Thanks for sharing.
You like large DOF pics is what I gather. That is a fine way to shoot for a lot of things. Smaller DOF with wider open apertures is good for isolating the subject from the background. Sometimes you want to isolate, sometimes not.
I'm betting you have some real cool shots from out at sea. Te one you posted is quite cool.. My dad served on tin cans from '47 -84 so we have many slides from on deck and below.
He's forgetting the names of some of the guys now that he is 78, so I'm hoping he will scan and add the names as he can. He's heavily into digital photography and had a reasonable film scanner. He just needs to make the time to do it. Instead he's out country dancing
and still very active in the Masons. He has maybe ten thousand Masonic/Commandary pics too
Here are a couple shots of my little star. Li'l katy.
The first is shot with a consumer digicam. Digicams are great for keeping a lot of the image in focus and they are difficult to actually blur the background with. I tried with minimal success to isolate Katy. That' Electric Boat in the background, producer of most of our Submarine fleet.
Then a bit later I switched back to an SLR (DLSR ) and a long lens with a wide open aperture, and wham, instant isolation:
I went for a more inclusive shot at the beach last Sunday. = more of the frame in focus:
Shot at F10 on a full frame digital SLR.
Here's the same camera, same F10 setting, up close. Note now the background is blurred at F10
It all has to do with where you have the central area of focus in relation to infinity. Confusing, no?
Oh yeah, we went crabbing collected them and let them go.
F stop oriented Depth of field varies with the type of camera you shoot. The smaller the sensor size, generally the more you get in focus at a particular F stop.
I shoot a lot at F 1.4 and with my Canon 10D I got more in focus than I do with my Canon 5D, which is a full frame 35mm sensor. The 10D has a 1.6 cropped sensor, like almost all DSLRs have.
You gain a lot more control with a DSLR, but the convenience factor goes away. Sometimes just having a small pocket cam gets you the shot simply because you have a camera with you. Gear with a lot of control and changeable lenses tend to be bulky and expensive as well.