Water Droplets

[best appreciated at full size against black] Yesterday the rain stopped in the morning, so I went out to take macro pictures of droplets and hopefully a mushroom if I could find one. I was prepared this time with my tripod and some plastic to put my knees on for low shots. I am so happy to report that understanding how to use my 100mm lens is starting to become muscle memory for me, and I was able to take this picture! What you are looking at is a pair of grass blades with miniscule droplets of water on them. To give you an idea of how small these droplets are, take a ballpoint pen and look at the roller ball at the tip. The droplet on the left is a bit smaller...and that pair on the right are almost invisible to the naked eye, and I didn't even notice them at first...I was focusing on the larger droplet! And, the fun doesn't stop with this picture. I got MANY images which I'll be sharing with you in the next few days! SO HAPPY!!! I would like to send out a special THANK YOU to all of you who have become my friends and inspiration here on Flickr. I admire your talents so much and each day I look at your new pictures and I try to remember them so that I can learn and get better as a photographer. This image I'm showing today would NOT be possible if I did not visit your photo streams and learn, through your eyes, how to take better pictures, and what to focus on. You are my inspiration. I am so grateful. Back to my normal info! I put two more images up today and I hope you'll take a look at them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) This image was taken on January 25, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] A couple of mornings ago I went after the rain stopped to take macro pictures of droplets and perhaps a mushroom or two. I was very happy to discover some lucky shots while I was out! Here we have a very tiny, 1" blade of grass covered with a line of crystal balls! I've uploaded two other images today and I hope you'll check them out as well! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) This image was taken on January 25, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] One of the things I admire most about macro photography is the pin-point focus you can get on a subject. This is a tiny blade of grass with a droplet of water on it that's so small you can barely see it! :D I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! www.flickr.com/people/sfhipchick/ This image was taken in January, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Looking for water droplets the other day, I remembered one of the pine trees that grows near the road, so off I went! I was initially disappointed because I couldn't find any droplets at the very end of any needles, but then I realized that a droplet doesn't need to be at the end to look interesting...what do you think?! :) I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! www.flickr.com/people/sfhipchick/ This image was taken in January, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] I got so lucky with my droplet shots the other day! I can hardly believe that my 100mm macro lens is able to take images of things I can barely see! This droplet was just a little sparkle, but my camera was able to take this picture to share with all of you! I hope you like it! :D I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! www.flickr.com/people/sfhipchick/ This image was taken in January, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] I thought this tiny blade of grass was pretty with its dark tones, adorned with sparkling droplets. This image was taken in January, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Here is the last of my droplet shots taken a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to see if I could use an extremely shallow depth of field and focus straight down on a pin-point sized droplet at the tip of a blade of grass...here is my result! :D This image was taken in January, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] This is a rose stem that likes to grow through our back deck, and on this rainy morning, I noticed the droplets on the stem. I had no idea there would be a refraction of the Upper Table Rock in it! Now, all you need to do is turn upside-down to see the beautiful formation! Go on now, turn that head! :D :D No fair falling out of your chair! :D This image was taken in February, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] On our back deck, there's a little rose bush that loves to grow through the deck. I noticed these leaves a while ago, and thought they might make a nice picture with the right conditions. One morning, Valentine's Day to be exact, it stopped raining long enough for me to step out and take some pictures! This may not be a flower, but this leaf is as pretty as a rose, don't you think? :) I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! www.flickr.com/people/sfhipchick/ This image was taken in February, 2012

[best appreciated at full size against black] Even though we have no roses blooming on this international day of romance, I did happen to go out this morning and find this lovely sight waiting for me to capture! This image was taken in February, 2012 This image was taken in February, 2012. (Explored on February 13, 2011)

