It's been raining for a while now, close to two weeks and is looking to continue.
Some days the rain is intermittent, others, just one continual downpour. The day I took these photos belonged to the latter category. The Canon 6D Mark II which I got about three years ago is a marvel. Moi, not so much! This full range model which is known for how it accommodates both the bokeh effect and low-light situations has many a zillion other wondrous features which are maddeningly still beyond my reach. I know there are answers to my specific problems buried somewhere in a class, book, and website, and I do search for it, but mostly am coming up purblind and empty-handed. Though I acknowledge how much I don't know, what I do know is what holds my attention which of course helps to define my developing style. And what draws me is not only the subject matter but also how I access it and how I handle the camera. No tripod. Please! And certainly no photoshop (though I make an exception for Saul Leiter painting on developed prints and would love to get a print for the photo below and paint splashes of various blues and golds, here and there, to emphasise three dimensionality and vibrancy). Double please! Or special lighting. Triple please! Though I do meddle with arrangements from time to time, I look for one already accomplished just by living the rhythm of one's life.
What I do drive myself to distraction is from what angle I will view what I am photographing. I will lie on my side, climb on chairs, put stuff on the floor and stand over it, and walk around the objects—involving at time moving sofas and bookcases—until I am dizzy. Relying on this camera's combo of live view and flip-out screen would save my knees from a lot of creaking, but it would also mean using the forbidden tripod to get steady shooting.
I did move the zebra-patterned lipstick case (it was nearby) into the below shot to create a complementary colour duo of blue and orangey gold.
My addiction of choosing in most photos a macro prime lens for both its close-up capability and its crisp image creates difficulty in achieving depth of field. The surest way to get depth of field is by moving away from your subject which of course would defeat the purpose of a macro lens.
Another significant aspect of what rivets my eye is texture. The black patent leather effect of the cardboard socks box along with the letter X and the shiny red heart on its side contrasts with the softness of the fabric-covered sewing basket.
I often set the camera on the aperture mode which means I get to choose the f-stop. A lower number is correlated with a more opened lens along with more light but with less depth of field and a higher number with a less opened lens along with more depth of field but with less ambient light. The camera's range is from f/2.8 to f/32. I teeter on that technical tightrope with each shot never striding confidently any great distance. The visual conclusion is often that there is either too little light but decent depth of field or adequate light but not enough depth of field.
The below photo and the following one show that depth of field and adequate light is simultaneously possible. It's just I can't count on amalgamating those two features with a sufficient degree of consistency!
My furry model then suddenly decided, as they often do, that he was hungry.
À la prochaine!