I really don’t mind snow that much. I used to live in Indiana… in fact, that’s where I took drivers’ education and learned how to drive. So lots of my very first driving experiences took place in the snow. Ice, however, is another story. Not a big fan of ice.
Luckily, during this winter storm, we were able to huddle down and stay inside and enjoy all the beautiful frigidness from the delicious warmth of our nicely heated home. We did venture out to sled, of course, and I also wanted to document some of the really pretty effects of the freezing rain.
And because it is Monday, it’s time for another installment of Mailbox Monday.
Today’s question comes from a mom wanting to get more out of her DSLR :
How do I get the blurry backgrounds when I take pictures of my kids?
The main thing you need to get a blurred background is an aperture that goes as wide as possible… and a lot of your kit lenses won’t really give you a super wide aperture. Most of them will open up to about f/3.5 at their widest focal length, but if you zoom in you start to lose some of that. So my recommendation is to go to B&H and get yourself a nifty fifty–a 50mm f/1.8 lens that is ultra light, ultra cheap, and so much fun to learn on.
Shooting at wide apertures is tricky business, however. Your depth of field will decrease with wider apertures, but it will also decrease as your distance to your subject decreases. This may give you a razor-thin plane of focus, and you really have to pay attention and practice, practice, practice to nail your focus.
If all this language totally confused you, find out more about aperture and how your camera works here : The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond takes a fantastic look at aperture settings in this article, and it’s broken down really well.
That’s all for today, folks! I am diving back into my job for the day… the most wonderful time of the year… taxes! I should be surfacing soon!
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