During our Perth holiday my camera went with us and I took a few snaps – as you may have realised. One day we visited King’s Park and I took some photos of flowers. I love getting in close and taking photos of flowers but have always had trouble focusing on exactly what I want.
In a moment of inspiration I moved the focus setting from auto to manual and it made the world of difference.
I think this Kangaroo Paw shows some of my results perfectly and I’m really pleased with the way it turned out.
I used to use manual focus a bit back when I used a film SLR but I’d gotten so lazy with auto focus that I completely forgotten that my camera does have a manual focus setting. I’ll now be using manual focus a lot more. I can’t believe it took this long for some common sense to sink in.
Of course, sometimes there’s no time to line up the shot so auto focus is perfect, but for still life, manual focus is the go. If you can bear it, there’s some more photos below that I managed to take inbetween rain showers.
Thank you SO MUCH. I now know what I’ve been doing wrong in trying to capture good pictures of the flowers on the terrace at the British Library. Manual focus here we come.
Good luck Hazel and I hope it’s been as successful for you as for me.
Yeah, auto focus takes the fun of superior picture taking. Though I gotta admit, most of the time i do use auto focus. Good luck with taking those great pictures.
Spiffy Baby – I must admit I’ve relied far too heavily on auto focus but will be a lot more aware of it’s downside in the future.
Great pics, Jen. I must start doing the same myself. My photo taking ability leaves a lot to be desired.