While Bob hangs out with the boys, Mary watches the kids. At times, they just looked everywhere - trying to find something. Where have all the cowboys gone?
Photo tip of the Day: It pays to know your camera and lens well. On this one, I knew f5.6 was the sweet spot on the lens mounted to the camera that I was using. At that aperture, I know I can get reasonably sharp focus on the subject - in this case, the mom and the children next to her - and still get a nice bokeh on the background. (Actually, the focus was locked at the kid wearing the baseball cap.) Any aperture higher would result in a sharper background, which is not a bad thing - but I wanted to project some depth in the picture. I wanted to distance the children from behind. I think a slightly blurry background worked well on this one because it fools the eyes in to thinking the picture was 3D. This is the way we normally see. Sometimes a totally blurred background works better if one wants to isolate the subject. It gets tricky at wider aperture as the focus on the subject has to be dead on. Missed it by a few inches and the focus will be somewhere else. Hate when that happens.
Assignment: Shoot at different apertures of the same subject and notice how the background changes. Make mental notes of the results. Next time you take a picture, recall which aperture you think is appropriate for the shot. YMMB.
Hope your day goes well. - R
We finally sold the Chevy
When we had another baby
And you took the job in Tennessee
You made friends at the farm
And you joined them at the bar
Almost every single day of the week
I will wash the dishes while you go have a beer
[Paula Cole, Where Have All The Cowboys Gone]