© Brad Mangas
I’m lucky enough to live across from a big sprawling park. There is an area very close that is loaded with big mature oak trees, mostly red oaks I believe. I have made many attempts to photograph these trees and the nuts they produce. Acorns on the trees laying under the trees doesn’t seem to matter I just like these nuts. I made another attempt a few days ago at dusk. One thing I learn for sure, mosquitos love these trees at dusk as well, wow! My time was limited as I danced around between shutter clicks swatting these little beasts.
I’m finding shots like this rather hard to create. Acorns are buried tightly in the leaves making good composition a challenge. Generally needing fast shutter speeds to eliminate any movement from the breeze so depth of field becomes an issue. As John Shaw teaches in many of his books, you need to keep the subject parallel to the film or in my case digital film to insure proper sharpness. This is a challenge with a group of acorns nestled in leaves and branches. What to keep sharp and what to let fall from focus.
More trips to the park are in order to create the images I have in my mind. Hopefully with less mosquito bites.
