Willow Catkin

[Nancy Bell]

Just the start of the willow catkin going into bloom. I liked how the tiny flowers seemed to explode out in all directions. Photographed in the field with natural light.

Canon 5D Mark III on a tripod, Canon 100 f2.8 macro, 1/160, f11, ISO 800, exp. comp. +2/3

[John Robinson]

Thats a good one Nancy !
Amazing - out of all the willow stuff I,ve done over the years I never thought of picking a single one out !! Must try it before they are gone. Great stuff !! They do look like little bombs !
John

[Mitch Haimov]

Interesting subject and comp, Nancy. Colors in stem complement the subject well and BG is sweet. I think I would prefer if you had diffused the light on catkin and stem (leaving BG as is).

[Nancy Bell]

Thanks John & Mitch. Maybe those yellows are a bit too bright and diffused light would have been a good idea.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Nancy. I've never looked at a catkin quite this close before - this is pretty cool. I like the diagonal of the stem and the background and you have enough DOF to get the most important elements sharp. I like Mitch's comment about diffusion. Since you were using a tripod, you would have had an extra hand to hold a diffusion screen - I think you would find that that would make a subtle, but significant improvement in the lighting (not that this looks "bad" as presented :S3:). In terms of comp, I think I would prefer a little more room on the left - but it's not a big deal. Overall, this is very well done!