Blowing in the Wind

Witch Hazel Leaves, Oct. 25, 2005
While shooting these leaves, I kept thinking of Bob Dylan's song, "Blowin' in the Wind," because that's exactly what these witch hazel leaves were doing! But I just had to try and get a photograph of these frost-covered leaves. I loved the way the frost forms a pattern along the veins of the leaves.
As I walked along the trail, this branch was hanging down just in front of my face. I held the camera in my hand to frame this shot. Of course, the wind made this task somewhat challenging. I decided that I wanted to TRY and get all three leaves in the frame pretty much exactly the way they appear in the photograph above.
Once I knew what I was trying to capture, I set up the tripod and mounted the camera in approximately the best spot. I opened up my apperature to an f-stop of 8 so that I could speed up the shutter to 1/80 of a second. I had to make the shutter quick to stop the motion of the blowing leaves. Still, it was a challenge to snap the shutter at the exact moment that there was a lull in the wind and the leaves re-positioned themselves in my frame. I held the remote control device in my left hand and continually adusted to focus with my right--this is the opposite how I normally focus, but I had to point the IR remote toward the sensor so it would work every time without hesitation, and using my left hand is the best way to do that.
The leaves tossed and turned constantly, pausing for a moment, and then moving again. I adjusted, snapped, and waited, then adjusted, snapped and waited, etc. Several shots came out focused, but only part of one leaf was in the frame. Others came out in the frame, but not quite in focus. This photograph turned out the way that I wanted, the right composition and in focus.
I consider this shot a combination of luck and persistence, as well as a little bit of skill. Clearly, I had to be familiar with how my camera works and how to set the controls so that I could increase the odds of getting the shot that I wanted. And, this is a FULL FRAME image with absolutely zero cropping around the edges. This IS the shot that I got, with just a minor adjustment to contrast! (Can you tell that I am pretty proud of this one?) This may not be my best photo of the day, but it sure is one of my favorites!