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Diminuitive Beauty

© Shari Malin

Beauty is something that can be found all around us.  It's funny, but I don't think I really saw my world until I started looking at it through the lens of a camera.

It snowed recently.  Not a hugely earth-shattering event, but in North Carolina, it is at least uncommon.  The first thing I did that morning was grab my camera and run out the door.  I was headed for the small lake behind my apartment complex.  I wanted to get photographs of the water as the snow fell.  What I saw, instead, was the ducks who live on that lake.  I didn't get any good photos of them, but it was something to see ducks walking around with snow on their bills.

Later in the day, I came home from work and saw the trees with their coating of melting snow.  I decided to try for a shot I've been hoping to get for quite some time.

For all of these photos I used my Canon Digital Rebel on a tripod.  I also used my Pelican cover to keep the snow out :-).  I don't yet own a macro lens, so all of these were taken with the EOS kit lens that came with my Rebel.

This is the first of the series:

Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel
1/100s f/5.6 at 52.0mm iso100

I really like the curves in this shot.  The bow of the branch very closely matches the bow on the bottom of the water drop.  It appeals to my sense of balance.  The other thing I really like about this shot is the reflection of the other branches in the water drop.   Again, the bow is there and you can actually see the individual branches.

Notice also the simplicity here.  No bright colors.  No action.  Just the simple bend of a branch.

This is the second shot:

Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel
1/40s f/5.6 at 55.0mm iso100

I like the color of this branch better than the one above.  However, I feel like the first photo is definitely stronger.  The interesting detail in this one is the reflection of my apartment building in the water drop.  Unfortunately, the reflection isn't very clear and is certainly not as clear as the first photo's water drop reflection.

I know that personally, I find deep colors more pleasing than bright colors.  I like the depth of the red branch, as well as the blues in the background.  The combination of the two makes a nice contrast of warm and cool colors too.

This is my favorite shot of the day

Canon