Flower, In Space

On January 7, 2010, in photo365, photography, by Dan Perovich

Flower, In Space (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20100107 – Flower, In Space, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/80 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 1000, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

This weekend we are at my mom’s house in Hillsborough, New Jersey to celebrate a late Christmas with my side of the family.  This is a view from my mom’s kitchen looking into the dining and family rooms.  I like the bokeh created by the flames in the fireplace.  Can you tell if the flower is real or fake without zooming in on the picture?

Tagged with:
 

Peek-a-boo Bird

On December 29, 2009, in photo365, photography, by Dan Perovich

Peek-a-boo Bird (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20091229 – Peek-a-boo Bird, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/15 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 1600, 200 mm (EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM)

I have been finding it more and more difficult to dedicate the time I need every day to take a quality, well thought out photograph.  It is also getting more difficult to process and post the photographs on a daily basis.  As a result, I am about two weeks behind in posting my daily photograph.  Do not worry though, I have not missed a single day yet in taking the pictures.  They are all stored and backed up in multiple places.  Over the next several days, I plan to work diligently to get caught up and start to make a push to the finish line.

With today’s photograph I wanted to play around with a strong bokeh element in the frame.  My subject is a Christmas Advent calendar near our front door.  When I framed one of the birds correctly, I was able to get the Christmas tree lights from across the room into the frame.  Because of the wide aperture ( f/4) the depth of field was shallow enough to only allow the bird to be in focus and throw the Christmas tree lights deeply out of focus.  While the photograph certainly is not a masterpiece worthy work of art, it is a stepping stone for me.  The concept and techniques I learned while taking this photograph will be useful in future photos I will make.

Tagged with:
 

Christmas Tree Bokeh Tree

On December 22, 2009, in photo365, photography, by Dan Perovich

Christmas Tree Bokeh Tree (by HokiePerogi)
Photo365-20091222 – Christmas Tree Bokeh Tree, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/10 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 800, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

Tonight I decided to try playing around with custom bokeh shapes.  Usually, bokeh appears as circles of out-of-focus light when shooting a wide aperture.  However, you can easily change the shape of the bokeh by placing a sheet of paper or card stock with a cut out directly in front of the camera lens.

For today’s picture, I used an Exacto knife to cut out the shape of a Christmas tree from a sheet of notepad paper.  I then held the paper up against the end of my lens so that the tree cut out was centered on the lens.  I set my lens to manual focus and threw the image of our lit Christmas tree completely out of focus.

Tagged with: