Back to the Bike

I know I said I would not post these exercises with the lenses and the bike but I am such a visual learner and I have to do it for my sake.

Today my plans were to use the 200mm lens - telephoto type lens - and do the exercises as before. I have to admit it was SO COLD with the wind chill that I could only stand to stay outside with taking photos standing up! Brrrr!

It required more photos than before because with a 200mm lens, I had to stand WAY BACK to get the entire bike in the photo with space all around the bike in the beginning photo.

I had my camera with the flash off and on automatic mode again and just took 5 steps closer with every photo.

As you can see, when I get closer, it's more difficult to photo the entire bike in a frame.

Here I am 15 steps away and you can see how the telephoto lens works that far away.

Here I am 10 steps away and can barely get parts of the bike in the frame. I read that a telephoto lens is a good lens to use for portraits because you can stand far away and get close portraits without the subject knowing you're photographing plus there is less distortion that far away. If you want distortion (for a humorous look), use a short lens and get close.

Now I'm 5 steps away and the camera is really having a tough time focusing on sections of the bike because the lens is bringing the photo of the bike so close.

Now I am standing right next to the bike and cannot get the camera to focus. I have everything on automatic. I'm not using anything manually to keep all conditions the same except for the lens. I finally got the camera to focus on the grass through the spikes on the front wheel. Can you see the blurred spikes in the picture?

With these exercises, Bryan Peterson, in his book, suggests that you do this same exercise standing, on your knees and on your stomach for all lens lengths possible with your camera. I have a Pentax DSLR camera with two lens - an 18 to 55mm lens and an 80 to 320mm lens. I love my camera and it really does have a lot of good features. This is only the beginning in learning my camera and what it will do. I have a long way to go! But, again, it's fun! NOTE: I never got on my knees or my stomach in this exercise with the 200mm lens. It was just too cold. But I will continue and get it done little by little.

Repeating Exercise with the 18mm Lens

Today I used the widest angle lens I have, my 18mm, so I don't have as many shots to post. The wide angle lens will take in a lot of scenery.

The two above show the view standing and taking 5 steps forward. Only 5 steps and there I was upon the bike because I didn't have to stand back as far to get the bike and space around it all in the frame for the first shot. On the second frame, I had to point my camera down at the bike but I didn't worry about composition - I just pointed down at the bike and shot.

Now I'm on my knees and this is the first shot.

Here is the final shot on my knees. As you can see, I could have composed anywhere along the bike but I didn't worry about that. I just shot.

I'm on my belly again and didn't even think about my neighbor this time! This was pretty early in the morning and the sun was to my back.

Here's the final shot on my belly and, again, I could have composed anywhere along the bike, up, down or in-between. I just shot the handlebars. It was so tempting to adjust the lens but I had to keep it at 18mm and not move it.

I have to tell you that yesterday when I started these exercises, I was out at around 9:30 or 10:00 am and did ALL my shooting with the intention of taking my camera in and riding my bike. When I went inside to view the photos, I discovered that my card was NOT in the camera! It was still in the computer! ugh! But I was persistent and went back outside with the card IN my camera and shot all those shots again! THEN I rode my bike for the first time in a long time. Today I made sure my card was in my camera before I walked out the door at about 7:00 this morning! Then I rode my bike again. Tomorrow I hope to use a different size lens and do it again.

NOTE: I don't understand what's happening here but please keep scrolling down for the comment area. Does anyone know why this is happening?!?

My First Exercise - Eye Opening!

I began my first set of exercises from one of Bryan Peterson's books that I have to help me understand photography. There are so many aspects to study and I like the fact that he has sets of exercises to do to learn VISUALLY and "zone in" on one at a time. This first exercise will take a while to accomplish but just this first day, I can understand a lot more about lenses and perspective.

The instructions were to have a model that you can use for every exercise so I just chose my bike. You place this model in front of a tree, use one size of lens, and stand back far enough to get the entire model with space all around it and take a photo standing up. I chose the 50mm lens to begin with because he said the 50mm lens is more like the human eye.

After you take the first photo, you are to walk forward 5 steps and take another one, take another 5 steps, take another, etc. until you are face to face with your model.

As you can see from these photos, I shot photos as I got closer and closer and my perspective gradually changes.

This is my final photo as I was standing and you can see the progression of the others above.

This next group is the same routine, only I get on my knees for every shot.

I'm still shooting using a 50mm lens but am just on my knees with every shot.

I'm not using any special composition but as I get closer, it is very tempting.

Also I am keeping a horizontal format which is normally for landscape and I am tempted at times to change to the vertical portrait format but I keep it horizontal.

Here is the last shot as I'm on my knees. Of course, I could have taken a photo of any part of the bike but I just chose the handlebars.

Now I'm on my stomach! Then I stand up and walk 5 steps forward and get back down on my stomach.

To me, this was the most interesting position.

Also, in addition to keeping my lens at 50mm, I have the flash off and am not changing my mode of shooting, just an automatic shot to keep all variables the same except for MY position.

I always knew that I was a visual learner but this exercise REALLY made me realize that this is so true! Also, I hope this is not too boring to read and want you to know that I am doing a lot of these notes for my benefit so I can go back and read and SEE what I have done to better understand what I'm learning.

Now here is my final shot! I love it! I'm on my belly and hoping my next door neighbor is not at home watching and thinking I'm a complete nut! With this shot, I could see the garden statue and want it to be in focus and I never could get it to focus until I just took my camera around the tire and focused, held the focus, then recomposed behind the spokes again and got the shot I wanted.

I hope that tomorrow I will have time to do this again but just use a different focal length with my lens. This will be very interesting.

NOTE: Please keep scrolling to reach the comment section. I don't understand why there is so much space between my post and this section.