Spring Has Sprung

I've been catching up on my sleep as the sunrises these days have lacked some serious "umph", Instead, I've been noticing all the flowers I drive by on the way to work.

Specifically, there are some dense poppy groupings within walking distance. So on my lunch break yesterday, I sat down on the sidewalk and zoned out on some poppies.

At first, I was shooting with my new 35mm f1.8 lens and getting some nice "in their element" kind of shots. Then I started noticing the subtle shades of yellow on some of the individual flowers. I switched to my 105mm macro lens and stacked a combination of Nikon's 5T and 6T diopters for increased magnification. It really is enjoyable for me to sit and create something abstract out of a common sight.

And for those wanting more technical details, I was shooting hand held in Aperture Priority Mode so I could have the ultimate control over the depth of field. The camera then chooses the shutter speed. I made sure to keep an eye on the shutter speed, though, as it was windy out, and if it got too slow, I would need to change my ISO to maintain a fast enough shutter to freeze the movement.

I also kept an eye on the camera's histogram. Metering can be tricky in bright sunlight, and occasionally, I had to dial in exposure compensation, both positive and negative depending on the conditions, to get the results I wanted.