Field Experiment Brings New Awareness to Camera Controls

A shallow depth of field and natural lighting assisted in capturing Liam and Maddox Boan's mood shot.

   In my field experiment to improve my awareness on manual camera controls, I first discovered my twin nephews running around in the driveway when I dropped off my niece. I had my camera with me and thought it would be a great opportunity to have some fun with it.    

  When I approached them in their natural setting, my niece helped me to get them lined up and looking towards the camera. Under slightly grey skies and in the early afternoon, but I was still able to keep the ISO setting low (1/500). The flash seems to spook small children so I was glad that I had the natural light to play with. 
   I used the aperture to obtain a shallow depth of field so that I could focus on their beautiful faces, which each held a unique expression. This picture summed up their mood in that hour. The animation on Liam's face could be used to tell a story. Also, Liam and Maddox are well balanced in terms of spatial relation, each taking up about half of the frame.
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Close proximity, the correct shutter speed and natural light helped me to capture this moment.

   This was the most difficult picture that I attained. Outside of the fact that it was a rare moment that the mother and her baby deer shared, I had to play with the shutter speed and aperture quite a bit. Snow was lightly falling and I didn't want it to blur the pictures. I also wanted this moment to be entirely in focus, and wanted the depth of field to increase, because the natural setting of the woods was imperative to showcasing the wildlife theme. The "rule of thirds" may not apply to this picture because it seems  the subject is only taking up about half the frame, although this is still the best shot in the group. This took place in the empty property next door to my house, and I was able to get about 100 feet away from them. The deer are quite used to people in my suburb! 
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A careful balance and point of reference helped maintain this photo's depth of field and unique perspective.

   This picture was taken on February 3rd during the full moon, with the help of my mother. I read on a tutorial that minimalist landscape photographs are more about what you leave out than what you leave in. I circled the moon and trees in order to find a minimalist view that could achieve enough depth to keep several trees in focus. I used higher ISO due to low light levels (between 1600 & 3200) and ended up settling on 1000, for this shot. When I focused, I pressed the shutter button and let go of the camera before it took the shot. The shutter speed was at 1/200. I also applied “noise reduction” after I uploaded the photo to my computer. The graphic element in this picture is what makes it successful, and the quality of light is reflected through the full moon illuminating the sky. I think it offers a unique perspective, which is what I tried to achieve with this picture.