My friend Melinda has inspired me to join a new on-line photography group that has weekly challenges for the coming year. It is Kim Klassen’s Beyond Beyond which is a class focused on inspiring creativity and to help participants learn and grow as we continue to try to master photographic challenges. It is not so much a class about technique, although she offers some of that, but rather ways to creatively apply techniques we already know to improve our photography and our finished photographs. I’m looking forward to learning and creating. Kim is well versed in Photoshop and Lightroom and loves to create beautiful and often ethereal images using textures and other techniques. I joined the group as the third week began. This week’s challenge asked us to try using different focus areas on a subject with a shallow depth of field. Then, she showed us how to create a collage in Lightroom to showcase our results.
I was inspired by a lichen covered oak tree branch and used different focal points on the same area of the branch. I love the textures and the light and of course the bokeh that the shallow depth of field creates. These shots were all taken with my 24-70mm lens with a 70mm focal length, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/125 and WB set to fair weather. The late afternoon sun created ideal lighting for my subject. They required minimal processing.
