When Not To Shoot Wide Open

My 50mm stops down to f/1.8, and although I have owned it for over a month now, I have yet to close it any further than f/2.2. After being stuck with the kit lens, I was wallowing in glorious shallow depth of field for awhile. Beginners mistake.

I plan on doing a review post on a development here in town and while taking photos of Alina enjoying their adorable playground, I completely forgot to close the aperture accordingly.

I meant for this photo to be composed so that, after focusing on my cute kid, your eye would align with the dark pillars leading it towards the back of the playground and the Western themed stage on the right hand side. I thought this was a fun angle by which to view a good portion of the play area {that is huge and would take 50 pictures to show all its great features}. Cute kid – check. Adorable playground- not so much.

My aperture is so wide open {f/2.0}, creating a very shallow depth of field, that nothing is in focus but the cute kid. Because of this mistake, I won’t be able to use this photo at all because, although said cute kid is in focus, the blurred background is way too busy. Ugh.

Lesson learned.

At least the day wasn’t a total miss. Alina had a blast at their splash pad, we enjoyed story time, and oh, I got these two gems.

DSLR, have I told you lately that I love you?

In addition, the ezine Multicultural Familia has just published my article,
5 Great Tips for Photographing Your Multicultural Family.
I am really loving this community of intelligent, open minded writers. I’m still trying to find my groove over there, but it will come, I hope!