This was taken at Dante’s View in Death Valley in the morning. The sun was coming up and I was able to get some backlighting of this prickly cactus. I was lying on the ground and very close to it, maybe around 1 foot. My goal was selective focus, with some spines in focus and others not. This was the best one of the bunch. I wish I could claim credit for this composition. A leader in a workshop pointed out these backlit cacti possibilities to me, so even though it isn’t totally my own original composition I was glad to have this learning experience.
I also kind of like the symbolism of the rising sun, because of the way the spines radiate out, with the backlighting.
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D750 with 105mm f/2.8 macro lens. 105mm, 1/40, f/16, ISO 100.
I’m surprised how at even f/16 there was softness in front and in back of the plane of focus. A good lesson in optics…when close to a subject how narrow the depth of field is.
Mark, the mix of glowing in focus and out of focus spines looks very good. I also like how you’ve got sharp spines along the left edge and darkness along the right edge. You did well having sharp spines across the view. Yes, depth-of-field in macro is extremely small.
Really like the close up on the cactus spines! It’s kind of abstract especially with the contrasting black background. I can see a lot of different crop options with this. Nice capture!
I like this macro image very much. Even if the possibility where pointed out to you, you did a great job of finding and capture an interesting plane in focus, which of course is what makes the image!
As well as being into photography, I love my cactus and succulent garden, at one time I ran on online nursery based on them. I took so many photos trying to capture the essence of each plant, your photo I like a lot. There is a rugged beauty in those spines, you captured it well.
Nicely done, Mark. The back-lighting really enhances the closeup view here. Almost gives the look and feel of a small campfire flame. Dante’s View has many looks, this was yet a new one for me…
