Skip to main content

To tripod or Not to tripod...

Usually, when I photograph nature, I take my tripod. Today, I challenged my own idea of using the tripod. I asked myself why do I need the tripod? Do I need long shutter speed because I'm shooting stopped down to f8 or more to get greater depth of focus? No. Is the light level very low? No. Do I need to compose with most precision? No.
 
I know that I can safely shoot down to 30th or 15th of second if I really brace the camera up to my forehead. I also knew that the park was full of jagged branches, so knocking them out of focus by using an open aperture was a good idea. If the aperture was open that means faster shutter speed, which means... no need for tripod, since I can hand hold.

Shot with 50 1.2L. Worked in Lightroom to get the colors (split toning). Shot at f1.8.

I'm big on capturing the mood. For me, a photograph needs a human emotion to come alive. I also wanted to work on getting an idea across to the viewer. I always think depicting an idea is harder than depicting something that is physically in front of you.




These are glimpse of the things that I saw while I was out. The subject matter is rather ordinary, things that we usually walk right past them without giving too much attention. But honestly, when you enjoy a walk in the woods, aren't these little things that we enjoy also?

This is a strange one. I was trying to get rid of the branches in the shot so I can have a clean shot of a kayak-er but that meant plunging into my own icy death. But I like the way it turned out. Its a different perspective that we're not used to. 

Using the proper equipment to express your vision is very important in photography. Sometimes we need the gadgets, sometimes we don't. I personally like to use less equipment. 

A tripod would've been absolutely necessary if I wanted to more things in focus or motion blur the water while keeping the rocks in focus. But since I knew what I was going after: extreme angles in composition, shallow depth of field and ability to move freely, I was able to strip down the equipment to bare essentials (camera with one lens) so I can be free of things that get in the way.  Besides, I wouldn't have been able to catch this if I was fumbling with a tripod.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boston: B&W Architecture with Leica Q2M: From a Purist Perspective.

I swear I was going to switch out my black and white ONLY Leica Q2M to a regular Q2 color camera before going to this trip.  I"m glad I didn't.   Oh, before I forget, take a look at my icandy slide shows .  I will be making slideshows that is designed for big screen TV's.  Take a look at this one: Ok, back to the topic on hand.  So one of the most asked question about the Leica Q2M is, 'why limit yourself to just black and white when you can easily convert color photos to BW?'  Very good question.  My answer is,  if you know with certainty you want the best quality BW image possible, you want the dedicated monochrome camera.  Am I being a staunch purist? or is there a practical argument for it? Let's talk about it.  Beacon Street Boston,  MA One of many beautiful architecture on that hill.   First, this camera doesn't have any moire filter on the sensor.  Moire filters are on most color camera sensors to get rid ...

Polaroid Negative?

I've been wanting to do color large format for awhile. When there were photo labs around the corner, it wasn't hard to do a E-6 process in a day or two. Now that process has gotten expensive and if you're doing sheet film, its even more pain. So my solution... Polaroid! well technically, it should be called "instant film" since Polaroid is trademarked term. I'm using  Fuji FP 100c45. But here's the twist. I wanted a different look. If I want true colors, I wouldn't bother with the cost of 2 bucks per shot.  I also was fascinated with some surface texture that I saw on polaroids.  I recently came across some sites that talks about turning a polaroid into negatives. Its true that Polariod years ago did have those positive/negative film, but they've discontinued all instant film a couple of years ago.   The process is simple. you take bleach and take off the black stuff on the part that you throw away.  Once the black part is off, you have a negati...

Air Show with Leica Q2M

 Never been to an air show... What's taken me so long?  It was pretty cool.  I've seen these aerial maneuvers on TV or YouTube, but seeing it live makes all the difference.  It was the Leesburg Airshow  held annually.  This one was on October 1st.  They're doing some crazy stuff up there!  They've provided a shuttle service from a nearby pick up area and the admission was free.  Can't complain about that.  I've always enjoyed aviation and the level of precision needed to fly these airplanes safely.  I've seen all the episodes of Air Disasters on the Smithsonian channel, so yeah I know all about aviation...  Restored vintage DC-3.  The "Yukon Sourdough" Here is an article about it . For this outing, I used my Leica Q2M camera .  I love the simplicity of this camera.  It was how photography used to be: shutter speed, aperture, and iso.  Those three things are the trinity of photography.  If you know how ...