Excited To Shoot Macro

My personal project since moving to Iowa has been photographing my nephew building his house.  It has been fun to watch him work hard and see his dream come to fruition.  However, the other day when I went to the sight to shoot sunrise images, something else caught my attention.  There was a heavy frost on the ground and just as the sun rose the light glistening on the frost had my full attention.  Debating on whether to switch to my macro lens and shoot for myself or to continue with my original plan, my instinct said shoot macro.  For the first time since moving to Iowa I was excited to shoot macro!

20151204-_TJB2682

queen annes lace-frost-2720
Queen Anne’s Lace covered in frost

 

There were so many seed heads of wildflowers and even weeds that were stunning with the hard frost.  I was like a kid in a candy store unable to decide what to shoot first.  The Queen Anne’s Lace is a beautiful wildflower and the seed heads covered in hard frost looked as if they were dressed in diamonds.

 

 

wildflowers-frost-2756
Wildflower or weed covered in frost

Knowing the frost would quickly melt with the warmth of the sun’s rays, even though it was still quite chilly, I tried to make several images.  As I was feverishly working I realized that my glasses were no longer hanging from my coat.  When shooting macro I remove my glasses and have a habit of sticking the arm in the neck of my shirt, however, I had put them in my coat.  Oops!  I started walking around trying to find them and had no idea where they had fallen off.  I called my husband and asked him to come out to the sight to help me.  Now I was debating as to whether I should continue looking for my glasses or keep shooting.  The frost was melting so fast and my instinct said keep shooting there may not be heavy frost the next day or in the near future as it has been unseasonably mild for December.  I traced my steps and went back to where I thought my first images were made.  Walking around carefully so as not to step on my glasses and break them, I continued to look.  I found them!  Then I called my husband, but he was already on his way, so he came out anyway to see the progress on the house.  I continued to shoot and glad to have made that decision as the next morning the frost was light and not as pretty.

Below is a gallery of images and you can click on any of the images to see a larger version.  If you have been following me for a while, you know my images are mostly macro.  So finally after living in Iowa for a few months, I was excited to shoot macro!

 

Texture – Before & After

The before and after of an image in my post Local Walking Path from a couple of weeks ago.  This very small tree with red leaves caught my attention that day.  Sometimes I like to play in the digital darkroom and add layers of texture and photo filters.  Below is the before and after, let me know your thoughts!

The before image of the small tree with red leaves.
The before image of the small tree with red leaves.
The after image with multiple layers of texture added during post processing.
The after image with multiple layers of texture added during post processing.