[best appreciated at full size against black] What do you get when you focus a 100mm macro lens at a tiny droplet of water on a blade of grass and set your aperature to 5.0? You get enough depth of field for a crisp water pearl and you also get CRAZY BOKEH! I have to thank my husband, Steve, for showing me by example, why it's a good idea to take a bunch of pictures of each subject using a variety of aperatures. When you take the time to do this, you get many choices in regards to focus and bokeh. In regards to focus, sometimes your subject isn't quite pin-sharp at, say 2.8, but at 5.0, the depth has increased enough to include the sweet spot you wanted. For this picture, the other part of this equation was most important to me, since I was able to keep that droplet in focus with all my aperature choices (not always the case!!). Focus is one part, bokeh is the other. With lots of choices, you can decide what amount of blur looks the best. For me, the version at 2.8 was too soft and undefined, and so was 3.2. 4.0 was getting there, but 5.0 was just right! (I also had one at 8.0 just to see how that looked, but I knew it wouldn't work, and as expected, it was too clear and distracting.) I like this version because you can just pick out blades of grass in the background, with one up front that comes to near focus. Finally, the blade of grass with the droplet totally blurs out at either end and I think there's something very cool about that...what do you think?! :) I've uploaded one other picture today and I hope you'll visit it too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! www.flickr.com/people/sfhipchick/ This image was taken in February, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] I never tire of a pretty droplet shot, especially when the droplets are so tiny! Here is a droplet on a little blade of grass, complete with a refraction of moss which you can see in the background! This is the sort of shot that I just have to guess at when I'm taking it, but when I saw this on my computer, I smiled and said to myself, "NEATO!" :D This image was taken in January, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Another tiny droplet on a blade of grass, refracting the moss behind it. I will never cease to be amazed at how a macro lens makes the tiny things in the world appear so large and wonderful! If you saw this scene with your own eyes, you would say, "There's nothing here. It's a bunch of wet grass and moss! BORING!! Go find something interesting!" But with a macro lens, I get to step through the looking glass and become Janet in Wonderland, and I get to take my camera with me!! I hope you like this droplet too! I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! www.flickr.com/people/sfhipchick/ This image was taken in February, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Don't you just love droplets? They are so magical to me, especially the tiny droplets. Having a macro lens means that I can capture images of droplets that are barely visible. Here we have a moss sporophyte encased in a droplet while another looks on! :) There are some interesting focus, flare and bokeh things going on too...I hope you like this artistic image! :) I've uploaded one other picture today and I hope you'll visit it too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! www.flickr.com/people/sfhipchick/ This image was taken in February, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] How many moss sporophytes does it take to hold up a big droplet of water? One...two...three...FOUR! These four seem to be straining very hard to keep this droplet in the air...or perhaps they are all trying desperately not to find themselves pulled to the ground by the MASSIVE weight of this enormous droplet! Come on guys, you can do it!!! And meanwhile, the other sporophytes are just looking around, enjoying the day, a small dried sporophyte without a capsule stares at them in awe, and another one seems to be looking up to see if another droplet will fall on it! :D What a neat little scene to find, so tiny you need a macro lens to see it! :) This image was taken in February, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Creeping around on our hillside one day, I found a log covered with moss and lichen. I noticed there were still droplets on this patch and staring closely, I discovered this pair, who are sharing a tiny droplet of water. Is it just me or do they seem to be trying very hard not to fall over from the weight?! Can you imagine?! This droplet is about the size of the ball at the tip of a pen! This image was taken in January, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Here we have a blade of grass, heading for the sky, with a shining droplet clinging to one side. Against the dirt is its curved shadow...there are a couple of indents in the dirt, making the shadow appear to have hair, and it looks as if an odd little person is peering curiously back at the blade of grass! This image was taken in February, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Don't you just love how the world sparkles after it rains and the sun comes out to dazzle the world?! I have a hard time resisting the temptation to take pictures of tiny droplets on grass because it's so much fun to see how the bokeh turns out. I'm not sure what's being refracted in that droplet but it appears to be mushrooms! This image was taken in February, 2012.