Posted January 9th, 2011

Crystals and Coloured Lights

No, those are not really magnificent frost crystals, they are garland branches placed on my Christmas tree. The garland was new this Christmas and its specular interplay with the lights on the tree made it an obvious subject for photography. Still, as seems to happen every year, only when it was getting around time to take the tree down did I get motivated enough to make time for the photographic explorations I had been contemplating for a couple of weeks. Time spent idly viewing the subject before picking up my camera may have helped me build inspiration and ideas but this type of photography really is exploration and only through the viewfinder can I truly envision an image. Focused close with a macro lens with the aperture wide open, the most out-of-focus mini-lights become large, diffuse spheres of colour that interact with the tree needles and ornamentation to create unpredictable, delightful, abstract patterns. Once I get into it I am lost for hours.
Pentax K10D, Sigma AF 70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro @ f/2.8