Matteuccia struthiopteris, or Ostrich Fern, is a fern we have in abundance in our yard. Every year they seem to find a new spot to pop up. They are quite prolific. It doesn’t seem to matter sun or shade as they are a forest understory native species, though I suppose they do tend to avoid 100% full sun spots now that I am thinking about it. While our dogs were out playing, I decided to occupy my own time poking around in their details.

This first image is a detail I spotted before I even had my camera out. I immediately saw the image in my head upon seeing the little fern frond poking down, intersecting the other – thinking it would make for a nice photograph. It is just the kind of little detail that adds a bit more interest to a natural pattern. I had also already decided this particular little study was going to be all black & white. The ferns are a vibrant green right now, and that in itself is a powerful color that could overpower the balance in the details I wanted to portray.

The second image is a tricky one. Fern fiddleheads always make for pretty cool subjects, portraying nature’s golden spiral of proportions. But the afternoon sun backlighting this one gave it a particularly appealing glow. The problem is it was also backlighting a lot of the background, creating contrasty splotches that could create a bit of visual confusion pulling one’s eye away. One way to deal with this is to try to use a diffuser, perhaps getting the background in shadow to eliminate that contrast. But I actually liked some of the dancing light shapes of the background “splotches” hoping I could use them as a compliment instead of a distraction. By toning the contrast down with the new masking tools in Lightroom, I eventually settled on a background balance that appealed to me.

The third image is also a bit of a tricky one as far as depth of field. Something about this particular fern frond standing up while the edges were curled in spoke to me. (Maybe I was seeing a fern creature?) How to photograph it was another challenge to get the arms in focus while still maintaining a non-distracting background. I did end up using Helicon Focus to blend two different photographs with different parts in focus. I may attempt to redo this particular image with more exposures someday, but for now, it will do.

Getting out and creating some new exposures felt good, as this year to date I seem to have done more with archival exposures than creating anything new in the field, even if it is my own backyard. As always, thank you for reading and visiting.