Adrian Lewis

ARCHIVE 153 – ASH SAPLINGS, UNFOCUSED

 

 

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New, pinkish leaves growing at the top of one of the many Ash saplings springing up all over our garden; 25 June 2013.

These photos were taken unfocused, and I’ve increased contrast somewhat – I like the luminous effect.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 400 ISO.

UPDATE: these photos are part of a series called Early Morning Garden that I did a couple of years back – having just retired, I would blunder out into our back garden very early indeed on summer mornings, without even a wake-me-up cup of tea – and, once, also without a camera! – and blast away.  I ought to do some more of that – though with the “flaming June” weather we are having just now, I’m going to need a pullover, waterproof jacket and gumboots!

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17 comments

    • Thank you, Sue – and thanks for following my blog too, I hope you’ll like my images. Yes, try lack of focus >>> after all, digital photography makes any experimentation so quick and easy. Keep your finger away from the focus button – if your camera focuses via the shutter release, you’ll have to disable that or switch to pure manual. And keep in mind that if you have a small aperture eg f11 or f16 set on your camera, that will tend to sharpen the image even though you haven’t focused it >>> therefore use the lens wide open eg f2.8, f4, so that what you see though the viewfinder / screen is what you’ll get. Experiment a lot, such pictures are not taken with a single shot, there will be lots of unsatisfactory ones – try differing degrees of “unsharpness”. Adrian 🙂

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        • Right, ok, Sue! If you shoot film, you obviously can’t see the results until its developed, so it might be useful to record the aperture data for each frame. Digital is obviously easier, but my experience is that neither the viewfinder nor the screen give a totally accurate idea of how the finished image will look – so experimenting is the thing. Hope it goes well! Adrian

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  4. I like your description of the process. People meditate in the early morning for a similar reason – there’s a rawness that allows receptivity to areas we don’t see at other times of the day. Sometimes I look through the lens unfocussed (and love what I see) but I rarely press the shutter. I will now.

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    • Yes, you’re absolutely right – a rawness that enhances receptivity, I’d never thought if it like that. And also, especially for places further away than the garden, a distinct sense of excitement and adventure, I think – which maybe is a factor in boosting the receptivity.

      I’m off early to the Somerset Levels tomorrow morning – no hope of being there at DayStart at this time of the year of course, but there will still be something special about being out and about so early – and hot coffee in the early and cool, open air tastes especially good!!! 🙂

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    • Don’t know about the tempting, Go Faster pills might be more efficacious (ohhh! … right up there with balletic!!!) than better weather! My (quite few) early starts now tend to go farther afield – notably to Those Very Flat Places! I’m glad you like the picture – thank you! A 🙂

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    • Glad it gets to you, thank you! Great minds think alike >>> looking forward to seeing your stuff – your’s is a favourite blog of mine, and one of the reasons for that is the diversity of your subject matter. Interesting really, this is the second colour image of mine that you’ve enjoyed for its artistic subject matter – the other was the Woodland Pool. I’ve always thought of you are veering more towards black and white – maybe you’re both. A

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