PAD 17

[Mike Farley]

Day 17 and a very frosty morning after a freezing cold night. Lots of the plants and trees were covered in frost and I found this branch in the garden. This type of shot needs to be taken early as the frost soon melts when the sun hits it and light levels were not high, so I used the on camera flash to bring out the colours. This is definitely a subject where a black and white treatment would not work!

[davidc]

Great idea - and I might try it when I get home from work as I'm tired and was lacking inspiration

Just a thought, would more DOF suit the subject better? As in the lichen and ice are fabulously detailed and the focal point of the pic so having more might be better? Then again I'm viewing on my phone which might be contributing.

[Mike Farley]

You are right that some of the branch is out of focus, but I am not sure if it would have been possible to get everything sharp due to the distance between the branches. I decided to post it anyway due to the colours in the image, but it probably would not get very far with a competition judge. The lens was my 100 macro and aperture was f/9.

My alternative image is below, also shot with the macro with aperture at f/14 on this occasion. Despite there being very little distance between the leaves and the moss under them, the moss is not sharp and a couple of the leaves are goning out as well.

Do you think that I should have gone with this other one?

[davidc]

No the stick is better. Was hoping to try it myself but the frost seems likely to have gone by the time I get in.

[Rose]

Actually I like the second one - the contrast of the frost and the strong green is very striking

[Mike Farley]

One of the "problems" with a PAD is the decisions it forces you to make when you have a number of good candidates for the image of the day. There is also an element of strategy involved, as sometimes it is possible to reproduce a particular image more easily than others later on. I knew that the frosted branch was hampered by lack of DOF, but I was taken by its jewel like quality. Given that it it less usual for frost to settle on branches than on the ground, I went for the "stick" (as Dave called it!) on this occasion. I know where the leaves are, so it might still be possible to get the shot on another day.

Incidentally, I also did a mono version of the leaves. A reason for not posting it is that I have had a number of black and white images recently and I wanted a bit of variety in the portfolio.