Wonders of Milan
On Saturday, we took the wee one who must be occupied for a trip up to Como, but the big one, me, who must take photos, was forbidden from taking my trusty Canon. By way of revenge, sort of, and true to mad dogs and Englishmen form, I exploited a free afternoon while wee one and mum went to the pool, to wander around, armed with my newish Tokina 12-14mm wide angle lens, and take a few practice shots around the main and back streets of Milan.
Here is an incredible apartment block which is just across the road from the St Ambrogio church.
Yes, I know it is distorted, but I like this kind of perspective. The bright, and hot, sun washed the colours out a bit, but playing with the saturation, I managed to add some strength to the tones.
This is one of the St Ambrogio towers:
Here is Piazza Cadorna, and one of my ’tilt’ phase photos:
Wide Angle
I added a second lens to my camera gear recently. It’s a Tokina 12-24 f/4.0 wide angle. I’ve still to learn how to use it properly, but so far, I like the results.
Here is a test shot of a street near me here in Milan (15mm f/4.0 1/750sec):
I know these so-called ultra wide angles distort things quite a bit, as can be seen here, but I quite like the effect.
A Photographic Thought
Don’t you just love that ‘bokeh’ blurry background effect that photographers get? I do, not all the time, but used appropriately, it can create really memorable images.
How do photographers create this blurred background thing? Quite simple really - it’s all down to having a very shallow depth of field, which is probably easier to understand if you call it ‘depth of focus’. For example, not using real figures: with a certain lens at a certain focal length - that’s the millimetres thing, you know, 28mm, and with a big hole, better known as an ‘aperture’ or ‘f-stop’, say f2.8, only the thing you focus on is in focus, plus a very shallow area behind the thing you focus on. Say, 1.5 metres. This means that anything beyond 1.5 metres, is not in focus. Hey presto! Bokeh!
The trouble is that this depth of focus changes in relation to the length of a lens and the size of the aperture. Smaller apertures, that’s with bigger f numbers (f10, f18, f32 etc) have much deeper focus areas.
This depth of field or focus thing, as you prefer, can be calculated - just search Google for ‘DOF calculators’, and there are even charts to help you. But we live in the digital age now, so why can’t the manufacturers build a DOF display into their cameras? Much better than that silly ‘direct print’ button thing on Canon dSLRs, or so I think.
Just a photographic thought for the day, inspired by this photo, and, if you click, you will see a comment of mine on this very subject.
If I ever find myself with enough of the vulgar stuff
I’d buy Di Mackey a Canon EOS 1D Mark III, and I’d get Gege Bau a Leica M8. I’m pretty sure both of these people would put these excellent cameras to very good use.
Now, all I have to do is get round to accumulating enough of the vulgar stuff. But I would not advise either of the aforementioned to hold his and her breath.
Would I ask for anything in return? You bet I would - I would want to see the results of their photographic exploits!
Yes, it’s a dreamy night for me over in the no longer snow covered city of Milan.
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