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I am usually thinking about different ways to simplify my life.  With respect to cameras it usually means I think about which single prime lens to use with the smallest, lightest camera & lens combination that is sufficient for what I photograph.

While walking about, I usually photograph in “P” mode with my minimum preferred shutter speed being 1/125 sec and with my ISO floating between the minimum and 12800, and letting the aperture float the range of the lens; but, there are other ways I set the camera parameters, like setting the aperture to the largest opening to minimize the depth of field.

One other way of setting the camera up, that I never tried until this experiment, was to fix the aperture and fix the ISO.  In the images above I fixed the aperture to 5.6 and the ISO to 12800 and then let only the shutter speed float.  Another thing I did was to use my 18-135mm zoom lens rather than a prime lens.  I also used my preset which fixed the white balance along with other settings for my “Mortality of Nature” preset applied, with LR, to the cameras color jpeg images.  I expected to have more noise in the image but I didn’t know how it would look.  I didn’t apply additional noise reduction with LR.

Photographing this way gives me the luxury of using one lens with a zoom capability and image stabilization, but with a larger and heavier lens than a single prime lens.  But, it really isn’t any more simplified operationally than letting the aperture and shutter and ISO float in “P” mode with the camera choosing the values used.  What I gain with the fixed ISO and aperture is more uniformity with DoF and noise which is grain-like.

I still need to try this approach on a bright sunny day and give the settings some more thought with respect to what I gain and lose.  There are so many variables with photography which makes it hard to balance simplicity with sufficiency and style.