In an attempt to pursue a hobby that does not involve a heap of monitor staring, I decided to get more serious about photography.  I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures, but I wanted to get deeper into the process.  So, I saved up some money and purchased a used Canon 30D from a friend back in March.  In the months that followed, I noticed myself passing through several stages as I got used to photography as a hobby rather than just image capture.  In retrospect, I thought they were rather funny.  I’ll share them over the next few blog posts.

The first of those stages is an acute fascination with shallow depth of field.

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Shortly after I picked up the 30D, I got the excellent 50mm f1.8 “plastic fantastic” and spent quite a most of my time at the larger apertures isolating my subjects.

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I think the reason for this was that my previous camera (a Canon point-and-shoot) offered quite a few features but none of which allowed me to modify the f/stop and shorten the depth of field.  Also, I’ve always liked how these kinds of pictures can so quickly focus your eyes on one thing while simultaneously hinting at supporting information elsewhere in the picture.

I don’t do quite as many pictures like this any more.  I still enjoy it, but I’ve learned the benefits of smaller apertures, so this has turned into a tool to be used, not the only thing I can do.