Aperture and Depth of Field

During a recent visit to the lake, as the dog and I were strolling through the forest next door, I decided to play with the aperture settings on my camera. After settling on looking up a poplar tree for my experiment, I rested the camera body on the tree and aimed my 50mm macro lens up towards the sky.

First, I wanted a very narrow depth of field, so I set my f-stop quite low. This meant the aperture was wide open, letting lots of light in:

1/400 sec at f/3.5, ISO 400, Sony a55 w/50 mm macro lens

Then, to see how the same photo would look like with a wider depth of field, I opted for a larger f-stop. This meant the aperture was narrower, not letting in as much light.  I was having trouble focusing on the same spot as the last photo, so while it’s not a perfect compassion, it still works.

1/100 sec a f/11, ISO 400, Sony a55 w/50 mm macro lens

You can tell the difference in light by the shutter speed difference between the two shots.  I don’t know about you, but I kind of like the abstract nature of the first shot.

 

Feeling cratfy – felt e-reader case

Earlier this summer I tweeted this:

So what exactly was I sewing? A case for my Kobo mini! Now, I still love actual books, because really, nothing beats the sound when you crack open a new book, the smell of paper and ink, the feel of the paper as you turn the pages, and the satisfaction of closing the book when you’re done. That being said, having an entire library in the palm of my hand is just awesome. Except without a cover/case, it would turn on in my backpack, change the page I was on, open a new book, or just drain the battery.

I didn’t have a pattern or anything for the case, I just kind of made it up as I went along. Here’s what I did:

Grabbed my e-reader and placed it on the pieces of felt that would be the main case, front and back. I traced the outline, giving myself some extra room so it wouldn’t be too snug once it was sewn together. I cut those pieces out and made sure they were the same size.

I browsed Pinterest for some design inspiration. I’ve always been drawn to frogs so it was a no brainer for me to make a frog themed design. I settled on a frog jumping into water and went from there. For each design item, I sketched it out on paper and once I was happy with the design I cut it out and then traced the outline on the felt, cut it out and sewed it onto the background.

I didn’t start the in-progress photos under after I had already finished the grass (sewn first) and the water.

Since I had used up my green options with the background and grass, my frog would have to be a colourful one. I guess it’s either a poisonous frog or a mimic 😉

My potentially poisonous frog wants to look where he’s leaping:

Final product!

I love the little bee – it was a last minute idea that I’m really pleased with 🙂

So what was I sewing on the bus? It wasn’t any of the detail work, it was the final, long, boring sewing together of the front and back pieces. It actually worked out quite well – I would listen to the radio on my iPod while sewing, and the bus ride few by.

And now I have a case for my mini library – what shall I read on the bus this week?