Photo of hay bale 'kicking-up'

Camera: Canon 5D, Lens: Canon 24-85, Focal Length: 24mm, ISO: 100, Shooting Mode: Aperture priority, Aperture: f5.6, Shutter-speed: 1/320 of a second, Picture Style: Standard. Other: Focus-mode AI Servo.

My uncle Roger has a farm in upper-state New York and we made a trip to visit his farm last summer. As soon as I saw the hay 'bailer' setup, I knew I wanted to get this shot. Roger wasn't a big fan of this idea of me being in the back of his hay wagon with my 'expensive' camera as he launched hay bales into the wagon, but I managed to talk him into helping me. I took about 40 frames and this is the best shot of the bunch. Here are the settings why I used each:

• Canon 24-85 lens: There were a couple different shots I wanted, the shot above, but I also wanted a 'close-up' of the bale in mid-air (see below), so I pulled my rarely used Canon 24-85 out of my bag. I thought the 24-85 would be a single lens solution to get both the 'wide-angle' and close-up shot.


• 24mm focal Length: This gave me the wide-angle perspective to see the bale of hay, the stacked hay, the sky and the sides of the hay wagon.


• Shooting mode of Aperture Priority: I wanted to specify the aperture and have the camera pick the shutter-speed.


• Aperture of f5.6: I wanted a little depth of field so if auto-focus wasn't 'perfect' the hay bale would still be in focus. In addition, my 24-85 is 'soft' wide-open so I wanted to avoid the widest aperture of this lens (f3.5). If I stopped down the aperture any more, I would have to concede shutter-speed, which would make the hay-bale blurring do to motion blur.


• Shutter-speed of 1/320 of a second: this was automatically selected by the camera.
  


• ISO 100: It was a bright, sunny day with plently of light, so I started with ISO 100 and how no need to go to a higher ISO.
  


• Picture Style of Standard: Standard provides a nice 'punchy' photo.
  


• Focus mode of AI Servo: I used this to track the bale of hay approaching me.

Here's another one of the better shots with different framing:

Camera: Canon 5D, Lens: Canon 24-85, Focal Length: 52 mm, ISO: 100, Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority, Aperture: f5.6, Shutter-speed: 1/250 of a second, Picture Style: Standard. Other: Focus-mode AI Servo.