Condemned Roses

I'm relatively new to the world of DSLRs so still enjoy fairly-regular, easily-achieved, epiphanies about the how's and why's of photography. This image represents one such epiphany.  Since opening the camera box in November my mind has been focused on trying to achieve the shallowest depth of field possible to isolate my subject and blur unnecessary detail. That requires a wide-open aperture so most of my photographs have been taken with wide-open aperture. Of course, there are plenty of situations where that is inappropriate and I can think of several of my postings that would have benefited if I had been thinking differently.

The picture above is an extreme example of attempting to do the opposite by manipulating the camera settings to maximize depth of field. The photograph is of a condemned house taken through a wet passenger side window. I was drawn to the image because I thought the plywood painted with roses and doves was a clever way to beautify urban blight. I couldn't think of an exciting way to frame the image though so I wanted the water on the windshield visible to add textural interest. To achieve focus on both the far away building and the close-up window I set the focus in between the two and stopped the aperture all the way down.  Looking at this photo again, I wish I hadn't taken it quite to that extreme but the idea is now something in my toolbox.