Just having some fun here. The idea is that fiddling around, even with no particular destination in mind, can teach something that may come in handy in the future. One goal of the One Picture a Day project is just to get the equipment out to do something.
Here we were playing with depth of field. We wanted the wizard to be in focus, because he is interesting. But we also wanted the viewer to understand that we were using an actual camera lens. Artistically it’s juxtaposing the familiar, “Oh, look, a catalog shot of a lens” with something unexpected “Wait a minute, there’s something in the lens!” Lots of possibilities here, some in poor taste, but we went with our friend the Lego wizard. To make the text on the lens readable while focused on the wizard, I maxed the aperture to f/40. I focused on the wizard, but backed off a little. That way the wizard was still within the in-focus field, but we got a little more clarity in the text on the lens.
The lens is an EL-Nikkor enlarger lens. It’s one I got in a dusty condition for cheap, hoping to clean it up for use in other projects. I have not gotten it as clean as I like, but I digress. Camera lenses are such feats of industrial design that I think they make an interesting photographic subject of their own. I wanted to give this little EL-Nikkor a little attention.
We are using our Merax One Shot Photo Studio. Since I reviewed it a few weeks ago, I have managed to break the bulbs in both light stands. These things are very top-heavy, and easily tipped if one is careless, like me. I can replace the bulbs, but I might just look for better stands. Today I lit the box with utility lamps. They give plenty of light, but they are not easy to position.
The camera today was a Nikon D90. The lens was the Micro-Nikkor 60mm AF f/2.8. 1 sec exposure, 200 ISO, f/40.
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