The buckeye trees were blooming in the Great Trinity Forest last week. I photographed some lovely blooms, but then the light hit some of the leaves from above, making them glow.
Ahhhh, but here was the problem. . . .
The Texas buckeyes are a shade-loving tree, so there was a tangle of branches in the canopy above unfortunately positioned behind every backlit leaf I found. After much searching, I finally found one leaf cluster below a little patch of blue sky.
Another problem – the wind was constant and there was no way to get all the leaves sharp with a small aperture and slow shutter speed. (Believe me, I tried and failed miserably). So I just picked a spot to focus on and shot with a relatively high shutter speed. Now I just call it a soft-focus “artistic effect” and no one will ever know it was a compromise image!
Voilà.
Texas Buckeye Tree (Aesculus glabra var. arguta), Texas Buckeye Trail, Great Trinity Forest, Dallas, Texas, USA. Canon 1Dx. 180mm. ISO 640. f/5.6 @ 1/1000 second.
