Pop Eye
Speaking of poppies (we were talking about poppies, right?) here’s an extreme close-up of a poppy bud in the early stages of popping open. As an abstraction, this composition reminds me of an eye, a poppy eye, or (for short) pop eye.
I took this photo with a 200mm macro lens and a 36mm extension tube at f/40 for a 1/3 of a second exposure in bright sunshine. The trick in this kind of situation is to be patient enough to wait until the subject (poppy or something else) is really still, because the slightest movement in the breeze will make the image fuzzy.
What really interested me when I looked through the viewfinder at this compostion was the drop within the drop (lower left center of the image).
Of course, there is a balance (as in all things) in how long to wait. Just after this exposure completed, plop went the drop, and the photo was no longer possible.
