This was my midterm project for my advanced photography class. The assignment required that we imitate the style of a famous photographer in our photos. I chose to imitate the founder of snowflake photography, Wilson A. Bentley.
My goal for this project was to get as much photographic detail in ice and snow as possible. To achieve this, I used my macro lens. One of the challenges of photographing small details was getting the focus correct. As a camera gets closer to a subject the depth of field decreases. This means that I was working with a very narrow range of sharpness. Even the slightest turn of the focus ring would throw the image out of focus. Additionally, my macro lens did not have auto focus. To fix this problem I used my tripod to control focus. By pointing the camera directly downward facing the subject I was able to use the center column height adjustment to move the camera. By moving the camera relative to the subject, I was able to place the focus exactly where I wanted to.
As for lighting, I used the sun as a light source for the snow pictures and a flash for the ice pictures. I took the snow pictures outside during midday in a shaded area to prevent harsh reflections and slow down the melting process. I shot the ice pictures indoors at night with a flash. This allowed me to precisely control the direction and quality of light.