Greg Molyneux Photography

New Jersey landscape and nature photography

  • About
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Shop

Still Here

March 19, 2016 by Greg Molyneux

Shallow depth of field photograph of a single tall sprig of grass

Still Here — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/640

As I was preparing to onboard a fast 35mm to my lens array there were three primary uses driving my motivation:

  1. Tighter option for landscape shooting situations where the 14mm is too wide
  2. Sufficient prime lens solution to spend an entire day shooting with a single lens—think of it as a walkabout lens for Disney World
  3. Tack sharp rendering even wide open at f/1.4—allowing all sorts of shallow depth of field, selective focus, and bokehlicious opportunities

Yesterday’s shot above speaks to the latter, and if I get down to it, is the primary reason I long coveted this lens. As much as landscapes are my wheelhouse, this kind of dreamy, shallow depth of field shooting engages me the most. It’s back to the basics photography—walking around, camera in hand, single shot work up close and personal with the subject. Frankly shooting landscapes becomes a bit clinical at times; rote behavior stuck behind a tripod, never worrying about focus—thanks, hyperfocal!—and capturing brackets. But it’s not all a crying shame, being detached a bit from the process allows you to sit back and take in the great sunset you’re there to shoot.

Bringing it back around there’s just no substitute for pared-down handheld shooting. Walking about Stafford Forge yesterday I met with a surprised greeting the nascent remnants of a seasonal control burn. It must have taken place about 10ish days ago as green grasses were already breaking through, coloring up the landscape. Every year this happens, taking down human height grasses and brushes that will steadily accumulate over the spring, summer, and fall growing seasons. For yesterday it made for a chance meeting with this bit of grass here—anyone able to ID that thing? Like most plant life in the Pinelands heat from forest fire allows protective casings to open and seeds to drop. Think of pine cones. This makes the control burning a necessary and important task for healthy maintenance of a productive pine forest ecosystem.

Interested in buying? Purchase

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: 35mm bokeh cross processing soft focus stafford forge wildlife management area

« Spring Too Soon
Putting in Work »

Trackbacks

  1. Putting in Work – Greg Molyneux Photography says:
    March 20, 2016 at 5:38 pm

    […] is obvious, but the fact I took this photograph within moments of yesterday’s dreamy grass shot speaks to the versatility in this lens. To go from shallow depth of field work—getting close […]

Looking for something?

Search by Keyword

14mm 35mm 40mm 100mm barnegat bay black-eyed susan black and white blue hour bokeh cedar run dock road cross processing echinacea flora frozen golden hour great bay boulevard greg molyneux hdr high key insects jetty landscape long beach island long exposure low key lyrically inspired macro marina night photography pinelands power lines purple coneflower reflection salt marsh selected works ship bottom snow soft focus square format stafford forge wildlife management area sunset sunset park sunset point surf city weather

You can find me here

FacebookInstagramTwitter Flickr E-mail

Copyright © Greg Molyneux 2014–2021

Photos from the archives

14mm wide angle sunset photo with pastel clouds reflecting in an oxbow lake in the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh.
Pink peony macro photo of petals and stamen.
14mm wide angle landscape photo made low key at blue hour. Soft pastels color up the sky above an oxbow lake feature of the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh.
An HDR photograph of a Great Bay Boulevard sunset by Manahawkin, NJ, photographer Greg Molyneux. In this photograph the sun sets next to an abandoned boat dock.
Fiery sunset photograph of explosive cloud color over Barnegat Bay.

Copyright © 2021 · Modern Portfolio Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in