Tag Archives: lens

Changing My Lens

Most of the time when I take photos, I use the same lens. On my iPhone, it’s the lens that comes with the phone and on my Sony a6000 I usually use the 16-50 lens that came standard with the camera. They are functional and work in most situations…and they’ve become familiar, I know the distances they can handle almost instinctively.

On Saturday I decided to use my zoom lens as we headed out to the beach for a walk. I’ve used it before and know that it is great to zoom in on things in the distance, but it works differently than the lens I use regularly. I knew when I made the decision to use another lens that it would mean looking at the beach differently. I would have to look further out because of the change in range. And I would have to pay attention to focus since the zoom doesn’t lock in as quickly as the other lens does.

The zoom definitely brings birds in close…if you can lock in a focus quickly enough. I didn’t quite get the bird crisply here, but I like the way the background is crisp with the out of focus bird flying directly into my line of sight.

With the bigger than usual surf this week I found that the zoom brought it up closer, helping the camera see the impressiveness that is hard to capture with my usual lens.

And this one brought the rusty color and fluffy texture of the red algae alive against the foamy whiteness of the waves crashing in the background.

Seagulls let me come pretty close, but these little sea birds are pretty skittish, making it hard to ever get them in a photo. Here you can see just how much smaller they are compared to your average seagull.

You can see how much of the reef has been exposed as the sand has been washed out by the winter tides and how often it is covered with water by the lush algae growth exposed only at low tide. (Notice how the zoom not only captured the surfer, but also the seagull taking off just to the side of him.)

I noticed this rusty pail wedged in the rocks. At first I wasn’t sure I could take a photo using my zoom lens, but standing back a bit I was able to shoot this. I’m liking the colors and textures most about this photo.

As I headed out on Sunday, again with my zoom lens, I was optimistic that I would see and capture interesting photos using it. After stopping at our favorite donut shop for some donuts and the local coffee shop for some coffee, we pulled along the side of 101 to watch the surfers on the big waves. The guy with a massive lens nearby was probably getting more interesting shots than I was, but I enjoyed the movement I captured in this shot of a surfer on a ride with another right below him.

And I’m not quite sure what to do with this one. I like the view of the pelicans right above the surf, but the composition is not ideal. Could I edit it some way to make the image more interesting? More appealing in some way?

What I do know is that when I look through a different lens, I see the world differently. The colors change, what seems prominent through one lens recedes with another. And what I didn’t notice or couldn’t see with my “regular” lens suddenly becomes visible when viewed through the zoom.

While the camera lenses are interchangeable and it certainly isn’t difficult to change them, it’s often inconvenient to change them “in the field.” And at times I find myself wishing for the one I am not currently using, finding it frustrating (and annoying) to be looking through the one that doesn’t allow me to see as clearly as I would like.

Changing lenses reminds me just how important it is to get beyond my usual way of seeing things. Sometimes I need to pull in close and get a macro view…exploring the small details while other times I need to step back and take the long view with sweeping vistas and full context. And then there’s the zoom, bringing the far closer, limiting the context as I find that distant focus.

I can change my lens without physically changing my camera lens. I’m optimistic that I can make the effort to look in different ways and try to see through the eyes and experiences of those around me. Just knowing that there are other ways of seeing makes a difference in the ways I look and see. And what I see can make a difference in the way I act.

And then this short video appeared on my email today. Stop, Look, Go! Might just change your lens…and maybe your day too!

http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=6991

Learning From Blue

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As I have worked through photographing with a focus on a color each week during July, I have noticed that the weeklong focus pushed me to think about not only color but also composition differently.

Blue…only a short three days as July came to an end…expressed itself differently than I expected. When I originally crafted the color challenge I thought blue would focus on water…beachy things that are so prevalent in summer. But my end of July didn’t take me to the beach or near the water as expected. Instead, with the color in my head, blue appeared in unexpected places. When I photographed this butterfly I didn’t even know it had blue dots on its wings. I don’t think I even noticed it was sitting on a blue chair. What I saw was an opportunity to capture this beautiful creature through my lens. I took a shot, then crept closer took another shot, crept closer… I was amazed that the butterfly let me get so close. Maybe it could sense my appreciation.

I find myself looking at the world around me as an opportunity for composition. And I’m also thinking about the ways my eyes see things differently than my lens does. Sometimes it’s the light…and my camera captures a silhouette where I see color. Other times I can clearly see that bird in the sky…and my camera records a spot. It’s a reminder to me that our lens shifts our view and understanding of the world. We can look at the same thing and understand it differently. It’s important for me to remember that what I see and understand doesn’t necessarily represent what someone else sees and understands through their lens. And looking at those differences creates an opportunity to learn from one another. As Margaret Wheatley reminds us in her text Willing to be Disturbed:

We live in a dense and tangled global system. Because we live in different parts of this complexity, and because no two people are physically identical, we each experience life differently. It’s impossible for any two people to ever see things exactly the same. You can test this out for yourself. Take any event you’ve shared with others (a speech, a movie, a current event, a major problem) and ask your colleagues and friends to describe their interpretation of that event. I think you’ll be amazed at how many different explanations you’ll hear. Once you get a sense of diversity, try asking even more colleagues. You’ll end up with a rich tapestry of interpretations that are much more interesting than any single one.

This is what I love best about the photo-a-day challenge…I get to explore my own lenses and see what my friends and colleagues see through their lenses. And I know this openness and exploration helps me beyond photography…into my classroom, with my fellow educators, and out in the world.

Breaking Through #Orange

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I love the challenge of taking and posting a photo every day. I could just take a picture, but the daily/weekly prompts push me to reframe and rethink what I choose to photograph. This month’s challenge–a different color every week–has posed some new considerations for my photography. Red and yellow pushed at my choices and had me thinking about and looking for ways to highlight those colors photographically. I was still finding interesting scenes and objects…at least one each day that “fit” in the color frame for me. This past week was orange and I began to feel that the task was hard. I could find orange–but it seemed so ordinary and overdone–caution cones, warning signs, and flowers. So I photographed a mural, those ever-present cones, some orange furniture, and made a mural collage.

But my photos were feeling boring–I wasn’t inspired. Apparently, somewhere in the process of spending a week focused on a color I had raised the photography bar for myself. I wanted interesting, provocative, artistic shots–and they still needed an orange focus. The orange umbrellas from Friday were a bit better–I like the framing of the shot.

On Saturday serendipity struck and I was given a small orange bead that became the focus for both my photo and a blog post.

And then on Sunday (the last day of orange) I had a breakthrough of sorts. My learning walk gave me the time, space, and focus to tune into the orange around me in interesting ways. I ended up posting these three:

And there were a few others that I haven’t posted yet.

So today begins green. I like taking the opportunity to reflect on the week of photos and think about my growth as a photographer and my thinking about how the constraints of the photo-a-day challenge (self-imposed) support and/or interfere with my creativity. What am I missing when I focus on a theme or prompt? What do I gain when I force myself to “see” through a constrained lens?

I’d love to know what you think!