There’s been an awful lot of astronomical pictures and sciencey writings on this blog lately, so let’s take it down a notch. Here’s a picture of a leaf, taken for this week’s Photo Challenge.
I pre-visualised this photo with a dry leaf. When I went looking in the garden this evening, all the dead leaves were damp and soggy, and not what I wanted. I then remembered that leaves always seem to get under the bonnet of my car. I guessed they’d be dry and crispy, and I was right! It also seems that the heat of the engine made all the leaves curl up like this one. This one was the prettiest I found – I think it looks like it is covering its eyes, and this gave me the idea of making it look like it is in a spotlight, as if on stage.
The making of this photo was simple – I laid the leaf on a piece of black paper and lit it from the top-left using a single LED desk lamp. I recommend JANSJÖ lamps from IKEA for this kind of macro and desktop photography – they are bright, flexible and cheap. You can’t afford not to have one!
Jonathan Gazeley 