Out of focus rollercoaster girl.

Don't get me wrong. Flickr is wonderful. It's both an outstanding piece of web-based software and a wonderful community full of talented photographers. (At least I think a piece of software can be a community... that may be another discussion altogether). Nevertheless, there are times when my fellow flickrites wear me out.



I took this shot at the 100th Yankee Doodle Fair in Westport. The weather had been hot and balmy all day until around three when a huge thunderstorm rolled through. Afterwards, we had this wonderful warm misty thing going - normally, not my kind of weather but for photographic purposes: outstanding.

This shot was one of about 10 that I took of this particular subject. I'd say I started by focusing the camera on the front of the car, and then I shot a few with the girl in focus.

During post I decided that this shot was more meaningful to me. Somethinig about the way that the shallow depth of field amplifies the expression on her face... Yes, I realize that sounded a bit doofy.

Whatever. I'm proud of my shot. I post it to all the flickr groups that I usually go to. What happens next, I wasn't prepared for: The shot gets absolutely panned. Of the 20+ comments, probably half contain some variant of "too bad the girl isn't in focus".

I know that criticism is feedback. Sometimes its amusing. Sometimes its helpful. Other times...

What do you think?

It's time to get caught up.

Wow,

Sorry about that I just realized how long it's been since my last update. Let me try to fix things:

I took this photo with my 50mm 1.8 lens, and it shows. Lately I've been coping with the low-light noise issues associated with the D50, this shot doesn't have the problem since I was able to shoot it at 2.2. In a little while I'll post one of my pictures from Rollerderby. It's a start contrast.



Something about this shot has a very "commercial" feel to it. If it wasn't a picture of my Dad talking to Kate I'd say it was generic stock photography.

More Beach

As the weather gets a bit better, expect to see more beach photos... at least until they start requiring a sticker. Then they'll probably fall off.



Kate, Dylan, Max and I went on a rather impromptu trip to the beach with Sasha. I was shooting with my new lens - I got some pretty cool shots, while shooting wide-open. I had to strap on the CPL just to reduce the incoming light. Here's Sasha being a dog. To be honest, I don't think this is my favorite picture from the day, but I has a neat style (that it acquired in post).

See the other pictures.

At the beach

Recovering from our karaoke madness required sleeping for the better part of Sunday. If for no other reason then having not slept the night before. Never the less around 5pm we found ourselves at Sherwood Island State Park.


This was shot with my new lens - I'm still (yes, still) learning on it. I like to be able to shoot wide-open, but there's just too much light when I'm shooting at the beach. I think I may have to slap on either the CPL or the ND2 and see if that alleviates the problem in an acceptable way.

My New Toy

Well, I've just acquired a new toy. A Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens! I bought this lens to fill a need that my D50's kit lens couldn't fill. The kit lens is a 18-55mm but it's aperture at 55mm is a pretty-small 5.6. This makes shooting in low-light a bit of a pain. The new lens is, by comparison, a gaping f/1.8 at 50mm and its built like a truck.



So, will this be my new lens of choice? Well, only time will tell - at the moment it's taking a bit of an adjustment. I'd say with the kit lens I take a lot of wide-angle shots, with this lens that's not even an option. If I want to get more in the picture I have to back up, which certainly isn't the same thing. Never the less, the new lens is very sharp and pretty fun to use so far, so I'm going to withhold judgment till I've got a bit more time on it. One thing's for sure: I love shooting wide-open. The shallow depth of field is chocked full of goodness.