Project 1

For this project, I chose to photograph a large palmera (type of palm tree) that we have in the back garden, from a distance of about 10 metres. My lens is 18mm to 55mm with no marking for 50mm so I had to estimate this setting. It is not quite as easy as it seems to check that "the objects seen through one eye (should) appear about the same size as through the other eye" but it seemed to be the case so I took photo 1. Photo 2 was using the wide-angle end of the lens, at the setting of 18mm. The size of the tree through the viewfinder was, indeed, much smaller than with the naked eye. Photo 3, using the telephoto setting of 55mm, did not really appear any different through the viewfinder to the view for photo 1. For none of these photographs was I too bothered about the picture quality as this wasn't the point of the exercise.
Having printed the three photographs onto A4 size paper, I returned to the spot from which I had taken them. Again it was not quite as easy as it would seem to compare the size of an image on a photograph with the real thing but I estimated that I had to hold the 'standard' 50mm print about 50cm from my eye, the wide angle print about 18cm from my eye and the telefoto print about 55cm away. (Is this 10 x relationship correct?). Clearly I didn't have to hold the telefoto print "much further away" as it was very close to the size of the standard print, although a little larger.
Other than confirming that 50mm is the 'standard focal length' for my camera, the exercise suggests to me that I will need a lens with a much longer focal length that 55mm for taking close-ups.