On the Road from Rochester to Navarre

Well today, I thought I would figure out how to use the aperture setting on my camera.  All I have to say is - I failed.  I will admit, I didn't spend a lot of time at it, but I just couldn't get the effect I was going for.   I don't think I entirely understand it.  I read about it (3-4 pages) in a book, but just don't really understand it.  I can use the standard setting on my camera and get a blurred background by changing where I focus, but adjusting the aperture manually to achieve a desired affect, yeah didn't master that.  The first picture I have here is the only picture that even came close to achieving what I thought I was trying to achieve, where as the rest are pictures I have taken in the past using various other methods, but all effectively have some level of using the element of focus to effect to overall picture.

This picture was taken whilst walking from Rochester Square to Navarre Square.  I had intended to walk on to Bethlehem sipping on my Raspberry Chai, but after a few stops at small shops, I came out to find rain drops falling and besides that my mind was swimming with a to do list for tomorrow's fundraiser meal and a need to pick up rolls yet and go home and fry 24 lbs of hamburger, so I set my feet towards Rochester and off I went on my return trip.   If you wonder, how it is that I would even think to walk from Rochester to Navarre to Bethlehem, you must know they are towns of yesteryear, and have long ago been all combined into one village that kept the name Navarre.  And the Navarre of today is not really that big of a town, a village rather, and the walk is really not that far.

 This was taken riding home from work one day, stopped to snap a few shots and was messing around with getting a blurred background.  Kind of a fun picture.  Makes me want to go for a ride tomorrow, maybe after I clean up from lunch.

I like this picture I took while walking the streets of Yellow Springs this summer.  I think the orientation of the pictures draws your eyes down the street to where they stand talking, but with the focus less clear  on the people you feel the distance and inability to be privy to the conversation (which I am sure was a very private conversation ...or not, since it is my brother and sister, I think they were discussing a book, but who knows, I was busy snapping pictures.)

These next two show the difference of focusing on the foreground or the background and how it gives each picture a different look.

The next two were taken in my kitchen, both focus on some element of food in the foreground, while a less clear background indicates what the final product will be once the food has been prepared.

My favorite tomato basil pizza, fresh from the garden.

Apple pie... an american favorite.

This flower almost has a translucent look to it.  It stands out vividly from the unfocused backdrop.

And here to finish it up, is a reverse of a picture from yesterday.  Focusing on the background rather than the foreground.

Well there is another day.  What was my focus on this fine day?  Was I focused on the foreground or the background, on one single element or on the business of everything around, loosing focus of what mattered?  Hadn't really thought about this much, until I was writing here.  If you look back at the first picture with a different perspective.  Thinking about - do we focus on the here and now, or are we focused on the past or are we focused on the future?  Are we focused on that foreground like the picture, the here the now, or are we focused through that gate, whether it be the past or the future, trying to see it more clearly, while missing what is there, the here, the now.

Thinking further, on other pictures here, I look at the double pictures - the one where the flower is clear or the background is clear.  You can think about it different ways - but the overall question is - are we focused on what is important?  Strikingly clear to me is, how did you focus on God today, am I the first picture or the second.  If the flower represents God, the question is not whether or not God is there - He is there in both pictures, same spot, both in the foreground, both prominent, but one is focused on Him, while the other has become distracted and focused on everything else.

One more comparison here, on the thought of focus, the final picture, the one that reflects yesterday's picture, but focuses somewhere else.  Do we focus on the obstacle or are we able to see beyond the obstacle?

Well enough musings for today, until tomorrow, keep God in focus.