If you’ve been following my blog or my Flickr stream you may have noticed more than the usual proportion of extreme macro shots involving waterdrops. Well, I do love shooting waterdrops in the spring, so maybe this needs no explanation, but it is also because I’m at work on a book about waterdrop photography from Focal Press (the cover is shown to the left).

Here’s the story behind a recent shot I made for my book Photographing Waterdrops: Exploring Macro Worlds with Harold Davis.

Up early on a cool, drizzly morning I wandered the trails in the coastal mountain range near where I live. It was damp and cool and my major preoccupation was staying warm and keeping my equipment dry.

Then the sun came out and the moisture began evaporating over huge swaths of the land. I knew that to capture waterdrops I needed to move swiftly. I lay down on my belly in the rain soaked grass, and pointed my camera on its tripod up at these waterdrops with the sun bursting through.

Morning Jewelry © Harold Davis

I was careful when I made my exposure to error on the “dark side” by about 1.5 EV—because I knew that I could recover dark areas when I processed the photo, but if let the sunbursts blowout because of overexposure then the primary visual point of the image would be lost.

Exposure data: 200mm macro lens, 36mm extension tube, +4 close-up filter, 3/10 of a second at f/45 and ISO 200, tripod mounted.

I arrived early for a workshop I was leading in Bear Valley, the park headquarters for Point Reyes National Seashore. As soon as I parked my car I noticed a patch of grass covered with heavy dew. The sun had risen over the hills to the east, and even from where I was standing I could see gem-like patterns of light and reflections of the sun refracted through waterdrops thick in the grass.

Morning Dew © Harold Davis

There was no point in using a tripod because there was a breeze and the grass was in motion. In any case, it would have been difficult to position a standard tripod as low to the ground as I needed to be to get really in-and-among the dew-bedecked grass.

Without hesitation, I pulled out my camera and macro lens and got down on my belly in the grass. The sunlight and waterdrops seemed to create vast, radiant structures—ephemeral architecture made up of minute blades and moisture. I trolled forward on my belly.

It was a gift just to get to witness this Lilliputian scenery. But my time was limited as I knew my students would be arriving soon—and the morning dew was quickly evaporating with the rising sun.

I switched gears from observer to photographer. The photography trick was to expose for the sunlight, allowing the grass and background to fall into shadows. I knew I could “rescue” dark areas when I multi-RAW processed my files.

Also, I had to be very aware of focus and depth-of-field issues since these are critical in macro photography. The idea was to take control of focus by being as parallel as possible to my compositions.

I was shooting in the direction of the sun, meaning the grass was backlit. This lighting direction caused the most striking effects in the grass.

Splendour in the Grass © Harold Davis

I needed to understand focus and depth-of-field issues intuitively because with the sun directly ahead I could neither see very well through my viewfinder nor review the images on my LCD.

As workshop participants started to arrive I switched gears again, and got up to setup for my workshop. I was dripping and cold from being down in the wet grass. Fortunately, I always carry a dry set of clothing with me—it wouldn’t have been fun to be soggy all day while I presented the workshop!

By the way, if you are interested in my workshops you can keep track of them on the Photography with Harold Davis meetup group.

Exposure data: All three images 105mm macro, ISO 200, hand held; Morning Dew (top) 1/1000 of a second and f/11; Splendour in the Grass (middle) 1/250 of a second and f/40; Dew in the Grass (bottom) 1/800 of a second and f/14.

Dew in the Grass © Harold Davis

Wet Web, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

When I drop Katie Rose off at Step One, the area around her pre-school is often in the clouds, with drops of water clinging to flora—and spider webs.

The other day, I brought my camera, and paused to admire the marvelous but ephemeral architecture of the spiders.

There was a stiff breeze, so I shot needed a fairly fast shutter speed. I also needed a bit of depth-of-field to get most of the web in focus.

All photographic technique amounts to compromise in the face of what is practical. In this case, I boosted my ISO to 500. With my lens set to a 65mm focal length, I shot at 1/100 of a second shutter speed and an aperture of f/14.

This was an underexposure by about 2 EV compared to an average light meter reading—in essence I captured the waterdrops on the web at the expense of letting the colorful background of the out-of-focus tree go dark and dull. As I teased my image out of the RAW file I adjusted this, so that the waterdrops are vivid, and the background also appears bright.

Rainy Day Rapture, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

There’s nothing like watching rain from inside where it is warm and dry to usher in feelings of sweet melancholy. Yesterday, a warm and gentle rain fell like a curtain of moisture across Berkeley, California.

It was too wet to photograph outdoors, but my shutter finger was definitely itchy.

Looking out a rear window I saw the pattern of waterdrops on the glass made fanciful colors from a neighbor’s yard. I shot with my camera on the tripod, combining three exposures to get the depth-of-field right. I used the f/5.6 exposure for the overall background, and exposures at f/14 and f/32 to render some of the waterdrops sharper.

Exposure data: 50mm macro, 3 exposures (1/60 of a second at f/5.6, 1/13 of a second at f/14, and 3/5 of a second at f/32), ISO 100, tripod mounted; exposures combined using hand-layering in Photoshop.

Sun and Waterdrops, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

The day started with a massive downpour. Then there was a sunny interlude before the rain began again. Things continued in this intermittent vein.

I took advantage of a lull in the rain to photograph waterdrops and sunshine (a rarer combination than one might think).

Things were moving quickly. My usual approach to waterdrop photography is surprisingly formal, using a tripod and fully stopped-down lens. Today I decided to try a different approach.

I hand held my camera, focusing on some waterdrops on a clump of flowering Jasmine backlit by the rising sun. Using manual exposure, I made sure to pick a fast enough shutter speed (1/400 of a second) so the waterdrops would be sharp even though they were in motion. Then I focused on the waterdrops and fired off about ten shots. By then, the sun had moved out of the frame.

This was the best of the bunch, with the wildness of the solar refractions and rays in contrast to the controlled focus of the waterdrops on the Jasmine bud.

Exposure Data: 50mm macro, 1/400 of a second and f/10 at ISO 320, hand held.

Sunshine on a Rainy Day, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Briefly noted: Out shooting waterdrops during a break in the rainy weather we’ve had recently. Liquid sunshine in a drop!

EXIF data: 200mm f/4 macro, 36mm extension tube, +4 close-up filter, 0.3 of a second at f/36 and ISO 200, tripod mounted.

Twig, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Along the banks of the Merced today while the children played I photographed water drops.

In this one, you can see the beginnings of spring. The water drop is on a new shoot, and a new blossom is reflected within it.

Jade Forest, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Briefly noted: I am not escaping into the water worlds and forests of drops; rather, I am taking the boys to Yosemite for a few days. The girls stay behind and keep the home fires burning. Back soon.

Other drops, same plant: Serendipity Rules.

Happy Wanderer Sunburst, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

With flowers beginning to bloom and spring on the horizon, water drop season is open. I went hunting the other day after a fairly long siege of cold and rainy weather. The first morning after the storm passed the water drops were gleaming in the sun like treasure.

Phyllis made me some coffee, and I hurried out to catch the drops before they evaporated—something that can happen very quickly.

There’s nothing I love to photograph more than a good water drop world!

View this image larger.

Please note a correction to my earlier story about stacking modes. Whether or not you use the Statistics action, in Photoshop CS5 stack modes are only available in the Extended edition. If you have the standard edition these menu items will appear grayed out. I was misinformed, and I am sorry if you spent time trying to follow my original instructions with the standard edition.