Minolta Dynax 600si Classic, Minolta AF 28-85 f/3.5-4.5 Macro. One of my very first images with new SLR. Scanned from negative by one of those new Minolta Quick Scan machines.

-- David Rypal (export@applet.cz), March 30, 1999

Answers

Birch trees are very interesting and I encourage you to further explore this subject. Regarding this image... the foreground in the lower right seems overexposured. The foreground and top of the tree appear to be out of focus (not enough Depth Of Field). Placing the camera on a tripod and stopping down to F16 or 22 would increase the DOF and provide the needed stability to prevent camera shake that would likely occur with the long shutter speed caused by using a small aperture. I like the idea of the diagonal composition.

-- Chris Hawkins (peace@clover.net), March 30, 1999.

To Chris Hawkins Thanks for your tech advice. I forgot to notice that this shot was taken in 1996 when I was a real greenhorn. Not to put all of the branches into focus was the idea though. In these times as a tripod non-owner I was forced to shoot handheld. It was sunny late-evening then but without tripod and with slow film loaded my wide open lens use resulted in shallow DOF. Therefore I prefereed blurred fore- and background to capture the feeling of depth in the image. So I focused on the second layer of white branches. BTW I`m not satisfied with the scan at all. Maqny details just got lost.

-- David Rypal (export@applet.cz), March 31, 1999.