Trees and mist

Canon EOS 10D, 17mm, f/4, shutter 1/4, ISO 100

I’m starting this blog with one of my personal favorite photos. I shot this on the last day of a week-long trip to the Black Hills. When I woke up that morning, a mist settled in around our cabin. The whole world seemed so peaceful, it didn’t exactly make it any easier to leave.

The picture gives me a couple of good opportunities to introduce important photography concepts. The first is the aesthetic principle called Contemplative Photography. The idea behind this philosophical approach to the craft is to shoot pictures that capture our perceptions (actually there’s more to it than that, but a simple description will do to start). So the image I wanted was misty, shadowy, not rich on vivid detail, the trees in the mist the way I perceived the scene.

With the camera on “full auto,” this is what I got:

Canon EOS 10D, 17mm, f/4, shutter 1/2, ISO 400

The camera’s programming thinks it’s doing me a favor with this bright, detailed picture. And in many shooting situations it would be absolutely correct. In this case, however, the “full auto” image was too over-exposed to match what I saw and felt.

So I took it off the automatic setting, made some adjustments and got the picture I wanted (the one at the top of this entry). Specifically, I decreased the ISO (the camera’s sensitivity to light) and increased the shutter speed (letting less light get through). The result is a darker, less detailed photo, which in this case was exactly what I was trying for.