Brown Blog Films

Through working in Brown Bag I have become a big fan of shallow depth of field in my photography. I recently purchased a Canon DSLR and discovered (not surprisingly considering the price) that the kit’s supplied lens is very limited. Don’t get me wrong, it has a decent range and works for most conditions if not pushed too far. But I realized that if I wanted to achieve more in my photography I would have to buy a new lens.

After some research I bought the Canon 50mm f1.8., mainly because it was cheap and also it has a very shallow depth of field. This lens is a great portrait lens for that reason and is really fun to use. The following are some pictures I took of some of my work colleagues.

Brown Bag-style Portrait Photography

This picture is a perfect example of the lens at its smallest aperture. OK I didn’t take this (I’m in it) but its a great picture and really captures a moment. Mr Stacey, our technical director, took it.

Barry Lawless

I was in the studio last night taking some macro shots and barged into Dominic’s sound room. In return for letting me take some close ups of his mixing desk Dom asked me if I could take a few promo pictures of him. Since working on Granny O’Grimm his former college is doing a piece on him for their paper. I used the lights in the room as best I could and the screen makes for a perfect rim or side light, which really gives some nice highlights. If you look closely you can see that Dom’s fleece collar is not even in focus. This shows just how shallow the depth of field is at f1.8

Dominic Lawrence

This one I took of Steven O Connor, a texture artist who sits beside me at work. He was initially skeptical of my new lens until I took this picture. I think it works really well. There’s nice depth in it and also the natural light is giving form and colour to Mr O Connor. The expression is classic!

Stephen O'Connor

Brown Bag Up Close

I’m doing a course in Creative Photography and I had an assignment to produce 3 macro shots. Since I missed the field trip to the Botanical Gardens I decided to take some more pictures in Brown Bag. For this I borrowed a Canon macro extension tube which just clips on between the current lens and the body. The depth of field was so shallow that it was almost impossible to find the focus points.

Here are the shots I submitted. They are a bit sci-fi I must admit, but it’s interesting to see the place you work from a different point of view, which the macro photography forces you to do.

A section of Dominic's sound mixing desk

One of the many toys on Derek's desk

Another section of Dominic's desk