Canberra revisited - Remembrance

You may remember back in June, I visited Canberra, and got some shots of the War Memorial at dawn.  Well this weekend we went back, and I was able to have half an hour there for myself in photo-mode during opening hours. The Roll of Honour was my target this time - especially being so close to remembrance day. 

You may remember me mentioning that I had in mind a shot exploiting DOF and a shallow angle along the wall, to have a single poppy in the foreground in focus, with a background looking like a solid wall of red, from out of focus poppies seen from a shallow angle. 

Here's what I got...  I was pleased with it, but it's not perfect... I liked the fact I had people way off in the distance, as this gave a sense of scale and distance, emphasising how far the wall stretches, but I didn't like the blank field between the cluster of focused poppies and the start of the de-focused poppies after the next panel.  If the panel had names on it, this may have been more interesting visually, but I didn't think it was too respectful to start shifting poppies about, just to suit my vision.

So, to get the DOF, I shot with my lens wide open (f/5.6 @ 55mm).  I felt that 55mm gave a good balance to the depth without foreshortening it (longer focal lengths) or showing too much extra stuff that I'd only want to crop out anyway (shorter focal lengths).  I pretty much always shoot at ISO100 - so I don't need to tell you that... the light conditions forced me to hand-hold at 1/30, but since I wanted a shallow angle of view, I was able to brace myself right against the wall (being careful not to dislodge any poppies, of course).

Yes - I was pleased with it. Could do better, but it'll do for now.

Until next time

Happy Snappin'

Grum.