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Wild

We set our order, build our impressive structures, impose our wills. And everywhere life and beauty find a way of sneaking in. And it is the small, fragile beauty of flowers that lasts. They will be here, millennia after our carefully wrought schemes have faded from all memory. The wild things are the signs of what is truly powerful, truly worth our attention.

Photo: Canon 300D; Canon 18-55 @45mm; 1/400, f5.6, iso100. Taken on the top of Mt. Cargill after a walk up from North Road.

Comments

Alden Smith said…
This photo raises some interesting points regarding depth of field, and exactly how we snap photographs etc. I think the "correct" point of view would be that the 18-55 lens at 45mm has highlighted the daisy in the foreground with the background sensibly masked with its out of focus perspective. From my point of view of what's interesting in this photo raises a question. What exactly is that out of focus contraption (or is it two items) in the background? Is the out of focus item to the right a physically constructed trig point? The out of focus item to the left looks like a receiving or transmission apparatus of sorts with a flat rather than a concave disk. Depth of field has a lot to answer for here!
Kelvin Wright said…
Its the aperture which controls the depth of field. In this case I wanted the background to be blurred out but not so blurry that you couldn't see what was there. So I chose f5.6. I took this lying on my belly in the grass, but if I was taking this shot again I might stand up, change the angle a bit to bring the flower down slightly in the frame. Same shot, but a better composition. Still, we live and learn. And the opportunity to take that photo will never come again. When you see it you have to take it then and there, because next time you come back it will be a different picture that presents itself.

The things in the background are a trig station and a satellite dish - a big one for picking up Dunedin's TV channels before relaying them on to the punters.

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