Photo of the Week: Oh Bokeh Tree

"Oh Bokeh Tree" © Andy Marfia 2014 All Rights Reserved. Nikon D7100 w 55-200mm lens, 1/100sec at f4.5, ISO3200

Happy Holidays from Chicago!  I took this week's photo at the Daley Plaza Christkindlmarket.  The Christkindlmarket is a great place to visit for last minute Christmas presents, gluhwein (a very tasty German mulled wine) and, of course, out of focus Christmas tree photos.  I'm pretty sure I've never met an out of focus Christmas tree that I didn't like.

Photo of the Week: City on the Trash

Nikon D7000 w/ 70-300mm lens, 1/1000sec at f8, ISO400. © Andy Marfia 2013 All Rights Reserved.

I'd love to claim some deep reasoning behind this week's photo, which combines the Chicago skyline with a trash can along the city's lakefront.  The truth is, I just thought it was funny to throw a trash can into an otherwise pretty skyline photo.  I actually chuckled to myself as I was taking this one.

Of course, I could write something up:

"The elevation of the trash can into the cityscape realigns the viewers perspective, turning the mundane into the majestic and the majestic into the mundane."

The great thing about photography, and art in general, is-- if it's worth a damn-- it should be open to interpretation and extend beyond the simple click of the shutter.  I'd like to think this photo falls into that category, so please, feel free to add your own caption.

Photo of the Week (News Years Edition): Daley Plaza

Nikon D7000 w/ 50mm f1.8D lens, 1/60sec, f2.8 and ISO200. © Andy Marfia 2012 All Rights Reserved.

This week's photo is an abstract take on the Christmas Tree in Daley Plaza, and also the Daley Center, which is on the left.  This shot is intentionally defocused.  I always feel like I'm cheating when I create a photo like this, but every once in a while it makes for an interesting effect.

The seven sided polygons are caused by the aperture blades of the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens.  At f1.8 these would have been circular, but with this lens you start to see the shape of the aperture blades as soon as you stop down even to f2.0.  This is an older lens design-- newer Nikon models have rounded aperture blades which don't produce these sharp polygons.  Most people think that's a good thing, but I rather like this look.

I hope everyone reading had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.  I still have to post my Best of 2012 photos, and then onward to 2013!

Photo of the Week: Conservatory in the Rain

Nikon D7000 w/ 105mm Micro Nikkor lens, 1/320sec at f20, ISO1600. © Andy Marfia 2012 All Rights Reserved.

There's a common misconception among amateur photographers that in order to produce shallow depth of field (aka: bokeh), you need an f1.4 or f1.8 lens.  While those lenses certainly help-- smaller apertures give you the ability to produce bokeh in a wider variety of situations-- focal length and distance to subject are also equally important. (ie: the closer you are to your subject, or the longer your focal length, the shallower the depth of field is likely to be).

The photo above, a close up of a budding tree with the Garfield Park Conservatory in the background, is a good example of this.  This was shot with a 105mm lens at f20.  Not f2, mind you, f20.  I initially tried this shot at f4, but that aperture completely obliterated the background to a perfect, soft blur.  That would be fine for some photos, but in this case I wanted to retain some detail of the conservatory behind this plant.  So I tried f8, f16, and finally f20, until I got the look that I wanted.

Photo of the Week: have a seat, stay a while

I took this week's photo during Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo.  I'm not really a huge zoo fan myself, but a zoo lit up with Christmas lights, that I can get excited about.  Update 1/3/10: Since first posting this, this photo has gone crazy-go-nuts on flickr, getting sucked into the flickr explore universe, and acquiring over 1000 views, 50+ comments and 150 faves.  All in less than 5 days.  Weird.  Didn't see that coming at all.

Photo Details: Nikon D7000 with 50mm f1.8 lens, at 1/20sec and f1.8, ISO800.  This was handheld with no support, and no VR, so I was lucky to get a sharp photo at 1/20sec.

Processing Note: I brightened and partially desaturated the bottom half of this photo, so the snow would read as white.  It was quite pink in the original due to the Christmas lights.  I intentionally left it just a touch pink, for authenticity-- you don't want to go too far with the processing.

Photo of the Week: Just Stop

This week's photo has been chosen by default, as I'm really busy and probably won't have time to post anything else for a few days.  That's not to say that I don't like it-- I do.  It reminds me that I need to shoot more with my prime lenses.  Sure, zooms are more versatile, but you loose that buttery smooth bokeh that only a large aperture prime can produce.  Yes, I just wrote "buttery smooth bokeh."  I'm a dork.

The building in the background is the Old Chicago Main Post Office, which has been vacant since about 1997, though thankfully has landmark status so at least it can't be torn down.

Nikon D90 with 50mm lens, 1/400sec at f2 and ISO400.

ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space

The photos below were taking during the Spiritualized set at the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival.  Spiritualized are often described as "psychedelic" or "space rock" so I wanted to capture some photographs that represented that:









These were shot with a Nikon D80 and 50mm lens, at 1/1250th second and f1.8, with the focus (or lack there of) set manually.  I've always had mixed feelings about photos where everything is out of focus, which have become quite popular on flickr.  Is this a creative use of focus, or simply an out of focus photo?  I'll leave that up to the viewer to decide.

- >

A snowmobile sign in northern Wisconsin, where I spent my labor day weekend.  Shortly after taking this photo I tried tampering with the sign and was instantly vaporized by a forestry robot, who then removed $250 from my wallet.

Actually, these are extremely easy to steal.

Nikon D50 with 50mm lens, f1.8.

wrigley

As a White Sox fan, it brings me no satisfaction to post a photo taken at Wrigley Field.  However, the White Sox are terrible this year, so what the hell.  This was taken outside the park, looking in at Sheffield Ave.

Nikon D50 with 50mm lens, f1.8 in this shot.

The New Pornagraphers at the Pitchfork Music Festival

I swear, the band is in there somewhere.  I took some non-blurry photos as well, but from the distance I was standing and the lens I was using, they didn't seem nearly as interesting as these shots.

Nikon D50 with 50mm f1.8 lens.

expressway, dusk

This shot is a perfect example of how flickr mystifies me sometimes, but mystifies me in a good and interesting and instructive way.  I was really... pardon the pun... on the fence with this photo.  The narrow depth of field is nice, but it was a little too dark, I thought, and I didn't expect it to get much of a reaction.  I was wrong, of course.

Nikon D50 with 24mm lens set at f2.8.  I boosted the saturation via the RAW processing, in order to make those car and streetlights really pop.

water tower, fence

Shot somewhere in the West Loop or thereabouts (the exact boundaries of the West Loop have never been clear to me), I've oscillated between really liking this photo and thinking it's complete crap.  I'm going to stick with the former.  I like the way the narrow depth of field draws our attention to the fence, and also conversely the water tower, and adds a surreal quality to an otherwise ordinary urban scene.