GailsWorld
FollowI found these tiny moss seedlings on a bridge during an early morning walk after a frost, all iced up and beautiful. I spent a good half hour trying all differ...
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I found these tiny moss seedlings on a bridge during an early morning walk after a frost, all iced up and beautiful. I spent a good half hour trying all different ways to photograph them. These are smaller than the width of my little finger nail from top to bottom. I used a 1:1 macro lens. I wanted to capture the detail in this prescious bit of nature. I tried hard to get some bokeh in the background but found it an impossible task due to the position of the seedlings, the bridge and also the lack of sunlight shining through the trees behind. There is always next time though :-)
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Awards
Action Award
Chatter Award
Zenith Award
Creative Winter Award
Legendary Award
2020 Choice Award
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Winner in Winter Drama Photo Challenge
Contest Finalist in Social Exposure Photo Contest Vol 1
Staff Winter Selection 2015
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
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Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
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terrysigns13
December 05, 2015
It looks like jewelry! Thank you for staying on it. This is so lovely! Welcome to viewbug!
anitaselvog
December 19, 2015
It's great perspectives like these that help open peoples eyes to Mother Nature. Such a wonderful capture...Thanks for sharing!
scruffyherbert
December 19, 2015
A beautiful capture and such exquisite detail. A perfect example of why we should all keep our eyes open because natural beauty is all around us.
GailsWorld
December 23, 2015
Thank you very much for all the comments, peer awards and likes. It's very much appreciated XX
Awediot
February 25, 2018
In my top 5 pick in the Nice Ice baby challenge. Best
Frozen Greens" award. Thanks for sharing.
Frozen Greens" award. Thanks for sharing.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This has to be one of my favourite images that I have taken so far. I remember it very well as I tried so hard to achieve a bokeh effect, but nothing in the background would give me that and these seed heads were growing on the top of a railway bridge, which made it even more difficult! I tried every angle and as the sun was in the wrong direction nothing I was able to do gave me what I really wanted with the photo and it was impossible to take from the opposite angle due to the height of the bridge. However I persevered and got a photo I was more than happy with in the end.Time
I remember waking early and looking out of the window and seeing how frozen everywhere was, we'd had fog overnight and then it had frozen quite quickly giving a slight hoar frost. It was a Saturday and as I work every week day I had thought to myself, it's now or never and I am so glad I did. It was an absolutely beautiful morning and well worth the early get up on a very cold winter's morning. A real treat for the eyes and the camera and one of the only frosts we had last winter!Lighting
The lighting here was purely natural, muted sunlight as there was still a bit of fog around.Equipment
I used a Nikon D7100, with a Tamron 90mm 1:1 macro lens f11, Exposure time 1/200 sec, ISO 400, focal length 90mmInspiration
The seed heads were so very tiny, about as tall as the size of the width of my little finger nail. It had been really foggy overnight and then it must have frozen very quickly, as every single thing my eyes settled on during my walk that morning were covered in tiny frozen balls of ice . The walk that I had intended to be just a quick hour before breakfast ended up being about three hours, as my eyes and mind went into overdrive at the sheer beauty nature was presenting. I couldn't quite get my head around how tiny this little plant was and how beautiful it looked all frozen and frosted up when I peered at it through my macro lens. The little balls of ice clinging on were just too perfect to not be captured and kept as a memento of my amazing walk!Editing
I used very little post-processing with this. It is cropped in a little, with some sharpening around the edges and I increased the contrast slighty. I also shoot in RAW all the time now, as I find this really helps during processing.In my camera bag
These days I carry two bodies with me, a Nikon D5200 and a D7100. I try to carry as little as possible, as I am quite small and carrying a lot of equipment just doesn't work well for me. I use two bodies as I like to alternate between a zoom lens and either my macro or a Nikon 18-55mm lens. I found using just one body was pretty inconvenient and often times I ended up with a dirty sensor through changing lenses too often.Feedback
The best advice I can give anyone is that you have to not just look but 'see' what's around you and that's the difference. Look ahead, look up and down and around you all the time. Look at the tiny things, look for natural sparkling lights and twinkles. Early mornings are beautiful and well worth the get up, nature is just so perfect early, before anyone else is around and before the world has really got going. Use a shallow depth of field when taking photos of tiny objects. You need lots of patience and try different angles and different settings to really get what you want.