Other Worlds
Gazing through Dewdrops
August 2003
 



Every so often, in the course of photography, a macro includes a particularly beautiful dewdrop, refracting light of its own world. For each such photograph, I would wonder, What if I concentrated on the dewdrop alone? How much more would I see?

The following five photos answer those questions--somewhat.

The first photo is a dewdrop suspended from the narrow part of a corkscrew willow leaf. I feel as if it is a double image, with two separate lines of light play. Perhaps.
 

Dewdrop on corkscrew willow

 
The second photo is from a rather small drop on a rose of sharon petal. The pink-red petal is reflected in the dewdrop, and I find it rather impressionistic: solar flares rising over the surface of a red star.
 
Dewdrop on a rose of sharon

 
The dewdrop from the evergreen tends toward realism, as if dewdrop dreams could ever be realistic.
 
Dewdrop on pine needle
 
A very narrow dewdrop along the base of a yellow tiger lily looks as if it were refracting several future buds, except there weren't any buds near that flower.
 
Dewdrop on a tiger lily
 
Finally, for number five, here's a macro with a whole cluster of dewdrops, with major refractions in two of them, each offering glimpses of its own fantasy forest.
 
Multiple dewdrops on a leaf

 
Photo note: The five photos were taken with a Sony F707 digital camera, various close-up filters, and luck.


 
Macros featuring dewdrops: Night shade   and   Dew 2001

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