the beauty that’s all around me!

I took the shots above with my 17-70mm lens. I’m testing out a different one – a 50mm – over the next couple weeks (thanks to Jonathan Paul for loaning it to me!). Anyone got any advice on how to get the best results from a 50mm? I’m wanting to use it for portraits, where the face is razor sharp and the background is super blurry, for maximum depth of field. Should I just set it on ‘Auto’ and snap? Or are there techniques using the different settings like “P”, “A” and “S” that can get me more of what I’m looking for in the photos?

Peace!

Vicky

Related Posts - these might also be of interest:

http://www.jeremycowart.com jeremy cowart

Put it on “A” (Aperture Mode) and set your aperture to 1.2 or 2.8… as low as it will possibly go. The camera will set your shutter speed for you. That will give you the blurry background! The lower your F-Stop (Aperture) the blurrier the depth of field. And that concludes today's photography lesson : ) PS Oh and make sure your focus is set right on those eyes!
Elmar Beckmann

I couldn't add more to this than Jeremy Cowart did. That's how you do it. I have a 50mm 1.4 myself and I love it. It's the best thing I've ever bought!
Check out some 50mm samples on my flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/surrelmar/3402504302/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/surrelmar/3402504104/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/surrelmar/3323883614/

ps remember me? met you years and years ago at Soul Survivor Holland (which I'm still working for)
http://www.jonathanpaulmusic.com/ Jonathan Paul

Love the pix; thanks for sharing both them and the beautiful reminder to appreciate every moment!

Yup, you'll want to set for “A” – aperture priority mode and then use your right hand on the front dial to crank it down to the lowest F-stop / largest aperture in order to blur the background the most. If the aperature setting doesn't respond, try pressing the shutter release button half way down briefly; this will wake up the camera and allow you to make aperture changes again. Also, sometimes the shot looks better with the background slightly less blurry. In that case, just experiment until you find a setting you like.

Also, in this mode, the camera is automatically adjusting the shutter speed to get a medium exposure. If you are shooting in a bright or dark setting (and want a bright or dark picture), use the exposure compensation to make the shots correspondingly lighter or darker. That's the little +/- button and you'll just hold it down while spinning the wheel under your right thumb if I remember correctly.

Jeremy's advice to focus on the eyes is good. I think your camera has a few auto-focus options. I'd recommend staying away from the auto setting where it trys to pick the right place to focus. If you pick a fixed focus spot, you can point the black square at what you want to be in focus, press the shutter button half way down to enable the auto-focus and then hold down the focus lock button so you can recompose and shoot. Just remember that you can't zoom after locking the focus or things will get blurry again.
http://blog.shelleypaulson.com Shelley Paulson

You've gotten good advice so far! Here's my 2¢

50mm is a “normal” length, which means that what you see when you look through your viewfinder is almost exactly what you see with the naked eye (because of digital crop factors, it isn't exact, but it's still close). It's a challenging lens to use because YOU have to be creative about your angle, your proximity to your subject and your composition because the lens itself isn't gimmicky like super wide and telephoto lenses are.

I often recommend people start with this lens to really get a strong foundation of seeing and creative composition before moving on to other lenses and other aspects of photography.

Definitely get close to your subjects with it. Shooting from a distance is going to end up a bit boring unless you have a large object to give the picture some interest. Try shooting from various angles too (high, low). The 50mm lens is great for still life and detail shots too, because it sees like your eye sees.

Can't wait to see your photos!
Nathan Mitchell

Vicky,

Love pics on the beach reminds me vacations being at the beach snapshot to capture moments in time is priceless song by Switchfoot -”This is Home” – THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA and psalm of david life is vapor we need embrace our memories. As for Photography techniques I am still learning not an expter

Peace,

NateDawg

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http://www.martinjanssen.com martinjanssen

Lovely shots Vicky, i get a real summer feeling which is a good thing :)

My 50mm is still my favourite lens. Hands down. I love basic photography and it can't get anymore basic than that. I find it hard to give you anymore good advise coz so many good things have been said already. 2 thing from me:

1. Study some (good) photographers, how did they shoot certain pictures, why chose those angles, what makes it strong, how does it communicate to you. If you try to analyze those things you can lift your own pictures to a higher level.

2. Shoot with your heart, for beauty comes from the inside. Only you can show the world through your eyes. What do you see, what beauty do you find? Surprise us :)

So basically it's the same as songwriting, and I'm guessing you applied these 2 points to your writing as well, haha, or am I wrong?
http://www.jonathanpaulmusic.com/ Jonathan Paul

Shelly's right, on a 35mm camera, the 50mm lens is supposed to be similar to your view with a naked eye. That's also great advice about what to use this lens for and how to use it. :o)

With cameras like yours that have a DX-size sensor (which is about 2/3 the size of 35mm film), the 35mm lens is the one that gives you an equivalent view to the naked eye. The 50mm lens when used on a camera with a DX sensor ends up looking/working like a 75mm lens would on a “normal” 35mm camera (as well as on a “full-frame” DSLR).

If you ever hear about a 1.5x multiplication factor, this is what they are talking about. Any lens used on a camera with a DX sensor ends up taking pictures that look the same as if they'd been taken with a lens 1.5x the size used on a 35mm camera. So my 18-200mm lens being used on any body with a DX sensor will be equivalent to a using a 27-300mm lens on a 35mm camera. And since 35mm cameras have been around a long time, that's kind of the standard we compare a lot of other (particular digital) sensor sizes to.

Of course if you like, you can set your 17-70mm lens at 35 and 50 mm respectively in order to see how the two perspectives compare.

I mentioned to you earlier that Nikon is about to release a 35mm DX lens. If you're interested in that one, you can learn more about it or sign up for notification when it becomes in stock at B&H (just follow the notification link on this page just below the “Enhanced Product Protection” on the right):

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/606792-US…

So after all this boring math, Vicky, I have to ask… are you like C. S. Lewis who was so bad at math that he claims he would have never made it past the Oxford entrance exams if it were not for an exemption he received on the math section due to his service in the Brittish Army during WWI? :o) I guess that's unlikely as I don't believe you were ever in the military!!!
Lucy

your pics are cool!
when are you in England? you coming for spring harvest? hope the weather holds! its not been too bad lately! suns been out all week! xx
http://www.othersideboardsports.com/brands/kiteboarding/slingshot.html Slingshot

You should consider your camera a necessity now so you can capture those nice pics in a jiffy. Why not check out sports event that will surely make a good picture memory like kiteboarding and the like.
http://www.othersideboardsports.com/brands/kiteboarding/cabrinha.html cabrinha

Nice pics vicky.Thanks for sharing.
http://www.othersideboardsports.com/brands/kiteboarding/cabrinha.html cabrinha

Nice pics vicky.Thanks for sharing.

Photos I Took At The Ocean…

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