New Ipswich Photo Club - Aperture and Animals

12 Days till Christmas

The New Ipswich Photo Club meets on the second Wednesday of the month from 6-8 PM at the New Ipswich Library. Each meeting we review photos taken with a theme and have discussions about the science and art of photography. We also plan a field trip and theme for the following month.

The theme for our January 14th meeting will be "Abstracts" and we'll be discussing shutter speed. Meeting times and themes will be posted on my blogs under the Calendar menu  (top of page)

I created a Flickr Group for the Club, which has a few of our group photos. A more extensive display is planned for an exhibition at the library.

We discussed Aperture settings at the December meeting, as it related to depth of field. Aperture is the "iris" of the lens, the opening that allows light to strike the film or sensor. It is a ratio of the focal length divided by the diameter of the entrance pupil. The key point to remember is that the lower f numbers mean a larger opening. The number is expressed a a f/ number.

This photo was taken at f/3.2 at 1/40 of a second

If I had taken the same photo at a higher "f" stop more of the casings would be in focus. This is referred to as depth of field.
Higher f numbers = smaller opening with greater depth of field. The blurred background tends to add a nice three dimensional look to photos, especially portraits and is referred to as bokeh.

However the second photo was NOT taken with a higher f stop,  although that would have achieved this result. Closing down the opening would require a MUCH slower shutter speed, one that that couldn't be accomplished easily.
Smaller opening = less light meaning more time for exposure.
This photo utilized Photo Stacking,  Ten photos were taken at f/3.2 but each one was focus on different plane of objects from the nearest casing to the furthest. The camera has the ability to combine 10 shots into a single photo in which all are in focus.
This technique can be done manually with software, but is a nice feature to have in camera, especially for macro photography.

Our Photo Theme for December was Animals

I had a nice visit with the goats in New Ipswich 

A community

Mom and chicks - Scanned 35mm slide

Breakfast - scanned 35mm slide

 The TG-3 has in-camera focus stacking and some other fun features. I find myself using this as my "carry-with-me" camera. The best camera for photography is the one that you have with you,
You just don't know what you may see. Happy clicking!