Quick Shot: Ice Eye View

A winter storm came through Washington, DC yesterday, leaving all the trees covered with 1/4 inch of ice. I grabbed my camera first thing this morning and headed out to see what kind of interesting ice formations I could find in my own backyard. I wanted to get a unique perspective on the winter scene, so I decided to shoot only macro images and was very surprised with the results!

This was one of the first photos I took, and it's probably my favorite. This is a super macro view of one of the tree limbs in my backyard and the ice covering it. I was particularly drawn to this photo because the ice was starting to crack, making it look like a bunch of veins on the surface of the ice.

To give you a sense of size - this is about the thickness of a McDonald's french fry (but alot less fattening!)  

To get this super macro image, I used my Nikon 105mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter and extension tubes. I also used my SB-700 speed light with a soft diffuser attached to light the branch from the side. Minor adjustments made in Adobe Photoshop CC.