Isolation

Caught in a web under the plum tree, the feather is smaller than my fingernail. We were out there gathering the last hurrah of Santa Rosa plums. I just missed getting myself tangled up with the still life. It was the iridescence that caught my eye just in time. 

I need to get myself a decent piece of black mat board to use as a backing for this kind of shot. I resorted to the back of an old picture frame--the only solid dark surface I could quickly come up with to stick behind the web. What do other people do in a situation where the background is too distracting and complicated?