Twin Ponds macro

Yesterday I went to Twin Ponds in Shoreline, a surprisingly nice park for one so small, and right next to the freeway. As the name suggests, it surrounds two rather large ponds, and consists mostly of wooded area (along with a playground and some sports fields and stuff).

I only shot with my macro lens! I came mostly for the red-flowering currant bushes there. They aren't as far along in blossoming as they were the same time last year, or at least it seems to me. Neither are other trees and shrubs. Oh well, it was kind of the spring gods to wait until winter quarter was done to really get things going.

These three are the most respectable of the lot:

I found it hard to get suitable backgrounds, a surprisingly pesky little problem when shooting macro. Especially at midday on a sunny day (like yesterday), which heightens the contrast and thus distracting elements. For example, this one technically turned out pretty well but has a rather distracting background:

See what I mean? It would have been much cooler without the obtrusive house in the background.

I could have reduced the depth of field even further, but then, less of the bud/blossom cluster would have been in focus. Besides, the stark color changes in the background still would have been apparent. I guess when shooting macro you have to compromise between quality of background, quality of lighting, and quality of subject matter, and take shots that balance all three. Some of the shots I could have taken with better backgrounds yesterday were poorly lit. Likewise, some good subjects would have had even worse backgrounds than the one above.

A few others worthy of note from yesterday: