The Scene Today: Fall Back

My Street and Photography class had an assignment of shooting a still photo utilizing variable focal lengths of a zoom lens at a slow shutter speed. When I got home it had stopped raining and I noticed all these red, orange, and yellow maple leaves lining the walk. I picked up a handful to shoot.


While arranging the photos, Sprite stepped into the shot. I decided to practice zooming with Sprite. (I'm going to be trying some creative zoom shots at the Jake Morgan Band's performance at the Rockit Room in SF this Saturday.)

The photo above is my favorite shot from a 45 minute session. It was taken late evening indoors with my camera on a tripod. The sole source of light was 1-60W floor lamp to the left and above 3 feet. I selected ISO 800 as I wanted to freeze Sprite (she's an indoor cat and was very excited about the smells on the leaves) and create a radial blur. I manually focused on Sprite's eye using my EF24-70mm f2.8L USM lens, starting at 35mm and slowly zooming out to 70mm. Manual exposure, partial metering mode f9, 2, with tungsten white balance.

Credits: All images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for The Road to the Good Life.