Notes from the field :

This image was made while on a field outing for a workshop with Rod and Marlene Planck. We were photographing wildflowers in one of Rod's favorite areas in Upper Michigan. Early morning dew was everywhere. The trick was finding a blade of grass, with a dew drop on it, isolated enough to create a nice background.

As with many future images to be made after this one, the simplicity and graphical nature of this small scene was the primary attraction.

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About the subject :

Rather simple, it's a blade of grass! However, this particular one had a nice big dew drop on it, and a distant background that eliminated any clutter. It made for a nice graphical image, portraying the simplicity of line and isolation of a single dew drop, on a single blade of grass.

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Technical details :

This image was made using a Nikon F5 and a 105 mm f2.8 Nikkor micro lens, Fuji Velvia film. Using depth of field preview for this image helped make sure there weren't any distractions in the background. The slide was scanned using a Polaroid SS4000 filmscanner at 4000 dpi, and then resized to 72 dpi for web display.

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About the composition :

1] Dew drop off center and close to power point

2] Diagonal blade makes for a more dynamic element than one that would be straight up and down

3] Clean background helps isolate and make the blade of grass and dew drop 'pop.'

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