The canopy of a tree in the reserve

I read in lots of different magazines, that a 50 mm prime lens is simply a must have. So I took my pocket money to my local shop, and for about 89 of your earth pounds, bought myself one.

The next day I went into the reserve just to get a feel for it. The only other prime I have is a 60 mm macro lens, which I don’t actually use very often at the moment. I have a project in mind, but that is for another day. The 50 mm’s fastest aperture is f1.8, much faster than any of my other lenses, and I love the effect it has had in the tree canopy image. I kept things simple and composed with a simple rule of thirds, using the trunk to direct the eye to the only part of the image which is in focus, which I also placed on the top left “third”, because that is the direction the trunk is pointing. For such a simple picture I think it has worked really well, and it really does show the effect of the rule of thirds – if the focal point was central, this would be quite a dull image, but that little movement off centre brings the whole thing to life, and gives it a little dynamism. That’s what my book about composition says, any way…