Tree Fern Unfolding

As I began to compose this shot I noticed the background was falling off too quickly. Taking the right flash off the bracket I hand held it up and back of the foreground thereby illuminating the fern blades in the background. The first couple of times I wasn't in alignment with the lens polarizing filter and the blades were hot (reflective glare from the flash, almost white), tilting it back and forth then checking the LCD I was able to keep the glare off.

I've always loved tree ferns, well, ferns in general. Their gentleness and the way the uncurl themselves into life have always warmed my heart. Then there's the story of the dark haired girl and the five fingered fern in 5th grade, I'll save that one for later.

Cross Polarized Macro Set-Up

Here's my set-up for the cross polarized images. You may not be able to see the geared macro slide the camera and flash bracket are mounted on. It enables me to move the camera forward and back as well as side to side for fine tuning the image. Notice the polarized filters over the lens, flashes and the on camera flash. Also using a three handled Bogen tripod head. I find it to be much safer than using a ball head.

The next post will have an image from this very tree fern from my backyard.