Congrats to Shannon, the winner of our Macro Contest! Here is her winning image along with some details about the shot and how she created it.

This is a photo of water droplets on the pappi of a dandelion. My husband accompanied me on my photo-adventure armed with a fine misting water bottle to recreate the look of “morning dew” by spraying the seeds lightly with the water before I took the shot.

I took this photo RAW at 1/160th, f 4.5, ISO 200 with my Canon 5DmkII. I used my Canon 100mm f1.8 macro lens for the shot. It was in deep shade and ended up being darker than I would have hoped. I should have probably increased the ISO, but didn’t think about it until post production. Instead, I ended up increasing the exposure of it in Adobe Lightroom 2. This accounts for the noise in the dark areas of the photo. I’m sorta bummed about it. I have several others from this set that aren’t noisy, but I liked the composition of this photo the best.

As I learned photography, growing up in Alaska, Utah, Washington, and living in Ohio – I discovered a fascination with macro shots, which inspired me to buy the lens I used for this shot a few years ago while attending the Art Institute of Seattle. I’m still learning some things and this was definitely a reminder to pay attention as I’m shooting to my settings!!

I was inspired to take this particular photo because I had been cooped up indoors for several days due to the rain. The sun came out this day and I just couldn’t help myself! I had to get out there with the camera!

Check our more of her work below:

Shannon Shackelford
www.shannonangel.com
www.shannonangel.com/blog
www.spiritedshannon.blogspot.com

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