Expressive Little Girl - My Vision

Last Saturday I went to a neighborhood picnic where some of the teenage girls were offering free face painting to the younger children -- can you say, "Photo Op?!". (See my "photostream" to view eight other images in this series.)

After having her face painted, this little girl made a funny face to her friend who was standing nearby.

Almost missed it... I nearly lost this shot because I didn't have my camera set to my standard default settings -- which is to keep my camera on Aperture Priority, and my lens set for the widest aperture.

Establishing a default setting: I also keep my ISO at 640 and my white balance on "Average" (my image file is always set for Camera RAW, with a Large JPEG for rapid reviews). With this setting, I'm ready for most action situations that I come upon. By using Aperture Priority, with the the camera/lens set to widest possible aperture, the camera will automatically give me the fastest shutter speed for that aperture and ISO. (I realize that "640" is a pretty high default ISO, but its one that gives me "controllable" noise with this camera, and enough speed to handle most surprise and unplanned situations.)

With people shots, you rarely need a lot of depth of field. In fact, shallow focus is most often preferred. But what you do want is a fast shutter speed to stop action and camera shake (even if you have image stabilization). Except with landscapes, architecture, and other "tripod" type shots, having a lot of depth of field is not as important as having SOMETHING tack sharp by using the fastest shutter speed possible. (Remember, you can have great DOF, but if the shutter speed is not fast enough to stop the action or freeze your camera movement, you will still have a soft and blurry image.)

I had done a landscape shot the day before where I did need a lot of depth of field. Instead of changing all my camera settings to my standard defaults before putting my camera away, I had left the F-stop at f13. If my next shot had been a still life or another landscape, this would not have been a problem. That's because these type of shots are often quite relaxed, where I have time to THINK about what I'm doing. However, when I see a candid portrait opportunity developing, I sometimes jump into it and start clicking away before the expressions flee -- like I did last Saturday with this little girl.

Luckily, even at f13, I still had a shutter speed of 1/100 of a second, and I caught her fleeting expression without any head movement. The extra depth of field in this shot created post-production problems, though. It took over 30 minutes to blur the background in Photoshop (having to create a mask around her hair), so that it was no longer distracting and competing for attention.

Another great example of using Aperture Priority and the widest aperture possible is this helicopter shot of the Chicago skyline by Trey Ratcliff. This photo was taken at the lens' widest aperture (f2.8), giving the camera an 1/8,000 second shutter speed with an ISO of 800. Here's the full resolution file on Flickr if you want to view the incredible detail of this image (yes, it's a little noisy in the shadow areas, but he GOT the image).

You are invited to see my "Most Interesting" images on Flickr (based on popularity stats).

Coy Little Kitten in Tall Grass - My Early Vision

A coy little kitten poses under a clump of tall Cat Tail Grass. This photo was my first ever attempt at "serious" photography. Let me explain... (Click on the image for a slightly larger view.)

A Walk Down Memory Lane: I came across this photo yesterday, and decided to publish it on my blog. I took this picture when I was 17 years old -- that was 43 years ago, in the summer of 1966. The kitten was a little barn-yard friend who followed me around during my milking chores on the family farm.

I had been in love with photography for a little over a year, and I had read every book my small town library had on the subject. I came across an article in an old Popular Photography magazine (given to me by a high school teacher) about how to improve your outdoor photos with light reflectors made from crumpled aluminum foil, flattened and wrapped around a sheet of corrugated cardboard. I had to try it out!

I transplanted the grass onto a table I made so that it would be easier to photograph my subject (hey, that also makes this my first attempt at "table-top" photography ;-). I used my father's old Argus C3 35mm rangefinder camera and a roll of Kodachrome film*. I rotated the table so that the late afternoon sun was back-lighting the grass and my kitten, and then illuminated him from the light of my homemade reflector (placed between the kitten and the camera, and slightly to the left).

My little kitten friend was a real sweetheart that played well to the camera, don't you agree?

BTW, some call this foxtail grass, but my neighbor calls it "cat tail grass" -- wouldn't that be a coincidence!

*I only took two or three shots on that roll, so it was a couple of months before I finished the roll and could afford to have it processed, in order to found out if I had been successful.

You can also view my Flickr Photostream to see more of "My Vision."

Portrait of a Little Red Headed Girl - My Vision

(Click on the image for a larger view.)

Amelia has many different moods. Three other images from this portrait session show some of those interesting sides of her.

Props & backgrounds: One of my favorite props for doing portraits is an old Bentwood chair (often used in bars and restaurants between 1860 and 1930). If you'll turn the chair around backwards, and let people relax or naturally place their arms on the back of the chair -- you'll often get some interesting body positions and expressions.

The background is a hand-painted autumn forest scene that goes well with her reddish complexion and hair, don't you agree?

You can also view my Flickr Photostream to see more of "My Vision."