Ah...the quintessential Fushimi Inari Shrine shot. I don't know how many of these I've taken, but I forced myself to take all my shots of this shrine, as it was the Picture Japan trip and I wanted to get out of my safety zone, with my newly purchased lensbaby. I was dead set on getting the lantern in focus, which I think made the "tunnel" more "zoomy." I even tried to have people in my picture, which I generally desperately try to avoid, to add scale. I liked how the school uniform of the boys pants matched the bottoms of the torii.
This came out so well, Michael -- the kids in the scene absolutely make it, and the focus is spot on with the lantern. I'm finding focusing to be very difficult and think SOME of it (only some) is that with my vision, I haven't figured out how to be accurate using the viewfinder. Any suggestions?
I love this, the lantern is so sharp and I like the way the focus diffuses as you move out . Fascinated by the talk of different lenses. I've got what is called a bridge camera and am still playing with settings other than automatic, most of them a disaster, but I am learning. I admire all of the 'runners' on 365. I'm not even toddling yet!
@taffy I know how we like to keep people out of the shot for something like this, so I'm glad you like it too. I wish I had a quick fix, but I only look through the eye piece and I practice by taking the same shot, but moving the point I am focusing on to a different part of the frame. It takes time and patience to learn this lens. There is something to being conscious of the slight motion of pushing the shutter and keeping the focus you have simultaneously. As you know, I also challenge myself to resist taking off the lens to get the shot I want with a more traditional lens. That alone creates more practice time and makes you think differently about how to capture something. When your eyes get buggy, set the camera down rather than change lenses...
@ceilidh Thanks Margaret for your comments. I love playing with what photography can be pushed to do beyond a great capture. This lens is right up my alley in terms of creative play without post-processing. I don't know what a bridge camera is...now I need to do some research. Have you posted images with that? I'm going to take a look through your albums...
That lantern in focus is perfect -- and the boys in school uniform make this image work very well. The white shirts and black pants and white shoes . . . all topped with black hair -- the three boys are the perfect image to have walking through your photo. Nice capture, indeed!
@vankrey I just linked mine to yours as well. You are so right about putting the camera down rather than changing lenses. I've been doing the latter, shifting to my 105 macro which is too reinforcing. Will need to stop doing that and take multiple shots of the same scene. I was so disappointed in my sunset ones from last night with the lensbaby, but think it may not work if there isn't a strong focal point to be had.
@taffy Taffy, I think you may be right about images that don't have a specific focal point as maybe not being the best for lensbaby...I'm still sorting through so many of my pictures - I don't always think there necessarily has to be a sharp focus on an object, but something should be brought into clearer focus to bring the viewer into the the picture somewhere.
of the fabulous fox.