Sweet Gum

Looking up from the flowers, I found this sweet gum tree. Even though I took this in late December, there are still leaves on this tree. I noticed the lighting from the left side of the ball. It lit up the left side while the right side remained very dark. The ball also appears to still be wet from the rain storm as well. Some of the light reflects while the parts where the light doesn't reach that part of the ball seem dry.

Wall of Water

On another similar flower, instead of focussing on the center of the flower, I focused on the pedals. On one of them, it was covered with raindrops. From this picture, it is clear to see the extreme depth perception of a macro lens. The raindrops and petal that are in focus are all the same distance to the lens. Anything else, even if it is a few millimeters farther from the lens, is out of focus.

Icicles

This flower has the same 'hairs' that the first flower when I took pictures with my macro lens has. After the rain, the 'hairs' must have become filled with water. This makes them almost look like icicles. The light reflecting off of them, they are white like ice and straight. When I was taking the picture, I didn't notice the brown object on the 'hairs.' It isn't too big so it doesn't completely ruin the picture, but it is still bothersome.

Hanging

On the flower next to the last one, the raindrops were hanging off of it. I purposely had the focus on the raindrop instead of the flower. I also like how the viewer can see the complete circle of the raindrop. Since the raindrop is hanging, it becomes a sphere. Unfortunately, the raindrop reflects light. This made finding the right exposure extremely hard, causing the picture to be slightly brighter than I would have liked. Luckily, a quick fixing of the exposure in Photoshop fixed it.

Rain

After a heavy nighttime downpour, I took these macro rain pictures. This first one is of a single raindrop on a flower. The hardest part of taking a picture like this is making sure the focus is correct. The water magnified the air bubbles on the leaf. On the bottom of the droplet are tiny white dots which are the air bubbles. I tried to have the focus directly on the air bubbles which would also help to have the entire droplet in focus.

Filament

In the center of all flowers are filaments. It's the object that sticks up out of the middle of the flower. I like this picture because of the natural contrast in colors. The bright pink is the main part of the picture, but it doesn't overpower the light green. The focus on macro lens' is very sharp and small. There is a tiny line where the object is in focus and everything else is out of focus. The farther the object is from the focus line, the more out of focus it gets.

Dew

The second to last and my favorite picture in the first trial with the new lens is this picture. It is of a flower that hadn't grown its flowers yet. When I was taking this picture, I didn't notice the dew. Looking over it later, I found the 'hairs' sticking off the flower and dew on the hairs. It is my favorite because of the precious focus on the forefront flowers and the drastic decrease in focus as the viewer looks farther back in the picture.

Fuzzy Leaf

The next flower I took pictures of wasn't a flower but a fuzzy leaf. I have taken pictures of this type of leaf and different types of leaves before, but never this close. With the picture this close, I think the white fuzzy part caught an ant. The viewer of the picture can also see the very tiny water droplets on the white parts.

Pink with a hint of Green

The next flower I took pictures of resembled a lettuce head. Except for being green, the flower was pink with small parts green. I enjoy taking pictures of this flower without the macro lens because of the waves in the petals and interesting color, but now the flower looks even better. The leaves look sharp and rough around the edges but smooth in the center.

Macro

While trying out my new macro lens, I photographed several of the same objects as before just much closer. I have taken many pictures of this purple and white flower. With the new lens, I am able to get extremely close. It allows the photographer and viewer to see things that the human eye can't see clearly. For instance, who knew this flower had small 'hairs' in the center. A human eye and regular lens can't see them, but a macro lens can.

Blurred Motion

Similar to the picture of the bridge and lights going around the pond, is how I took this picture. I had a long shutter speed which captured several seconds of the water moving, this made the water blurred. Since it was a long exposure, I had to use a tripod to keep the rest of the picture still. When taking a long exposure picture, the photographer has to not touch or move the camera during the exposure as it might cause the entire picture to become blurred. 

Night Reflection

While looking at Christmas lights, I found these at a pond. To reduce the grain/noise in the picture, I kept the ISO low. I changed the aperture and shutter speed to complement each other and make a great picture. I settled with a larger aperture and longer shutter speed. This picture was exposed (shutter speed) for 4 seconds. This made the clouds in the sky blurred but the white in focus. 

Full Moon

One day after the winter solstice, I took this picture of the moon. It took me multiple pictures before I was able to find the right shutter speed to take a picture of the moon. I wanted to have then moon be bright, but not too bright that it would be overexposed. There were some clouds that night which made it hard to take a full picture of the moon.

Blurred

The other picture I took with a slow shutter speed was this one. I set my camera on a tripod and angled it straight down. I like this picture better than the last one because of the leaves are more in focus and the camera is closer to the water. I also like how you can see the waves in the water that was caused by the rocks. 

Flowing Water

At a creek, I was taking pictures of the water with a fast shutter speed (nothing blurry) and I wanted to change things up. I increased the aperture and slowed the shutter speed, for a more blurry picture of the water with the objects sticking out of the water in focus. Overall, I think the picture is really interesting and something, not every person takes a picture of.

Blowing in the Wind

It was incredibly windy the day I took these pictures. This was one of the few pictures that weren't blurry and had random objects in the picture. I think this is one of my better pictures. I like how the picture is basically black and white with the exception of the rose. 

Golden Leaves

The next leaves I took pictures of were light yellow and orange. They almost look golden to me. The way the sun hits the leaves to bring out the color. Then in the background, the sun doesn't reach those leaves leaving them dark. The leaves in the background are also the same as the ones in the foreground. They look interesting as they are an out of focus representation of the leaves in focus. 

Bottom Up

Similar to the picture two days ago, I also enjoyed this picture for the same reasons. I also like how in this picture the red colored tree is much fuller and has much more leaves. Another feature of this picture is that the trees in the top of the picture have very few leaves on them. The amount of leaves decreases as you move up the picture. 

Fire Streaks

On another red tree, I zoomed in really close and filled the frame only with the individual leaves. When I later looked at the picture, it reminded me of fire. The leaves moving right to left almost look like a fire. I also enjoy how the background is a dark green. It doesn't distract the viewer from the leaves but it complements them because the green makes the leaves stand out. 

Fall Foliage 

Away from the waterfall, some of the trees had changed color their colors into fall mode while others remained in summer mode. I choose this picture because I liked how the trees filled the entire picture. I also like how only one of the trees is red while the others are green. While the red tree is small and doesn't reach the heights of the tall green-leaved trees, it still looks interesting next to the big green trees.