After the Rain

@Rags: thanks Rags.

this shot has no pp apart from a slight rotate to remedy an awkward shooting angle, and a crop.

the in-camera info for this shot was aperture priority with no exposure comp. I let the camera autofocus but grabbed the lens' focus ring to adjust the exact point of focus before clicking the shutter. I've found that manually fine-tuning the focus makes a big difference to getting good macro shots since DOF is so narrow. this easy instant manual override is one of the nice features of Nikons AF-S lenses.

@Monique: Thanks Monique.

I just use the autofocus to calibrate - see if the lens will focus at that distance and get close to where I need to be. The big zoom needs about a 50 cm distance (20 inches) to be able to focus and when close to the borderline it's faster to use autofocus to know when I need to move back a little bit . Luckily plants don't tend to move :)

@Paco Díaz: thanks Pco. I'm rather a luddite and don't have PS installed, so my post processing tends to be very basic. one day I will learn how to do these things: thanks for the advice.

@Francesc B.: thank you. I thought it might be difficult... will have to wait until it blooms again next spring :)