Distance is often difficult to capture with a kit lens, especially a kit lens that only goes out to 55mm. Wrapping up my Oregon series, I will talk about what kind of challenges I faced while taking this shot along with what notably minimal efforts I took to negate them.

Three things complicated the capturing of this image: first, the smoke, as Oregon was relatively windy that day, and on fire; the distance change of about 1500 yards between closest tree and the hill’s peak, and the change in foliage, as what was close had a notably different density than what was far. Light, as always, was a factor, but not an issue with this picture, mostly because everything being captured was at the same relative light level.

The smoke was easy to deal with, I lowered my expectations about how clear the image would be, called a bug a feature, and moved on with life.

The change in foliage also became a feature, but only after I moved myself to a brush free outlook by our vacation cabin.

The challenge came from the distance. Here I was, setup in a good spot, with what seemed to be an exciting shot lined up; but how do I get from here to there? How can I portray the detail of evergreens 15 football fields away while still capturing the nature chaos of the bush-like plant life in directly in front of me? My first thought was “pick one!” Ultimately, this is the choice I settled on, but then learned that my f-number can be a helpful companion in times like these. Upon noting what was in focus and what wasn’t, I found that a higher f-number would be the way to go for a shot like this. I was able to capture at least some detail at all distances and ultimately produced an image of which I was proud.

Now, you may have gotten this far and only gotten “set your f-number”, a rather basic concept, and that is completely fine. One must remember, this was my first endeavor into any kind of photography that wasn’t a couple hundred feet in front of me, and my camera had been doing a majority of the work for me. Here I saw myself chuck the camera into full manual and change settings with intention to produce an image I could live with.

I am incredibly grateful to be sharing this with you all and I am eager to learn more as I take more pictures, capture more nature, and write more posts. Talk to you soon, -Ben