Exploring the wonders of creation through a 50mm lens...and other lenses too.

I almost never post shots like this, which is probably what makes this one so much fun :) I remember years ago I took a picture of some tree bark and used it as one of my Weekly Fifty photos, but for the most part the images you see here, which are, by extension, the images I like to shoot, are much more simple and straightforward: subject, background, and maybe one or two other elements for added context. When I came upon this scene one very chilly morning, I initially dismissed it entirely because it just didn’t seem all that interesting. I mean, it’s just some ice on the street with a bit of water flowing beneath. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

But wait. Maybe there was something more. Something I could uncover with a macro lens.

When I looked a bit closer I realized that, despite the rather dull colors, this could still be an interesting composition simply by getting the subject (i.e. all the ice) in focus and the background (i.e. the pavement about one inch beneath the ice) out of focus. I didn’t have time to get a tripod and really compose the perfect shot, and I also didn’t want to spend too long on this instead of playing with my kids, so I just kind of squatted down on the street, aimed my camera straight down, and took a bunch of photos to see what would happen.

This, then, is the result and while I’m not particularly fond of it I do think it helped me learn a few things. For one, it’s just not that colorful and, all things considered, I generally like shots with more visual appeal or at least more than just white and brown. It’s also not as tack-sharp as I would like, which is one of the byproducts of ice at close-up ranges using autofocus. The camera simply doesn’t know what it’s looking at or what to focus on, and when you combine that with all the micro-movements of shooting handheld, well, you get what we have here. It’s fine if you see this on a phone but if you’re on a laptop or desktop and click through to the original on Flickr you’ll probably notice that the edges just aren’t as well-defined as I would prefer. But I do like the general idea here, with essentially two planes and nothing else, and the hole just to the right of center to let you see through to the pavement. It was a fun photo to take and was a great opportunity to stretch my creative muscles just a bit, and maybe next time I’ll be able to build on this and get something even better :)

Ok first things first: I know that this shot has nothing to do with tundra, either the natural biome or the pickup truck. But it does sort of, kind of, describe the image and I like the alliteration, so I’m sticking with it. Also, the scene here really is pretty small, so at least that part of the titular description remains unambiguously apt. This is a leaf on one of my neighbor’s boxwoods after a recent ice storm (is it correct to classify hours of sleet overnight as a storm?) covered in about a quarter-inch of frozen water, that I shot with my D750 and 105mm macro lens. I went around that morning, camera in hand, looking for any photo opportunities that presented themselves while also taking time to play with my kids who were slipping and sliding all over any paved surface. While it was fun to see the familiar scene around me, that of my front yard and indeed our whole neighborhood, with fresh new eyes thanks to the coating of ice, I was also surprised at how much, or rather, how little of it made for interesting photographs.

One nice thing about shooting with a macro lens is that when you’re not sure what to do, just get closer and you’ll often find that the solution, as Henry Jones would say, presents itself. That was certainly the case on this frozen morning, since even relatively boring things like boxwood leaves took on a whole new appearance thanks to the ice. But at the same time, the more I looked around the more I realized that there was this odd monotone color palette that overshadowed everything and made shots, even macro shots, a lot more challenging.

What I found interesting about the composition you see here is that it’s got a couple of things going on besides the ice, and in fact the ice really does help add a new dimension to the image as well as the subject. There’s a single yellow leaf in the foreground, some green leaves in the background, and the subject itself is shot in a profile that shows how thin it is while also giving the viewer a sense of just how much ice is covering everything. I shot this at f/13 so I could get the leaf sharp and in focus while also still having a nice soft foreground and background, and you can see some really cool texture on the edge of the ice if you zoom in on the original image on Flickr. Is this the best shot ever? No, but it was fun and it forced me to think about how to create interesting compositions in challenging circumstances, and I hope I get the opportunity to do more of this the next time we get another ice store. But hopefully that won’t be for a good long while.

While Oklahoma doesn’t have anywhere near the same level of brutal winters as our friends a few states to the north, we do have ice storms from time to time that effectively shut things down all across town. Such was the case recently when we all woke up to sheets of ice covering everything, and subsequently closing the public schools along with Oklahome State University and some other institutions too. That meant my wife and I could spend the day just kind of bumming around with our kids, and seeing what fun could be gleaned from the ice-covered outdoors right out our front door.

The thing about shooting pictures of nature in mid-January, at least where I live, is that there isn’t a whole lot of color. Everything is mostly just shades of dull brown and faded green, which means finding photo opportunities is a bit trickier than normal. Thankfully I was armed with my D750 and 105mm macro lens–the combo that has, in recent months, became my favorite kit for general creative photography. Basically when in doubt, just shoot up close :) It’s worked for me many times before, and it certainly worked here.

