In one of my previous posts I mentioned the “focal length reciprocal rule” and it occurred to me that not all of my readers may know what that is. Rather than find someone else’s article about it (of which I’m sure there are many) and link to it, I thought I’d just write my own.

The goal of the rule (which is more of a guideline than a rule, actually) is to give you an idea of whether a photograph will come out blurry if you’re holding the camera in your hand. It is a somewhat simple formula to determine how various camera settings combine to compensate for camera shake. I use the rule constantly while I’m out shooting because I don’t like to bring a tripod to most places and there’s no use bringing home a whole CF card filled with blurry photographs.

Not only will I explain what this reciprocal rule is, but I’ll give you real examples of how to use it in the field.

The Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration (or MAIFE, as they abbreviate it) is located smack in the center of Mystic, Connecticut, and the area they call Old Mystick Village (that’s not a typo…). The whole Mystic area is one of the hottest tourist spots in Connecticut (it wouldn’t be a reach to say it’s the only tourist spot in Connecticut), and the Mystic Aquarium and nearby Mystic Seaport are popular summer destinations for Connecticut families and visitors from out of state alike.

Digital photography makes it possible for artists to create effects and apply treatments to their work that were once impossible in traditional photography. Is this an advantage that should be compensated for in competition and critique? Do digital photographers and traditional photographers have equal footing? Would the pioneering photographers who led the surge into traditional photography embrace today’s digital technology?

My opinion is that digital photography is, and should be treated as, entirely comparable and identical to traditional photography. Although the differences in process and technique bear investigation for the ambitious viewer and may play a role in serious competition and critique as parameters for comparison, they have no more bearing on the effect of the work as would the brand of pencils used by an illustrator.

I walked along a few random trails at Mohegan Park up in Norwich today, snapping anything I thought looked promising. This is a fairly good example of how bright, mid-day light can still be completely usable (if not indispensable) when shooting under the forest canopy.

For this one, I made sure the sky wasn’t visible and compensated -2/3 EV; perfect tonal range.

This one’s one of my favorites. During the conversion to black and white I darkened the yellows and lightened the greens to emphasize the contrast on the ferns’ leaves in the foreground.

I admit it. I’ve been holding out on you. Let me just say, with all of my heart, I am sorry.

I went shooting for a while after work today and it got me to thinking about this whole collection of downtown New London photos that I’ve never posted anywhere. So, I spent a bit of time in Lightroom getting them sorted out, and now, without further ado, here they are. Okay, well, four of them anyway.