Heaven knows...

Although all the snow that arrived last Friday has long gone, I have barely been outside with my camera since. It has been cold. Temperatures have been bordering on freezing all week - and frankly the light has been less than inspiring - so when the two combine it is a struggle to find the motivation. The Met Office had predicted another snowfall for Tuesday, which would have been more than enough to tempt me back into the Great Outdoors, but by my reckoning they were about 300 miles out with their forecast.

I spend most of the time this week indoors, online, and learning new techniques and tricks in Adobe Photoshop, but I did notice, two days ago, the emergence of snowdrops in a local park. I had a camera with me at the time (of course) but knew that the gear I was carrying would be woefully inadequate to get anything approaching a decent image. I make the mental note to return with a suitable lens and support.

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I'm sprawled flat-out to get the shot; me and the camera both at ground level, the latter on a tripod. I have to make do with a plastic bin liner. Framing and focusing the shot is the tricky bit with the camera so low, and although the Live View function display on the camera's rear screen is useful for the first part, it is next to useless for checking focus accurately at such magnifications. You'd think otherwise, but I'm not prepared to trust it. Consequently, I am forced into contortions to use both the LCD screen and the viewfinder to check everything is set the way I want it. I'm working next to a busy road, no doubt drawing odd glances from passers-by. Subject movement is an issue since the shutter speeds are so slow, so I am there for quite some time, waiting for the breeze to drop long enough to make an exposure. Only one inquisitive chap stops to ask if I'm taking close-ups of flowers. Heaven knows what the rest must have thought.



105mm f/2.8D EX Sigma macro lens. 1/15 second at f/11. ISO 200. Mirror lockup and remote release. Tripod


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