Wide vs Telephoto
I was out shooting some photos at around 5:30 in the morning as I usually do while we are at the lake house... covered completely in clothing from head to toe yet still getting eaten by millions of flying insects. Even though I hate dealing with all the biting insects, I'm always hoping to capture a good photo of some early morning wildlife while the lake is calm and the sun is low creating a warmer, softer light. That rarely happens but I can always hope for the best.
On this particular morning, I was attempting to compose a landscape shot that I've shot far too many times already but I prepared to shoot it again anyway.
As I was looking through the viewfinder, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be the moon at the top edge of the frame in the center. I pulled my head away from the camera... looked up... sure enough, the moon was still rather high in the sky.
I snapped a quick photo of the landscape and then switched gears.
I grabbed my other camera that has a bit more telephoto power and already had my longest lens mounted on it... I steadied myself against the deck railing... and I shot a quick shot of the moon. The moon is a tough shot at night but it is a bit tougher in daylight because there is far less contrast. This loss of contrast makes it difficult to capture detail. Compounding my problem on this particular morning was the fact that the moon was surrounded in wispy clouds. Oh yeah... and I wasn't using a tripod... and I had to focus manually.
Somehow, I managed to capture a photo of the moon between the clouds, in a bright blue sky, and with some nice detail!
Here is the landscape shot with a wide angle lens at 20mm... the moon is a tiny white circle at the top edge in the center...
Here is the photo of that same moon about two minutes later using my telephoto lens at 600mm... considering all the wispy clouds sort of veiling the moon and the resulting lack of contrast, I'm surprised by the detail I was able to capture...
It is always nice to be able to show a decent example of the angle of view differences of different lenses.
It is also nice to show that sometimes when you are shooting a bigger scene, you can find a tiny little point of interest if you look more closely.
On this particular morning, I was attempting to compose a landscape shot that I've shot far too many times already but I prepared to shoot it again anyway.
As I was looking through the viewfinder, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be the moon at the top edge of the frame in the center. I pulled my head away from the camera... looked up... sure enough, the moon was still rather high in the sky.
I snapped a quick photo of the landscape and then switched gears.
I grabbed my other camera that has a bit more telephoto power and already had my longest lens mounted on it... I steadied myself against the deck railing... and I shot a quick shot of the moon. The moon is a tough shot at night but it is a bit tougher in daylight because there is far less contrast. This loss of contrast makes it difficult to capture detail. Compounding my problem on this particular morning was the fact that the moon was surrounded in wispy clouds. Oh yeah... and I wasn't using a tripod... and I had to focus manually.
Somehow, I managed to capture a photo of the moon between the clouds, in a bright blue sky, and with some nice detail!
Here is the landscape shot with a wide angle lens at 20mm... the moon is a tiny white circle at the top edge in the center...
Here is the photo of that same moon about two minutes later using my telephoto lens at 600mm... considering all the wispy clouds sort of veiling the moon and the resulting lack of contrast, I'm surprised by the detail I was able to capture...
It is always nice to be able to show a decent example of the angle of view differences of different lenses.
It is also nice to show that sometimes when you are shooting a bigger scene, you can find a tiny little point of interest if you look more closely.
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