dfgumby

Leaf in Ice 2

Leaf in Ice 2
Read less

Canon EOS 600D

settings

Aperture f/5.6 ISO 400 Shutter 1/60 Focal Length 55/1

upload_date

Feb, 2015

Views

Likes

Awards

Great Shot

Absolute Masterpiece

Top Choice

Superb Composition

Outstanding Creativity

Top Ranks

Top 20 rank

Top 20 rank week 1

Top 30 rank week 2

Top 30 rank week 1

See all

Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Someone didn't want to be photographed...

A feathered female pops her head out to see what's happening

A beautiful car making the most of the sunshine

Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken on the windowsill of the back bedroom in my house, it's the closest I get to having a dedicated studio but, with a little bit of adapting, it's perfect for still-life shots!

Time

It was around 8am but I had already been up for several hours as I'd decided to sacrifice the luxury of a lie-in on a day off work and instead driven out to a local park to catch the sunrise. I'd already uploaded those photographs onto my pc when the opportunity for this picture came about, but more about that below!

Lighting

The sole source for this shot was the natural light coming through the window. The sky had been nice and clear when I was out earlier photographing the sunrise but it had clouded over since then so, whilst the uniformly grey sky was a bit dull, it provided a nice, consistent light level.

Equipment

The photo was taken using a Canon 600D with a 18-55mm lens and a +10 Macro Filter.

Inspiration

It was sheer good luck that this photo happened. There's a couple of stray cats that visit the garden from time to time as they know I'm a bit of a sucker and will put some food out for them. One of these cats were hanging around and when I went out to pop some food down I noticed that the bowl of water for them to drink from had frozen solid. I popped the ice out, re-filled it and was about to throw the ice away when I suddenly noticed that, not only had a couple of leaves had fallen in and been frozen into the ice, but there was a scattering of bubbles caught in there that caught and sparkled in the light. It hit me that it might potentially make a good photograph, so I brought it inside and set to work. The moral of the story is: Always be nice to cats!

Editing

I ran the image through Photoshop to slightly increase the contrast to make the bubbles stand out clearer against the background, adjust the colour balance and saturation to boost the red/brown of the leaf and tweaked the curves to make the final image a bit punchier.

In my camera bag

I normally travel fairly light, usually just the Canon 600D body, 18-55mm lens, Circular Polarising Filter and obligatory spare battery & memory card. If I think it may come in useful I sometimes slip in my 75-300mm lens. I also have a Manfrotto tripod which I don't take out as often as I should.

Feedback

I love playing around with macro shots and find it fascinating using the ferociously tight depth of field as an advantage rather than a problem. To be honest for this shot I was lazy and rested my elbows on the windowsill but for macro photography a tripod is your friend as a slight movement of a few millimetres can throw the image out of focus. Switch to manual focus as in most cases the camera itself will need to be too close to the subject for the autofocus to cope. Don't be afraid to play with where the point of focus is on the shot, sometimes it can surprise you. I originally planned for the leaf to be the main focal point but much prefer this version where its just a background feature. The most important thing I can say is that if you see anything, anything at all, that triggers your creativity then photograph it. It's far better to have taken a photo and it not turn out to be as good as you imagined than to not take it at all and wonder what might have been.

See more amazing photos, follow dfgumby

dfgumby

dfgumby

Leaf in Ice 2

Leaf in Ice 2

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow dfgumby

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes. Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.