Creative Play

(June 18th) I managed to drag Alex outside to have some fun shooting a little with me today. We headed out to a place that I hadn't been to yet this summer, LeForge Woods. It's a small place sometimes with some wildlife gems, but even without it has some great scenery and you can count on not having people scare off your subjects every couple of minutes - something you can't always count on in some of the other public lands in Ann Arbor. Well the wildlife was almost non-existant. At the beginning we ran into this crayfish hiding out in some mud - these little lobster-like crustaceans are usually in ponds or streams but come out occasionally. Here I'm taking macro-like shots with a 200-400mm with a teleconverter attached - not exactly your typical macro setup. Almost feel bad posting this guy when the rest of the shots for the day were on the beautiful side of things...

Since the wildlife didn't want to be seen, it was time to play with the scenery. At first I took some shots of the water lilies that were yet to open. These flowers are going to look great when they do open. Nice simple compositions - I wish I could have gotten a little lower on it, but to do so would have meant damaging some vegetation - something I won't do for a shot.

Next it was time to play with the setting sun. When things start to get so soft and rich in color like this, you can take some nice backlit shots. Teasel is one of the plants that just has such a cool shape, it is hard to go wrong with it. Find a nice compositional arrangement that you can isolate, add the backlight, and presto!

I also tried some backlit shots without going silhouette and using the warm backlit glow to accentuate the shapes. The shapes are still compelling but it manages to take the teasel and soften it a little unlike the harsh contrast in the silhouette shot.

With light practically gone, the only subject left was the sun itself. It had some great color today and LeForge Woods gives you a few nice elements you can frame the shot with. I definitely like focusing on the silhouettes and keeping the sun somewhat out of focus. All in all, I was happy to some good shots out of a day where there was next to no wildlife. Only thing better is that these shots were straight out of the camera, no processing except sharpening.