Get the f/stop…

After I got my new camera in 2006, I went through a series test to get the feel of the new digital SLR camera. One of my test was to test shoot on a cloudy beach day a series of 1/3 f/stop images with the same shutter speed of 1/60th of a second.

What is an f/stop? Here is the simple explanation. Think of the aperture in the lens or camera like the iris in your eye, and it usually is located in your lens. The larger the opening the grater amount of light is allowed through the lens and into the camera. The larger your f/stop numbers the small the opening. The smaller the f/number the larger the opening.

OK, I know that was like a Huh moment. Below are examples of an f/stop number scales you might find on a typical modern camera lens. Typical one-half-stop f-number scale: f/#2.8,3.4,4,4.8,5.6,6.7,8,9.5,11,13,16,19,22. Most of my Nikkor lenses use a typical one-third-stop f-number scale: f/#2.8,3.5,4,4.5,5.6,6.3,8,9,10,11,14,16,18,20,22.

Also when larger or small apertures are used this will affect the focal range and or Depth of Field. Depth of field increases with f-number. This means that photos taken with a low f-number will tend to have one subject in focus, with the rest of the image out of focus. This is frequently useful for nature photography or certain special effects.

The depth of field of an image produced at a given f-number is dependent on other parameters as well, including the focal length, the subject distance, and the format of the film or sensor used to capture the image. Smaller formats will have a deeper field than larger formats at the same f-number for the same distance of focus and same angle of view. Therefore, reduced-depth-of-field effects, like those shown here, will require smaller f-numbers (and thus more complex optics) than do larger format cameras.

If you have a true interest and you really want to get into the technical aspect of f/stops, go to Wikipedia. Wikipedia has a great article on this topic.

Box Lunch...

A few weeks ago I posted some images of the chicks that my wife’s third grade class hatched. The next day I went back to the classroom to see the rest of the hatchlings and to take a few more pictures.

What a difference a day makes. The night before with the fresh hatchlings they were more then content to let me poke and prod, move and pose them exactly how I wanted. 24 hours later they have become less then compliant. I couldn’t keep these chicks still even when I stapled their feet to the table… Just kidding I didn't do that, but the thought did cross my mind.

I finally decided in order to keep these chicks in one place I needed to put them in a box. So here is a photo of four of the chicks in the only box I could find. The little black chick is being suppressed by the rest and is hiding under the lid.

Crack...

Over the weekend it was my birthday. I spent the Saturday with my wife at the Oakland A’s game. It was a home stand against the Cleveland Indians.

Since it was a day game and the sky was clear and sunny, I thought it would be a great opportunity to take some sports action photos.

Here is one of the first pictures I took on Saturday. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky then good. I am more lucky then good all the time. This was a lucky timing high speed shot. In this shot I wasn’t following the ball from the pitcher, I set and focused on the batter anticipating the swing of the bat.

Designated hitter (D.H.) for Cleveland Travis Hafner. You can see why he is the D.H. as this photo captures him cracking his bat. Really it’s more like splintering it. Notice the top of the bat heading towards third base. These are a little dark after I adjusted them in Lightroom. I will readjust and repost.