The Fool’s Circle Photo Blog

Intrepid Explorer, originally uploaded by foolscircle.

Photo Details:
Camera: Nikon D100

F-Stop: f/9
Focal Length: 157 mm
Exposure Bias: 0 Shutter
Speed: 1/320
ISO: 200

Recently, I found myself wandering through my folks’ backyard, largely because I wanted to test out my new macro lens, but also because I sometimes like to look at my surroundings in a different way than I’ve gotten accustomed to. The property surrounding our house is, for lack of a better term, utterly serene (well… normally it is, but at the moment there’s a huge hole in the ground where an addition to our house is being built) and offers a lot of opportunity for quiet reflection. Yeah, I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true.

Macro lenses, while fantastic because they give photographers an opportunity to get closer to a subject than we normally would with a wideangle lens, take a little getting used to. My lens has a pretty limited focal area but lets me get really close to stuff; I’ve never actually been able to see individual grains of pollen. One of the big problems I’ve noticed with other people’s nature photography is that they don’t understand just how harsh the sun’s lighting can be and how that harsh light can really muck up a shot.

For this little field trip, I waited until around 4 P.M. because the sun isn’t directly overhead. As a result, the sun’s rays get refracted and create lighting situations that result in softer and more interesting shadows. This isn’t to say that you can’t overcome direct lighting if you have a speedlight or manage to use your camera’s flash creatively, but I personally love to shoot nature photos without any extra lighting because it forces me to creatively work with what I have available.