The new and much improved Photography of Christopher L. Jackson. Better Camera, better compositions, better Photos.

Understanding Aperture: it's all in the math

What is with all the F4, F8, F16 and so on? That deals with the lenses aperture. Each lens has a maximum and minimum aperture. Whether if be a slower F5.6 lens or a fast F1.4 lens what does this all mean. In order to understand photography, you MUST understand your equipment and math. The F1.4 really stands for F/1.4 or F divded by 1.4. So in this case, we'll say you have a 50mm lens that's a F1.4. So the F in this equation is the focal length of your lens, in this case 50mm divded(/) by 1.4.. (F/1.4) which is the typical writing listed on a lens or when you post about the speed of your lens. So, back to the example; F 50mm is our lenses length, divided by 1.4, gives us an aperture size of 35.71428571428571 mm in size. that's a huge opening to allow light in.

Another example; My lens that I use for my landscape photography is a 40mm lens. it is listed as an F4 maximum aperture, F22 minimum aperture. So at F4, my aperture that lets the light in to my sensor of my Canon EOS 5D Mark2 is, 10mm.

So an F1.4 is considered as a fast lens because it is able to take pictures quickly because it's opening is alot larger than my 40mm lenses at maximum exposure. So it is easy to see why understanding the size of the maximum aperture of your lens is important in your photography on an everyday basis.

an analogy I like to use is; A large pipe can send through more water than your garden hose to water plants or fill up a pond. but you lose DOF, (Depth of Field) at larger apertures and increase your DOF at smaller apertures.

Hope this helps you!
-Christopher

Greenbelt Park

Greenbelt Park.
This trip was the first ever for me. This could be very well one of this nations smallest national parks, next to Rock Creek Park. So I arrived early the morning of May11th at sunrise for this photo shoot. The lighting was great. The canopy from the trees helped control the lighting and the greens were fresh and clean.I would guess that as the days progress, the green color will change from this powerful fresh tone.

May 1st 2010

The First day of May! Wow what a morning this was. the sky was blue, the weather was fantastic and since this was a Saturday, the road was closed south of military road. So only joggers, bikers and people walking which meant I didn't have to deal with cars!

A trail into the distance

I want to PERSONALLY thank EVERYONE who are my fans. I love everyone of you with my heart. I'm so glad to have a talent that I can use to make others in this world happy. I love to show others the world through my eyes, as I see it through my lens. I really hope to leave my mark in this world knowing I bring joy to peoples lives through my work. All of my facebook friends are special to me.

Thank you for your support and I love you all!

-Christopher

Gentleness

This is one of the two shots that I like out of the nearly 100 shots I took today. This photo is appropriately labeled gentleness because it is gentle to look at in my eyes. I enjoyed listening to the water rushing down stream and listening to the birds who were in full singing mode. I saw chipmunks, squirrels, robins and woodpeckers as they were enjoying the morning just as much as I was.

Rock Creek Park Spring 2010

This shot was taken early this morning about the time of sunrise. I really am fond of this island or possibly fascinated by it as it sits basically smack dab in the middle of the creek. The creek makes its way around both sides of this little island and past me. I really love this shot in that it is a really special place to be.