Morning Frost

We still have ample frost in the morning even as the weather warms. Yesterday, I took some macro shots of lingering frost crystals but was unhappy with the shallow DoF of the handheld shot. (I forgot to bring my tripod.) Today was a reshoot.

In this picture, the camera was tripod mounted which allowed me to experiment with aperture and increase the DoF. I took both shallow and deep DoF shots and liked the latter better because of the lighting and added texture. If you look carefully, you can see the light glint off of one of the crystals. Here is the shallow DoF shot.

One of the key findings of this adventure is the importance of a tripod. You must carefully manage your distance to the subject with macro photography. Too close and the lens won't focus; too far and you will have to crop. I have a Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod and it is ideal for this situation. Its legs are very stiff which allows for virtually infinite adjustment of height and distance.

I like the individual ice crystals clinging to the blade of grass and the glints off the leaf in the background. I continue to wonder whether this one is too busy compared to the other.

No Photoshopping here, just basic saturation, contrast, brightness and white balance.

Constructive criticism always welcome.