Life- War Zone

So In no way am I comparing my living situation for this summer to anything that our troops all across the world are dealing with but, on a spiritual level it IS a battlefield.  Living in the “Bible-belt” of the United States, Church plays a large part in one’s upbringing.  Both of my roommates grew up in South Carolina so Church is not a foreign concept to them.  Both, I assume have been to enough events at a Church to know that Jesus is, “the truth, the way, and the light.” Yet, it does not seem to matter to either of them that the way they conduct themselves is dis-respectful to God and everything he stands for.  Making the most of their worldly lives and not making much of Christ.  On many occasions as a Christian I have felt my beliefs being threatened by rude or hurtful comments that poke fun at Christianity.  As a Christian, I obviously take offense but, I often do not know how to respond.  As a Christian I don’t want to appear as weak but I also have to remember to respond in a way that is Christian-like.  So, to me, the contradiction is obvious but to those who don’t see what I’m talking about.  I am having a hard time coming up with effective ways, as a Christian, to stand up for my self without lowering myself to their standard.  All while trying to be a good Christian and trying to make them see that what they say and do is wrong.  Pray for me in this last month of “war.”

Life- Technology and Quiet

So after a long hiatus, I am making a non-photo based post. And today I’d like to talk about how much I use technology and have gotten away from enjoying the common daily simplicity of life. For instance, a typical day (during the summer) includes: waking up, listening to my Zune on the way to and from work, get home from work listen to my Ipod Nano while at the gym lifting weights, come back and surf the Internet and look at the news and daily happenings on my desktop computer, find something to take a pictures of with my Nikon D300, watch a television show that I downloaded on my computer, then decide that I actually would like to watch a movie so I go into the living room and watch a movie on a 42 Inch HDTV with surround sound on a Sony PS3, go to bed and repeat. If you were to add up all the money that has been spent on technology in my daily life it would be well over $5,000 of (what I consider) technology that I come in contact on a daily basis. So now that I’ve defined what technology I come in contact with I’d just like to say that while not all technology is bad, some of it is not good. Every piece of technology aforementioned could argue in favor of or against depending on what you believe technology should be used for. For instance, the computer, someone of an older generation who did not grow up with computers could say that they are not needed and purely used for pleasure and entertainment. One counterpoint to this statement is, since the Internet, computers are a means of keeping up with current events, following live breaking news faster than old formats of information gathering like the newspaper or magazines. Computers can also be used to keep in touch with friends and family through communication programs like skype.  But, no mater how much technology you surround yourself with, you wont be able to appreciate how much you can get out of life by just sitting and taking in the world around you.  I think the times I enjoy most is when I go outside and just sit and read.  I remember enjoying those time much more than when I’m sitting in front of a computer or in front of a computer screen.  Something that I have not tried but, soon will, is driving to work without listening to the radio or my Zune.  I think I would enjoy just being able to think clearly without the distraction of music.  

Photography- Charleston Pictures

Here are three pictures I took while I was in Charleston for the Dave Matthews Band Concert on the 4th of July enjoy

Photography- Depth of Field

This week I’m going to talk about Depth of Field.  Depth of Field (DOF)is the portion of an image that is sharp and in-focus.  In photography DOF can be used for many things, particularly in composition.  Before I go into its uses there is some terminology that we should clear up first.  A wide aperture yields a shallow or small depth of field while a small aperture yields a deep or large depth of field.  This seems quite counterintuitive but it has to deal with the part of the lens called the aperture.  The aperture is the part of the lens that regulates the light that is allowed to focus on the sensor in your digital camera.  A lens’ f/stop is directly related to the aperture.  f/1.4 would be considered a low depth of field aperture while an f/stop of f/22 would be considered a high depth of field aperture.  Before I get to much more advanced I would just like to say that generally you want to shoot landscape photos around f/11 and low light situations around f/1.8.  You will often hear the quality if a lens referred to by its speed.  When someone say that the lens is really fast they mean that it has a large aperture/shallow depth of field.  Most zoom lens have a varied maximum aperture of f/5.6-3.5 this means that as you increase the focal plane the maximum aperture will vary.  If you have expensive lenses that value will be fixed, which for optical reasons is why it costs so much.

From a compositional standpoint, sharpness, clarity, and depth of field all play a roll in conveying a theme or message in photography.   With a shallow depth of field (large aperture) you can isolate subject  within the image.  With a large depth of field (small aperture) you can show extreme depth having both, the main subject and background in focus.  Something to also consider is sharpness.  Most lens yield the sharpest results at apertures in the middle of it’s minimum and maximum.  So achieving the effect you want should take into consideration the acceptable zone or range of sharpness the lens is capable of.