Larry Stamm

I shot this photo on a cold, misty May morning, and the river rocks were covered with a glaze of wet ice. I wanted to convey the cold wetness of the rocks, with a vague dark forest for background.

I shot a bunch of shots of the rocks, crawling around on all fours over the slick rocks, and this is the one I liked best.

faved

Usually I shoot in Aperture Priority mode, but for this shot I left the camera in automatic mode. The focus was set to spot focus, so I first set the focus on the rock in the foreground by pressing the shutter half way, then recomposed the photo while holding the shutter half way, then fully pressed the shutter when I was satisfied with the framing.

My camera (Olympus C5050z) normally defaults to the widest aperature available, so I was assured of having the smallest Depth of Field. Plus, I had a 1.6x teleconverter attached, which further compressed the Depth of Field.

The footing was very difficult because of the ice, and I was in a bit of a hurry, so I didn't want to bother with camera settings. I just took a bunch of photos from different angles and focal points, and threw away the garbage shots. That's part of the freedom of digital photography!