As I mentioned in yesterday’s Maple Blossom Special post, snow squalls were in the forecast for Southern Maine yesterday am, and one hit our back yard about 7:30. Of course, I threw on a coat and ran out to get a few shots of my maple blossoms with caps of snow.  It was still snowing, and you can actually see a clumpy “flake” coming in for a landing in this shot.

The light was very different, afternoon to morning, sun to heavy cloud with snow in the air, and exposures were considerably different. Program with iContrast on the Canon SX40HS pushed the ISO well up to handle the subdued light, and the yellows brought out by the afternoon sun of the previous day turned dull. Only the reds held color.

Though a lot of my attention went into keeping the camera dry, I did manage to pay attention to the background of the shots. I tried both open framing, with the whitish sky behind, and closed framing, with the dark trunk of the tree behind. The top shot is in between, with background blossom clumps and branches making a patterned bokeh. One of the advantages of extreme tel-macro is the interesting bokeh effects you get.

All at 1680mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical zoom plus 2x digital tel-extender function). 1) f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 500. 2) same. 3) f5.8 @ 1/100th @ ISO 800. These are all at –1/3EV exposure compensation.

Processed in Lightroom for color temperature, intensity, clarity, and sharpness.