Depth of Field

All right, class, it's time for a little lesson on depth of field.  I have a new lens to play with, the official title of which is "smc Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL."  Most of that doesn't mean much to me.  The key piece of information is the F2.4, which means that I now have a wider aperture setting for low light conditions.  More light!   I'm still experimenting with it and have discovered that lower aperture setting requires more care with focusing, since the depth of field (the field in which the camera will focus) becomes smaller with a wider aperture.  (I can almost believe that I'm starting to understand this stuff!)  Here are a couple examples:

In each case the first photo was more focused on the body of the snowman, rather than the face.  There are times for unfocused faces, but this was not one of them.

In life, as in photography, we sometimes need to vary our depth of field, our focus, as it were.  Sometimes we need to see the big picture: F/22, where the depth of field is basically infinity (kind of an interesting concept when you think about it).  But if we spend all our time only looking at the big picture, we miss the individual, or the "particulars," as Francis Schaeffer was fond of saying.  The trick with both the camera and with life, is to have the wisdom to know the best depth of field for each situation.   Jesus saw the whole crowd of 5,000 and fed them.  Jesus also saw the one leper in need of healing and compassion, the one whose face was blurry and unfocused to the rest of the world.   He saw, He focused, He touched, He healed.   If you really want a good lesson on depth of field, go read your Bible and spend some time with the Master Photographer.