Project 52 - Week 10: Use A Long Lens To Isolate

We are in isolation mode again this week, this time using a longer lens.

One of my most favorite (and luckiest) photos of 2015, involved using a long lens to isolate.  I happened to be traveling home on a back road with my camera in my car and sitting on the front passenger seat (almost never happens).  It was loaded with my 70-200 lens.  I happened to see a flash of red in the trees and came to a complete (and sudden) stop--backed the car up, and sure enough, there was a Scarlet Tanager sitting in the greenery of the trees.  I knew I had only a little time, so I rolled down my window, grabbed the camera, did my best to zoom in to capture the bird AND get the best focus I could under the circumstances.  The resulting photo is below and is, I believe, a good example of this week's theme.

Granted , it is easier to isolate when you have something bright red against a total green background.  It also helps if the natural light cooperates.  I had my aperture open very wide for this image as I was peering into a dark thicket of trees.

One of the lenses that came with my camera when I purchased it was the 70-200mm.  I plopped that lens on my camera and it became my primary lens early on.  I experimented with it quite a bit.

This week our author wants us to examine using a longer lens to achieve isolation and to ask several questions: What do I want to exclude from my frame? How do foreground and background elements appear? How does using a longer lens differ from using a wide angle lens?

I am using an older image here, but I think this will help in understanding this week's topic.  The image below was taken in 2013 when I was hiking in the Back Mountain area.  I was relatively far away from this scene on a somewhat foggy morning after a rain.  I had gone to take photos of fields and trees and happened upon this scene.  I was using my 70-200mm lens.  I was on the darker side of the barn.

My guess was that this was a feral kitten, given the full food and water bowls behind him.  He was staring at me with that look of curiosity that would turn to flight any minute.  I focused in on him, but I also thought the bowls and barn behind him added to the story, so I backed the zoom up to include them.  They were a bit brighter when the photo was taken, but I used a matte on everything but the kitten in post process.  I did not want to exclude the bowls and some of the background items from this image.  If I had been using a wide angle lens, I would have had to have gotten closer to focus in on the kitten, and probably would not have had a kitten sitting in this spot.  I do think the kitten remains the focal point in this image, despite what I have elected to include (or not include) in it.

A wide angle lens might have also distorted the image depending on angle  and/or point of view, and I like the straight-on nature of this image.

Finally, I did take my camera out to a local park the other day in preparation for this week's image. We've had some very spring-like weather here and I expected that I might see a dog or two on the trails at the park, so I did not take any of our dogs on this outing. 

I did find this little scruffy on one of the docks by the pond enjoying the warmer weather with her owner.  Again,I used the 70-200mm lens and left in just enough elements to tell the story.

Now hit the blog circle trail and find out what others did while isolating!  Start here with Kathie Ono, Ono Pet Photography, Fairhope, Alabama.