a ram big horn in yellowstone national park provides a great profile photo

Photo Challenge – Depth of Field

If you’re a veteran reader of Natural Photographer, you probably know that I’m a big fan of using depth of field to your advantage when it comes to nature and wildlife photography.  While wide depth of fields certainly have their place with sprawling landscapes, I find scenes that lend themselves to shallow depths of field offer something truly special to the photographer.  It’s these slices of focus that can transform the ordinary into the truly exceptional.  This goes for wildlife, definitely, but also for landscapes, travel, and well…pretty much anything that you can photograph.

For this photo challenge I’m seeking stunning uses of shallow depths of field and how you can make your scene pop.  For this challenge, our theme is Shallow Depth of Field.  What we’re looking for is that special combination of blur and focus when shooting at small aperture numbers.  I’m going to resist even giving examples on this one, as there are many, many possibilities and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

As background…

Each month we will give you a theme or a technique to work on as a guideline.  Perhaps the theme is “Challenge: backyard photography” or maybe “Challenge: using fast shutter speeds”.  Then, it’s up to you to get out there and show us what you’ve got!

Each time we announce our monthly challenge, you’ll have about two weeks to submit your star photo example of the Challenge’s theme.  Once a winner is selected, they will get a featured post on The Natural Photographer, along with commentary as to why this photo was selected.  Our hope is that this will be a great learning process, using your great photos as examples of how to master various techniques.

We’ll accept entries until the end of the day Monday, December 17th at midnight, at which time we’ll begin reviewing to select the winner!

Please follow the instructions below to submit your photo: