Thread: Ricoh GXR - Bench with a View

Taken while we were camping in Southern California. This is a bench in one of the city parks at Laguna Beach.

Love that colour and so wish I was there instead of the murky UK!

Very nice Duane. Trying to decide if I'd like it more or less with more DOF and the background in focus too - its a beautiful landscape beyond the bench after all. But I like it fine as is. What lens and aperture?

-Ray

Originally Posted by Ray

Very nice Duane. Trying to decide if I'd like it more or less with more DOF and the background in focus too - its a beautiful landscape beyond the bench after all. But I like it fine as is. What lens and aperture?

-Ray

I probably should have taken a couple other shots at different apertures but this is what I got. I have a Leica Summicron 35mm v2 attached all the time now on my GXR. Shot at f2.

Beautiful view and composition. My first thought was that I would have preferred a greater depth-of-field but then the bench would get a bit lost. A slightly tighter crop would remove the smeary and darker edges but still keep to the original intent of the composition.

Originally Posted by Luckypenguin

Beautiful view and composition. My first thought was that I would have preferred a greater depth-of-field but then the bench would get a bit lost. A slightly tighter crop would remove the smeary and darker edges but still keep to the original intent of the composition.

Thanks Nic. I added a slight vignette which adds a bit of darkness around the edges. But then again this was shot middle of the afternoon wide open with a 6 stop ND filter.

Cool shot, Duane. Love the color and I think the shallow DoF gives this one a cool ambience. Especially interesting for me, because I have been trying to figure out how to utilize medium DoF for my landscape type shots.

Thanks Kyle!

Put me in the camp that likes the shallow DOF here. I mean, we all know what the view looks like. I think the hard focus on the bench invites the viewer to figuratively have a seat and enjoy the view themselves.....surely one can conjure up a memory of a beautiful like this. The vignette may be a bit strong, but I think it helps to draw us into the warm sunny glow of that bench and it whisks me away from my miserable job...... if only for 10 minutes. I need a vacation.

it's also nearly an optical illusion that this is just a set piece in front of a backdrop which I also think is cool.

Thanks Luke. That's kind of the idea I had with this lens.