Shallow depth of field

Earlier this Autumn I got up one at 7am on a nice overcast Sunday morning to wander around the city and shoot some empty streets. Light was not very spectacular - we were counting on a nice sunrise but the clouds never disappeared so grey skies it was. But it's fun to be up so early, not many people or cars and the pace of everything is much slower. I'll post a photo that I made lying on my back a bit later but for now an example of very shallow depth of field.

This photo is made in a district called Kalamaja (fishhouse). This is an old part of town with two-three storied wooden houses, quiet streets and old trees. A lovely place, I'm currently searching a nice apartment there to move to.

I suddenly spotted this lonely fallen leave on the fence and knew that I had to shoot it. I usually don't try too many different angles and because I mainly shoot film I only get one or two frames of everything. This time I only took one frame and I think it was my last picture this morning. I had my 24mm wide-angle Minolta lens, set the aperture to F2.8, framed and fired away. Maximum aperture is also the cause why only so small part of the picture is sharp. Strong diagonal line of the fence leads your eye into the picture and nicely out of focus areas further help to focus on the fallen leave. And I love the muted colors.



Single leaf on a fence.