A Spring Snowstorm for Learning Manual Focus
Every once in a while, my husband travels to the miniature version of the heroin capital of the U.S. to cover a weekend for the regular doctor there, God bless him. Some weekends he only needs to go in to the hospital a handful of times, so the kids and I drive up to spend time with him.
Last weekend we had already visited him on Saturday. It was a wonderfully warm day, and we were able to take the kids to a tiny nearby park before he got called in.
He had rented The King’s Speech for me, but we didn’t have time to see it. Not one to give up another chance to watch Colin Firth, I decided to drive up again on Sunday.
The only problem was that I got caught in a major snowstorm – in May!
I’m not brave enough to take my camera out in heavy precipitation. It was beautiful, though, so I took lots of shots through windows.
I think this was a truck full of colorful kayaks! Interesting juxtaposition with the snow.
This was what it was like when I reached the hotel:
Snow in May is magical.
Just outside my husband’s hotel room window, there was a pretty yellow flowering bush getting frosted in white.
I wanted to take pictures, but the camera couldn’t figure out how to focus through the window screen.
To focus manually, I found the AF/MF switch on the lens and switched it to MF (manual focus). On the zoom lens that came with the camera, the manual focus ring is just beyond the zoom ring. I looked through the viewfinder and turned the manual focus ring until the buds appeared to be focused.
Aperture affects depth of focus. Here, the aperture was at f/5.6. You can still see a little of the screen’s texture, although it’s very unfocused. Had I been using a different lens, I might have tried an aperture of f/2.8 to see if I could get the screen even less focused (and less in the picture).
(This is also something to try next time I’m at the zoo, taking pictures through bars and screens.)
A couple more out the window:
This was the following morning (not through a screen):
Positively breathtaking.
And so was The King’s Speech, by the way. The movie has some language in it – enough to cross it off the list if you’re watching with kids. Otherwise, it’s a very thought-provoking and inspiring story about overcoming personal impediments.
Maybe like flowers blooming through a snowstorm… or like learning photography in the isolating mountains…
A very memorable weekend, anyway, and a movie well worth watching.
Delightful post, Debbie! I especially like the picture of the snow on the archway — and the kayak one, for different reasons. ( You DID have your son take the kayak picture, so you weren’t snapping and driving at the same time, right? : ) ) I liked The King’s Speech really well, too. Wanna watch it again with me sometime? And I really don’t like bad language in movies, but this seemed almost necessary to get the point across. I can’t imagine how humbling that must have been for him. Something money or fame just can’t buy. And something he couldn’t hide or ignore. Just overcome, with lots of hard work and fearsome tests.
Amazing pictures, Debbie!
These pictures are magical!!