January High Pressure (1) Frost

The weekend of 14^th -15^th January gave a few days of high pressure over England, resulting in blue skies and cold, still conditions. This is ideal for photography as the light will be bright but quite soft; enabling minimum apertures, fast shutter speeds and low ISO numbers.

The evening of the 13th produced a heavy frost which carried over through the following morning.

The 2 photos below were taken at around 1030am; the camera was hand held as I wandered around the garden looking for interesting shots.

f/5.6; ISO 200; 1/80 second; focal length 40mm

This first photo was taken at a distance of approximately 6 feet and gives a pleasant but not too inspiring image. The redness and interest of the berries is quite lost.

f/5.6; ISO 200; 1/60 second; focal length 150mm

This second image was taken at a much closer distance. Immediately the colour is more noticeable, as is the texture of the frost on both berries and branch. The photograph has a lot of depth looking into the bush and the aperture speed of f/5.6 means that there is a mixture of berries both in and out of focus. A larger depth of field (minimum aperture) would have more in focus, but this may have proved distracting. The central rectangle (see below) ensures that the eye remains within the photo, rather than wandering off, whilst the glimpses off things in the background adds interest to the image. I am very satisfied with this image. It could easily be used as the picture for a Christmas card!

It is also interesting to compare this to images of the same bush taken in September:

I much prefer the winter image with no leaves. Both sets have very different textures – the cold, sparse yet fine and intricate beauty of the frost compared to the luscious and soft fruit and succulent leaves of early autumn.

I am certainly seeing and understanding more of my garden via the camera.