Greg Molyneux Photography

New Jersey landscape and nature photography

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Soft Spot

April 14, 2015 by Greg Molyneux

50mm shallow depth of field photograph of rain soaked daffodils

Soft Spot — 50mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1600

With the first turn in the weather, the calendar mandates it’s time I get back to my photographic roots. After a toddling period of crash course trial and error in the early days of 2012, flower photography quickly established itself as my go-to comfort spot behind the camera. It’s where I first felt some semblance of control in the process of making satisfactory photographs. Everything else—most certainly landscapes included—felt far too unwieldily and daunting at the time.

But with a diverse array of flowers in abundant supply in just about every corner of my property, I had plenty of eager subjects waiting to help me learn and grow. Here I more often than not unwittingly stretched my creative muscles through soft focus and shallow depth of field with my petaled muse. I remember being quickly drawn to the way bokeh and soft focus when juxtaposed with areas of clarity can move the eye throughout a photograph, bringing layers and depth to an image. This exact relationship is what was entirely lost on me as a high schooler struggling with painting—for whatever reason I was too engrained with this hyper-realistic bias where everything had to be clearly defined and in focus. Never understanding that all that clarity, when deployed incorrectly creates competition and noise throughout a composition.

So while the sunsets and landscapes are sure to continue, a steady dose of flowery soft focus and shallow depth of field is on the way. For now we’ll start with this daffodil—the first of my flowers to bloom.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: 50mm bokeh daffodil flowers low key soft focus

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Photos from the archives

Wide angle landscape photograph of a Full Moon over marsh at blue hour
35mm out of focus photograph of a bunch of purple coneflowers backlight by a striking sunset and smooth bokeh. The echinacea blossoms are set glowing in powerful pastel pink and purple tones.
A wide angle HDR photograph taken during golden hour overlooking a tidal pool and glowing green salt marsh.
Wispy cirrus clouds shaded in pink pastels mark the sky over Barnegat Bay in this wide angle HDR photograph taken just after sunset in Surf City, New Jersey.
35mm wide open square format photo of a blooming lilac in high key light surrounded by bokeh.

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