Midday contrast

I photographed this old wooden boat that was partially buried in sand on a beach in the Dominican Republic. Usually, I avoid midday sunlight on landscapes and seascapes because of the harsh contrast. What drew me to this composition, though, was the pronounced and bold shadows created by the contrast that I typically avoid. In addition, the direct, late morning overhead sun increased the saturation of the ocean as well as the sky. I used a 16mm focal length for this shot, and the settings were 1/320, f/22, and 200 ISO. Determining where in the frame to focus for maximum depth of field is a function of the hyperfocal distance. An easy way to calculate this is to take the focal length of the lens in millimeters and divide it by 3. The answer is the number of feet away from the camera where you focus. So, 16 divided by 3 is about 5 feet. Focusing to 5 feet, along with the small lens aperture, gives you maximum DOF. This calculation only works with wide angle lenses.