Shifting Focus Manually

We have had the greatest fog in the morning. I love walking the property in the morning anyway, but in the fog…oh, my! I know land so well but the fog changes my perspective bringing different elements closer. I grabbed the camera in the wee hours of Saturday morning and wandered the land to play with the light.

I had a sort of photography epiphany in the process. I generally shoot in AV mode because I love playing with the DOF. But I know it has become a crutch to me.

I was struggling with getting focus right when I decided to switch to manual focus mode. That’s when the world around me changed. I really wanted to bring the dew drops into focus, but at the same time I wanted to include the fog. By playing a bit with the manual focus I was able to capture both. I love the natural light on the dames rocket. This is one of my favorite shots from the walk.

The ambient light was plentiful enough to work in a lower ISO even with my walkabout lens (Canon 18-135 f3.5 IS) I’m a fool for a fast lens, so working with a slower one is still a bit of a challenge. But again, it was good to step out of my comfort zone. I was able to bring the spider webs in to focus and re-frame the shot. Usually the camera gets angry when I try and do that using auto focus because the webs are so small.

Focusing on the webs gave this shot an ethereal quality.

I love that it’s all very low light, too. That is exactly how it looked walking around in the fog.

In this one I focused on the fog. It gives a sort of glazed over look to it.

I found that once I got the hang of the manual focus, I didn’t need to re-frame. I could just shift the focus.  Here is an example of three different focal points on the same shot so you can see what I’m talking about.

Focus on the web covered branches closest to me.

Then focusing on the next layer just beyond me. Just out of reach.

Finally, focusing on the grass. At this point the fog becomes the focus, too. The eye is drawn away to the lack of horizon.

But you can’t just take photos of fog so I grabbed some of the details around me. I love this old fence that’s leaning from age. If you spend some time with it you realize that there’s more going on than what you first see. Love this shot, too.

I absolutely love how dreamy this one is. Reminds me of an old film camera. This could be any time in the last 150 years standing in that same spot. The view would never change.

This one is focused to the grass again. it just so happened to have some birds fly through.

This is a new trail I mowed along the creek. Here is where it opens onto the main meadow.

Here is the edge of the property against the field to the west. Soon it will be beans and covered with fireflies at dusk. Right now it’s just fog and light.

One Comment

Wow, what extraordinary photos! Thanks for sharing these.

Cindy

5/7/2012