First Full Weekend of Spring brings Signs

A sure sign of spring!

Hope you’ve taken some time to stroll around planting areas to see what’s beginning to poke through the surface. I found enough green shoots to inspire hope that this cold, nasty interminable winter could finally beginning to find its way out of here.

While loading my car after a recent class at the Chicago Botanic Garden, I heard a bird that just wouldn’t stop calling loudly. Once I spotted this cardinal, two things happened: 1. I took it to be a sure sign of spring and 2. I just had to grab a camera. Yes, you can use a macro lens in regular photography as shown here. My macro has a focal length that extends to 180mm which is what I used here.

Keep your eyes (and ears) open for signs of spring where you live. Hopefully, you won’t have long to wait.

18mm, f8 @ 1/30, no filter

18mm, f8 @ 1/80 with 3-stop ND Grad

I received a 3-stop, soft-edge ND grad filter from the Camera Clubhouse cats. They decided to purchase from Breakthrough Photography since I mentioned that one of my students brought Breakthrough Filters to a recent class and, on inspection, the filters seemed to be very well made. An ND Grad filter starts dark and fades to clear so the placement of the dark portion is determined by both the bright part of the scene and the photographer. This filter made quite a difference in holding down the sun in the upper part of the image. Check out the “no-filter” image and ND Grad image. The difference will amaze you. Please note: I have no affiliation with Breakthrough Photography and chose them only based on student referral.

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