Month
Jan. 09
Bubba 1
With rain and snow covering much of Southern California, my focus on photographic subjects moved closer to home (literally). Bubba is a 5 year old tabby that several years ago was wandering around our neighborhood in search of food and shelter. No problem, his search landed him in the right home.
The portrait of Bubba has some qualities that may be arguable. The composition is not structured in the classic thirds layout but "off axis" on both the vertical and horizontal. This was done purposefully as about 40% of the image has been cropped to achieve this composition. I'm kind of getting bored of the so-called "correct" composition. Keep in mind that standards for composition have changed throughout history, so there really isn't just "one" right way. It's a matter of feel.
A second area to note is the extremely limited depth of field. Only the eyes are in focus. This is not the result of post processing but done purposefully (in the camera) as will be explained below. Because of the narrow depth of field, I felt that the off-axis composition would enhance the image.
Now for the technical stuff. The image was taken with a full frame DSLR with Sigma 50mm F1.4 prime lens hand held in natural light. The reason I mention the Sigma lens is that it is designed to render the out-of-focus background very nicely. This "creaminess" is called "bokeh" and is subject of much discussion on photography websites.
Due to the narrow depth of field, the focus sensor in the viewfinder has to be "dead on" the eyes or they would have been out of focus. Many lenses will front focus especially at closer distances. Shooting at extremely limited dept of field is a an entirely different style for me. I think the lens is a keeper.
The image was taken hand held at an aperture of F1.4, shutter speed of 1/200th second, ISO 800.