Pearly Web

[best appreciated at full size against black]

The other day I posted an image called Happy Accident: Water Pearls in a Web ( www.flickr.com/photos/sfhipchick/6951135961/in/photostream/ ) where I didn't have my flash setup turned on but I got an unexpected happy result. Here is the image I had actually planned on! To be honest, this was my second attempt taking a picture like this. The first attempt was really more of an experiment. Do you ever just try things out to see how it will turn out? I do this all the time because I've learned that more often than not, it works out well...if it's not quite right, it might be if I tweaked the idea, and then it would make a cool shot! In this case, the first time around I tried to take a picture of a droplet-covered web at the end of a stump and was hoping to get the whole web in focus. However, there wasn't enough light and the shutter was open long enough that just the action of pressing the shutter release created blur. I didn't see the blur until I had the images on my computer. When I saw the attempts on my computer, I noticed that my depth of field was never great enough to keep everything in focus...but...the droplets that blurred out into bokeh actually looked much better than if they'd been clear. So the next time I went out for droplet shots, I went prepared with my flash setup, I set my camera on a 2-second timer, and I tried again! I took a series of images in many aperatures so I could choose how much blur I wanted. I picked this one because the "string of pearls" on the edge of the web are all crisp, and then immediately begin blurring out, yet they maintain enough shape that you can see what they are. I hope you like it! :)

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! If you're a new visitor, I hope you'll take a look at my profile 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.