Selective Isolation

Yesterday afternoon I had to run to the big city of Ukiah for an errand. That's one of the disadvantages of living in a smaller town. Sometimes there are just some things you can't get here unless you want to go online and wait for them. I threw my camera in the car just in case I spotted something that I wanted to photograph. On the return trip I spotted a small field of California Poppies that were easily accessible from the frontage road and just begging to be photographed! I knew exactly what I wanted to do as I had brought my camera with a 400mm telephoto lens mounted on it. I walked around the edge of the poppies looking for the tallest ones that stood far and above the rest of them. That way I could selectively isolate them from the ones around them and allow the ones further back to blur out into orange blobs of color. If you photograph with the lens wide open and from fairly close up that is the effect that you will get. It can be quite dramatic and beautiful. Here are a few samples. I included one group just because i love the composition. May you have a blessed weekend, chris All images created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens. AV mode, ISO 200, F 5.6, shutter speeds varied.