December, 2008 was, overall, a warm month in south Alabama. I took advantage of the nice weather by getting out with my camera. We have had a lot of foggy mornings and many of these photographs were taken as the fog was just burning off. If you've looked at very many of my albums you know I love the added interest of water droplets, whether from rain, dew, fog or even my squirt bottle. I'm giving away a trade secret there!
For this album I used my Canon 70-200 f/4L lens exclusively along with an extension tube. The tube allows me to zoom in closer than I would be able to do otherwise. Depending on which of the 3 tubes I use my focusing distance is reduced from 3.9 feet to 16 inches or so. The 70-200 lens is an excellent product and gives wonderful detail and sharpness.
I went out one foggy morning and walked up the road to some spiderwort. That's an ugly name for a beautiful flower. Actually it's a weed. Until I got into photography I had never even noticed them but they've become one of my all time favorite subjects. On this particular foggy morning and with the excellent lens and tube I was able to get the tiny individual drops of mist on the petals and tiny insects on the flowers. I was down in a ditch at an intersection shooting them and drew quite a lot of attention. Some drivers could tell what I was doing and gave me thumbs up or grins but some were quite puzzled. From there I went on to some wild turnips. I really do hate those weeds but the flowers make such pretty pictures. The stems are covered in fine needles and always made my fingers burn when I pulled them up. They are everywhere it seems! I was very fortunate and ran into several ladybugs on one clump of wild turnips. I hit the jackpot there--ladybugs, yellow flowers and water droplets all in one subject!
