50 With A 50

50 With A 50 – Week 8

Posted on by declan

I was sick over the weekend so I didn’t get to go out and take photos as I planned. I was a bit worried because I didn’t have any photos at all for this weeks post. However today the weather gods stepped in and threw a winter storm at St John’s giving us the afternoon off for a snow day. I still couldn’t venture too far but our dog loves the snow and I decided to take some photos of him coming in after a roll in the garden. I think he is bored of me taking photos of him after all these years, you can see it in his eyes, which is why I like this photo even though it’s not technically great. The 50mm did ok, I think my problems with it today were all camera related, I didnt have it set up correctly for shooting a black dog surrounded by snow. Everything ends up being either too bright or too dark, still it’s about learning so situations like this are what I learn from.

50 With A 50 – Week 7

Posted on by declan

I was doing some family kids portraits over the weekend so I decided when I had everything set up that I’d do some using the 50mm lens. I think it’s actually a pretty good lens for this. When opened up all the way to f1.8 the depth of field is so shallow that it’s pretty much impossible to get in focus shots of moving kids and when aren’t kids moving. At f2.5 it’s a little easier and I did get some decent shots. Times like this I wish I had one of the new mirror less cameras with decent eye tracking focus, but sure I wouldn’t learn anything if the camera did all the work for me. For this shot I also had lights and a dark grey backdrop so I cant say it was all the 50mm lens but it certainly didn’t get in the way.

50 With A 50 – Week 6

Posted on by declan

The tunnels under the University I work in are lined with student lockers. I thought they would make a good subject for this weeks post with the 50mm’s shallow dept of field. It also didnt hurt that this involved me staying indoors while it’s -10C with a windchill of about -20C outside.

50 With A 50 – Week 5

Posted on by declan

On week 5 and I’m beginning to realize that the 50mm has it’s limitations. Or maybe limitations is the pessimistic way to phrase it, more it has it’s strengths and weaknesses. I like it for detailed photos with the aperture open wide. The bokeh is beautiful, like in this shot of a plant in front of a window with the late afternoon light behind it. I’m not so fond of it in most other circumstances. But isn’t that the challenge of a project like this? Find the weaknesses and work around them. For landscapes I’ll need to work on my composition and for street photographs with people I’ll need to get back into the swing of taking them.

50 With A 50 – Week 4

Posted on by declan

Winter keeps coming and going. We have a few days of freeze followed by a few days of thaw. It’s really a bit annoying at this stage, it would be nice to have mother nature decide if we will have winter or an early spring. Still after a few days of freeze and some brave souls decide to go out ice fishing on the pond in a snow squall. The 50mm doesn’t have the reach to zoom in and show much detail on the fishermen. I couldn’t get closer than the end of a dock, I wasn’t going out on the ice but it was still worth trying to compose a shot.

50 With A 50 – Week 3

Posted on by declan

Here we are on Week 3. This week we had more snow and ice followed by warm ups and melts. I got out to take some photos and tried to take some people street photography type images and had one selected but when I finished processing the shots I preferred this one.

I find I’m using the 50mm for more close up photos than I expected,
There has been lots of snow and ice around to try to get close up details of. I like playing with the 1.8 aperture but sometimes (often? usually!) it’s not the best to go with such a narrow depth of field. For this image I changed from f1.8 to f6.3 and it was much better. Had to get in close which involved standing in a river, at lunch time, wondering how high up the waterproofing of my boots ended.