Seed

focal length: 70 mm
shutter speed: 1/800
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

I was out doing some shooting for my Aperture and Depth of Field article and saw this lonely pine cone wasting away on our lawn. I was still in manual mode so I metered for the dark part on the cone, adjusted my shutter speed and took some shots. Looking back, I see that I didn’t switch to spot metering. Oops! And without a flash, the inner crevices of the cone were still not visible, so I boosted the fill light slider in Lightroom to recover some of the lost detail in the shadows. I wish I could’ve gotten in closer but there is a limit to how close you can get and still be able to focus with every lens. Macro lenses allow you to get even closer, which is why I keep talking about them!

Poor lonely pine cone drying up with the rest of our lawn. Can you tell we’re not gardeners?

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.