I'm Seeing Red in f1.4....

Do you see that lovely cardinal above, flying freely to dine throughout neighborhoods.  Flying whatever the weather dictates.  Unfortunately I am afraid that my flying freely to Arizona might not happen tomorrow due to our absolutely dreadful winter we have been experiencing.  Flights have been cancelled due to the frigid temps and high winds with the prediction even worse for tomorrow. Very sad face inserted here.   I have been doing the happy dance for the past several days knowing that I was leaving to enjoy sunshine and warmth for 10 days, only to be reminded that Mother Nature sometimes has the upper hand in determining when those getaways can occur.  Insert same unhappy face.

Hmm, oh well.  There is just no controlling Mother Nature and life does continue.  I will pack my bags today, laying out short sleeves, capris and sandals in anticipation of that warmth to come whether it's tomorrow or the next day or....oh please not any longer than that.

OK, switching subjects....please, this week's assignment in our 50mm class is to shoot wide open with our lens.  Now wide open means using the smallest number that you can get in adjusting your aperature.  That has always confused me....I think wide open should mean the highest number, but somewhere in the brilliant minds of those that determined what "wide open" meant decided low number (must have been a man).  And to make it even more confusing (to me anyway) I have 2 50mm lenses.  One I purchased with the very first class I took which has a "wide open" aperature of f/1.8, then later I purchased another 50mm, this one with an aperature of f/1.4.  Now anyone that has any knowledge of math or cooking knows that 1/8th is smaller than 1/4th right.  Not so in camera talk, because 4 is a lower number than 8, so thus it has a more "wide open" aperature. So now that I have ranted about "wide open" what it really means is that when you use the lowest number and focus on an object, the object should be in focus while the surroundings should be out of focus.

These was taken in my living room which has abundant light since it faces south.  And you can see the flowers that are in-focus and the vase (ball jar) really out of focus.

And another one... sure glad I stopped at Trader Joe's yesterday to pick up this little bundle of beauties.

Another advantage of a wide aperature (f1.4) is that you can take fairly good images in extremely low light.  This is in my family room which tends to be dark, it faces north and the drapes were even closed (because of the damn cold) and I still managed to get a decent shot.  Not the best, but it does prove that the trusty nifty fifty has quite a talent and deserves to be in your lens collection.

And I saved the best for last...my little Cinder.  She was basking in the sunlight on the living room floor and looked up as if she was giving me her best side.  (just like a woman)

And btw....red is probably my biggest challenge to photograph...I do believe I might have mentioned this before.  It tends to get, what I refer to as hot spots or blown out places, but using a lower exposure and editing in lightroom helps me with that challenge.

As I was typing this I did hear a plane fly overhead...hmm!!