Bokeh Moment...

Haven't posted in quite a while, but I had a moment with my daughter yesterday and couldn't resist.

I just returned from a 2-week work trip on Friday and somehow she suckered me into taking her shopping at the mall immediately after landing LOL.

Anyway, she was so excited about one of her new tops that she asked if we could go grab a few pics at a local Steak & Shake. As most fathers know, you have to grab onto these moments when they happen because they are often fleeting

We get there and I take a few test shots just like this one, but with my 35L f1.4 II shot wide open. Her response? "I don't like how blurry the background is... You can't tell what's back there."

I promptly stopped down to f4 and proceeded to mumble under my breath about how that was the whole beauty of paying the money for a 35 f1.4... because you wanted to shoot it wide-open

Anyway, as we continue to see post after post about how we must have super-fast lenses in the 1.4 and 1.2 range, it's nice to get humbled by your "customer" every now and then to realize that sometimes they don't want to be just an in-focus eye or two set on a sea of beautiful buttery smoothness

When you want to capture a moment, the background matters and thus the aperture will be shut down a bit. If you doing a portrait just to concentrate on the person, the background may matter less, and you can go more wide open.

When I'm working with models, I'm creating photos and works of art. When I'm working with my daughter or wife, it's about memories. Your daughter is a cute kid. Nice photo! And it's nice she wanted to be with you.

I prefer more DoF all around. However, it's not always the best for the shot. I try to shoot 4.0 and above for most things, until I'm inside shooting a darkened room event, then I value the 2.8.