Photo Tips

The Unexpected Image!

Me Ra Koh

Yeah! The blog is back up and working again. Thanks for shooting us emails or pinging us on Facebook and letting us know things weren’t working right!

This weekend I had a wonderful reminder in how much joy the unexpected image can bring.

It started with flying to a place I’ve never been, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Anne, one of our beautiful brides, wanted to do her engagement photo shoot at her old horse farm. I totally understand why. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL, pastoral romance oozing everywhere, especially with the fall foliage.

The weather was crazy cold, but the rain never came (yeah!). And when the shoot and dinner were all said and done, Anne and Preston collapsed with their dog, Tennyson, on the couch at 11pm.

This unexpected image has to be one of my favorites from the whole day.

Photo Shoot in Virginia w/Me Ra Koh Photography, Inc

For all my Photo Recipe lovers, I shot this with my 85mm lens. The ISO was 800. My aperture was all the way down to a 1.7. And because of the fantastic image stabilizer built inside the Sony camera bodies, I was able to be at 1/50th of a second for my Shutter Speed and still have a great, sharp image. Why is Tennyson in such great focus with an aperture as low as 1.7? I know many of you have the 50mm lens for the low aperture, but you feel like the lens will focus on the eyebrow and blur the rest of the face out. Tennyson’s whole face is sharp because I backed up which gave me a wider space for sharpness. If I scooted closer to Tennyson, the low fstop would have focused only on his nose or the eye closest to me. But because I was sitting 5-6 ft. away, I could make his whole face sharp. Does that make sense? If not, ask away in the comments.

Anne, thanks for inviting me to stay at your adorable home! I’m so glad I did because this shot would have never happened. I got to the airport just fine the next morning with time to take the kids pumpkin shopping when I got home. And Preston, your history on Thomas Jefferson and the Dave Matthews Band was awesome!

To our blog readers, Great ideas on the new Photo Contest theme. We’ll let you know the final word soon! If you have an idea that you haven’t shared for the new Photo Contest theme, post it in Friday’s comments!

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  1. abbey says:

    this image is AWESOME!!!

  2. Anne says:

    Aw so fun! Thanks again Me Ra for flying out to see us, spending 4 hours shooting pictures, and then sharing our 7 year anniversary dinner with us. 🙂 Can’t wait to see the rest of the pics. xoxo Anne

  3. Jennifer says:

    My thought, exactly, Abbey! The story behind it is good, but the image speaks for itself. Beautiful.

  4. jamie says:

    thanks for sharing and explaining why tennyson is in focus. it makes sense that there is more grace when you stand some distance back from the subject. the image is so peaceful. . .can not wait to see the rest.

  5. danette says:

    thank you! thank you! thank you! boy did i just have an ah! moment! I have been struggling with images that seem to blur too much-could not figure out what was wrong. knew i had paid all this money for a low f-stop and then could not get the image to work half the time. thought maybe even my eyes needed to be checked. thanks and the image is exquisite!

  6. Aileen says:

    love this photo. tremendous.

    thank you too for the mini-tutorial. answers many questions. so helpful. 🙂

    and you have pushed me a bit closer to the 85mm lens. my husband doesn’t thank you. 🙂

  7. Wendy says:

    MeRa, I love this shot. Love it!

  8. michelle s. says:

    So warm & dreamy!!

  9. jeramy says:

    great shot….looks so comfortable….calm….content. love it! thanks for the recipe.

  10. Jessica says:

    I love everything about this image.

  11. kelly says:

    Love the picture MeRa – My question is this: Did you do any cropping on this picture? Based on how tight you seem to be on the dog, it seems like you are really close in on him. I would think if you were 5-6 feet away you’d have a lot more background scenery in the image. Thanks for the recipe!

  12. I LOVE it too! I do have a few questions. Was this the 85mm 1.2? Also, you say you were 5-6 ft away so you had most of the pup in focus, does that mean you cropped in PP? Also trying to wrap my brain around how in-focus the couple still is at 1.7. Thanks for opening it up to questions and sharing your how-to! Miss you guys!!

  13. Alejandra says:

    Beautiful and peaceful image.

    I have the same Q as Carrie. Why is the couple in this much focus with a 1.7. It must have to do with your distance to both the dog and couple.

  14. Kristen says:

    This image moved me. Thank you. I feel like I could stare at it for hours and just drink it in.

  15. […] laptop battery, I’m working a blog for tomorrow that answers ALL your questions regarding the Unexpected Image from yesterday and how I captured it. Great questions. I think we need to talk about Depth of […]

  16. […] week a number of you posted some great questions regarding the Unexpected Image. The biggest theme I noticed in the main questions from Kelly, Carrie and Alejandra was […]

  17. denise karis says:

    !!! every blog i learn something new!!!!! I love that 85mm tip about being able to back up, still get a close shot, still get blur and still get a face in focus – thank you!!! that makes so much sense… this photo could totally win the new comfort contest too 😛