What you’re looking at is a single berry on one of our holly bushes outside the house, not only frozen in time in the form of a photograph but also, quite literally, just frozen right there under a coating of fresh ice. I shot this at f/8, partly so I could get a slightly larger depth of field but also so I could get the berry nice and sharp. I also dialed in -1 exposure compensation because I’ve learned that my D750 just can’t meter properly when shooting outdoors on a snowy or icy day. It almost always overexposes, so I just manually underexpose and then adjust in Lightroom if I really need to. I really wanted to get my tripod to help with this shot but ended up doing it handheld, mostly because I just didn’t feel like going to the trouble. I do think it would have been worth it though, and probably serves as a lesson for what to do next time. Not that I’m looking forward to the next ice storm, but hopefully when it arrives I’ll be prepared :)

Lately I have found myself revisiting earlier compositions in an effort to see if I can build on the originals, revisit them in some kind of creative way, or just to see if I have learned anything since taking them. This shot is kind of like that in some ways, though not as far-reaching as some of my other photos like the mockingbird I shared two few weeks ago. Back in October I took a picture of a drop of water sitting at the intersection of three leaves, and while there were a lot of things I liked about it I didn’t appreciate how busy the entire image was. The drop in the center drew your eye right away, but then the rest of the frame was kind of a confusing mess of light and dark greens. Not that it was a bad picture, just that it left some room for improvement. This week’s image, then, demonstrates that improvement.

A couple of things to note right off the bat: Much like the original, this one is designed to draw the viewer’s attention with some water resting on a few leaves. Your eye is drawn to, as per my usual, more or less in the center of the frame and probably to the drops of water more than anything. But with this image the thing I really wanted to do was establish a sense of depth, of three-dimensional space, and making it feel like there were essential elements not just behind the subject but in front as well. Though perhaps the latter is a bit more subtle than is my usual, but maybe that’s a bug and not a feature. Who knows :)

I shot this with my D750 and 105mm f/2.8 macro lens on a cloudy afternoon in the wake of a cold rain shower, and much like the original I was basically just pointing my camera straight down. I shot this at f/8 though I did take a few others at f/4, which left a bit too much blurred out in the background, and had the unintended effect of removing a bit too much context from the shot. What’s really cool, at least in my opinion, is the blur of dull red on the right side of the frame. It’s a leaf in the foreground that I placed there deliberately (well, not literally, but I moved myself until that leave was where I wanted it) in order to give a subtle sense of three-dimensionality to the image. Foreground –> Subject –> Background. I’m pretty happy with it even though it’s not super noticeable. That’s kind of the point, and a bit of a reward, or Easter egg, for anyone who wants to look just a bit closer.

Most of the photos I share here on Weekly Fifty are a bit more natural than this. That is, they are just objects without words and the viewer is allowed to draw his or her own conclusion or infer whatever meaning they prefer. This shot is a bit different, as there’s clearly a message being conveyed—albeit not necessarily by me, since I didn’t put this decoration on the branch. I merely came across the scene while out walking around the OSU campus one cold December afternoon, and used it as an opportunity to practice my photography.

I had my Nikon D750 and 105mm macro lens, which at this point has basically supplanted my Fuji X100F as my favorite camera kit for artistic shots such as this one. (The Fuji remains my camera of choice when photographing the people in my life, so much that it continues to be the only camera I take with on most of our trips to see family.) When I saw this two-piece ichthus-and-message metal ornament, each one about the size of a quarter, dangling from the brown branch I thought it would make for a compelling picture while also giving me a chance to experiment with a few different angles from which to capture the written portion.

At first I shot it head-on, but quickly realized that was, as Vader said to Luke Skywalker in Cloud City, all too easy. It just didn’t feel interesting or dynamic, and even cheapened the message a bit. I spent a few minutes shooting it from a bit higher, a bit lower, and from both the left and right sides while also experimenting with various apertures on my lens. The shot you see here ended up as my favorite, and I like how there’s just a bit of blur to the near and far part of the message. I’m a little unsure about the bright reflective surface of the ichthus or, rather, the circle containing the ichthus, and I did use Lightroom to lower the highlights in an attempt to salvage a bit of color and texture. It didn’t work as well as I had hoped, but it’s not that bad either. In the end I’m fine with how this turned out and, as usual, I’m just treating it as a learning opportunity. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but it’s not too bad either. And to whoever placed this trinket on the branch, thank you. I’m glad you feel blessed, and I hope others do as well :)