The Crystal Stem (Macro, again...)

I didn't want to do a macro again, today, I almost didn't even pack the lens.

Why? Well, this was the first early morning of very sharp frost that I'd be photographing, of the winter. The landscapes of the Avon Valley Nature Reserve, where I was setting out for needed wide lenses.

The ground was a hard as a rock and so was careful with my lens choice; not the best pro lenses (drop one and it's like dropping it on tarmac) and the lightness of the DX cropped D7000 resulted in the Nikkor 18-200mm as the main one, plus 14mm Sigma, to give me something wider. An old, backup Nikkor D 70-300mm f4-5.6 ED is still a very good lens but without any form of stabilisation is more of a handful but is half the weight of my top-flight Tamron VC and whilst only 2nd hand now, you can pick one up on Ebay (as I did, to replace another that I fell on, in the exact place I was going, many years previously) for £70-80.

I used the two wider lenses, from before sun-up, but dawn didn't really happen and nor did the pics. A dog walker (loads of those) asked if I'd found anything 'interesting', as I stood on the frozen bed of reeds, that's normally far too squishy to even think of walking on. I replied that with no real sun, there were 'some clouds, but nothing that really 'clicked', pardon the pun".

So, this is a reed that I'd tried with the 14mm, close-up, at f2.8 and f22. Again, OK, but nothing magical.. Then the Tamron 90 macro came out, an hour after I'd started out. AF next to useless and even in the no breeze, it moved just enough to swing out of focus all too readily. I found it easier to put the camera onto 'continuous low' drive as in normal single, you have to physically press the shutter again, to get another shot, which required one to think. Without a tripod and me tiring, it was no easy pic to capture.

I was physically shaking after, so much had the concentration been - and standing in one spot hardly helped, either. I then took loads, almost as an uncoiling of tension, with the long 70-300mm and a few of these could have been Blips - there were pictures everywhere. Walked rather joyfully the mile and a half back home; some film students (I guess, from the local Tech) had loads of gear set up. They all stood or sat around, bored, smoking, texting, shivering - one young girl looked up, shaking and the expression was of that she was literally in hell. I just sauntered past, still with a spring-like spring in my step.

The background warmth is mainly the out-of-focus hazy early sun trying to come out, aided by shooting in 'cloudy' white balance, plus a bit of colour enhancement after.

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