Intricacies of a Maple Leaf (DSC_0156)
Exploring the world one leaf at a time. Macro photo taken in autumn of a fallen maple leaf.
Exploring the world one leaf at a time. Macro photo taken in autumn of a fallen maple leaf.
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Feb, 2016Views
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melissamasonrensen
April 17, 2016
Thank you so much, GijiJim! Very kind of you to visit my small gallery and leave such thoughtful comments. Veyr much appreciated. I am presently quite active with National Geographic, Your Shot, as well as my own discussion board with other Your Shot members, so I am unable to put more effort into this site. I will surely visit your gallery in the near future. Cheers!
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melissamasonrensen
April 17, 2016
p.s. I also want to thank you for the peer awards, I am fairly new to this site and am still learning the ropes. :)
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in Shangri-La...hahaha! Well, that's what our friends call our back yard. my alternate passion from photography, is gardening. So over the years my husband and I have created our own little Paradise with many gardens and other outdoor features. We only have cedars back there, but my neighbour has a yard full of old maple trees that drop there leaves in the fall and end up in our yard every year at the change of the season. So on this day I was doing our fall clean-up.Time
It was a warm fall day and I had spent the morning cleaning up and putting things away in our back yard, my next step was to rake up the leaves. It was now afternoon and the sun was bright and that's when I noticed the beautiful colours of the fallen maple leaves and knew I had to get some shots before I bagged them up. Of course I knew there were lots more to drop yet from my neighbours trees, but I always say take the shot when the opportunity arises. This was taken, October. 12, 2015 at 1:50 p.m.Lighting
When the maple leaves fall and are blown about, they land in our grass in all different ways, laying flat, upside down or sticking out between the blades of grass and when the sun is high in the sky it seemed to bring out the vibrant colours of the changing leaves. I read once from another photographer to always take the moment one step further. So I got down on my belly, laying in the still damp grass with the sun almost facing me and focused on the one leaf that was sticking out from the grass blades (it's backside to the sun). I could now see how the veins of the leaf seemed alive, like an electric current was running through them. So beautiful and knew it was the shot.Equipment
I took this shot with the best camera I had at my disposal, the Nikon D3200 with the AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II LensInspiration
I love macro photography. I like how you can see details in things that you don't pay much attention to on a daily basis. There is so much detail in the smaller things and with close-up photography that small world becomes a fascinating BIG world. I see many macros of leaves and wanted to do something similar, but make it extraordinary.Editing
I only have a couple basic editing software programs, so I only made some minor adjustments: rotated the image to make the main vein, (the spine if you will) more straight, increased the highlights slightly to accentuate the light running through the veins and lightly burned the small background area behind the leaf to make it less noticeable.In my camera bag
I only have beginner equipment, so I take everything with me in my camera backpack, my Nikon D3200 is my go to camera and I generally leave the 18-55mm VR lens (mentioned before) on it, I also bring my Nikon D3000 with my most recent purchase an AF-S 50mm Nikkor prime lens f/1.8 that's meant for a full frame camera (my dream camera), I also bring my Raynox 250 conversion macro lens, as well as several types of filters for each lens. Lastly, my point and shoot Nikon P500, which has a good range of a 36X Zoom. This way I don't have to fuss about switching lenses and potentially lose a shot. Of course if it's a long shoot of a specific subject I switch the lens on my Nikon D3200 to fit the occasion.Feedback
If you intend on trying to capture something similar, I recommend going out on a sunny, but windless day in a protected area. Loose leaves tend to easily move even with the slightest wind. I recommend finding a healthy, but colourful leaf and placing it with its backside to the sun or a slight angle so that the veins light up, as mine did. You can wedge it in the blades of grass to stabilize it or for that matter you could set something up in a bright location in your home and stage the shot.
