While I don’t know much about the plants, flowers, trees, and other things that grow here in Oklahoma, I do know that each spring there are a few things that consistently, year after year, make for excellent photo opportunities: Indian Paintbrush flowers, Magnolia seed pods, and Redbud leaves among them. And when you combine any or all of the above with a bit of rain, overcast skies, and midmorning sun hiding just behind the gray haze overhead, it adds up to some positively splendid photo opportunities. The result of which you can see here–no AI image-generation trickery here, folks. Just light, physics, and being in the right place at the right time to capture the Lord’s creative handiwork.
As with some of the other picture I have shared here recently, this was taken at the OSU Botanic Gardens on the west side of town one rainy morning. I had my Nikon D750 and 105mm lens which is already kind of a magical combination in its own right, but when paired with the aforementioned weather conditions, it’s almost difficult to not get some good pictures. The trick with this week’s image was getting a couple things to line up just how I wanted them and, I think, they did.
First, the subject: I was really hoping to get a single yellow leaf isolated against a background of its purple brethren (the former simply being a more mature version of the latter, which will itself turn fully green in a day or two) in order to create a sense of contrast and subject isolation. That is, I was hoping to get the yellow leaf to stand out from the purple leaves. Since I couldn’t really manipulate the objects within the scene, I had to manipulate my point of view instead, and in the end it worked out pretty well. Could I have moved slightly to the left or right in order to get a nice uniform purple background taking up the entire right side of the frame? Perhaps. Though doing so would have made the second thing a lot more difficult.
After finding a general angle from which to compose the shot, I then set out to get much more specific with the depth of field. That is, I wanted the entire leaf to be sharp and in focus, and even shooting at f/8 this proved to be more than a little tricky. If I adjusted my angle ever so slightly, it would put one side of the leaf or the other in focus while its counterpart would be a blur. Remember that depth of field when taking close-up shots like this is a matter of millimeters, not inches, and altering your point of view by a single degree can make a big difference in the outcome of the shot.
Then again, another solution is to just take a boat-load of photos and hope one turns out. Is that what I did here? Well…perhaps. Maybe. I dunno.
Ok, so yes that’s exactly what I did. And you know what? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that approach at all. There were simply too many variables in an uncontrolled shooting situation to create the perfect composition, and one of the best ways to deal with that kind of scenario is to just take lots and lots of pictures. Sports photographers know this and do it all the time; why not nature photographers?
Aside from the sharp subject, I’m also quite pleased with how the other elements come together in this image: the little blip of light purple on the left, the yellow leaves nearly at the edge of the frame on the right, the variations between light and dark in the background, and even the little drop of water at the bottom of the lowest leaf. These all come together to form an image with which I am well pleased, and I hope you like it too.
Lisa says
Splendid!