Dew drops on pine needles

Join Yehoshua Halevi for a Photography Walking Tour this week.

By YEHOSHUA HALEVI
Dew drops on pine needles (photo credit: YEHOSHUA HALEVI)
Dew drops on pine needles
(photo credit: YEHOSHUA HALEVI)
As luck would have it, I arrived on a lonely hilltop just outside Givat Ye’arim, due west of Jerusalem, early enough to inhale a deep breath of daybreak.
Dewdrops abounded on tiny Cabernet grapes and spindly vines hanging perilously on the outstretched tips of pungent pine needles. The sun was dodging clouds, testing my patience and my legs, which held me in steady shooting pose waiting for just the right light.
I wanted an artsy rendering of this subject, and in my mind’s eye I could see the beads of dew as points of light. I had the perfect lens in my bag to pull it off. Last year, I invested in a 135mm prime (fixed focal length) Nikon defocus control lens, reputed to be among the best lenses for tack-sharp portraits and beautiful bokeh, the area behind the subject in soft focus when a shallow depth of field is created. I chose a single dewdrop as my point of focus and let the lens sculpt its magic. The remaining dewdrops, both nearer and farther from the chosen drop, are thrown into extreme blur. One errant elbow or striding toe can knock the dew from its perch, so I trod gently into the forest, hoping to preserve a scintillating moment and turn light into a subject worthy of sharing.
Join Yehoshua Halevi for a Photography Walking Tour on the following dates: Tuesday, November 4 at 10 a.m. “Mahaneh Yehuda”; Thursday, November 6 at 9 a.m. “Nahlaot Adventure Tour”; Sunday, November 16 at 2:30 p.m. “Judean Mountain Spectacular Fall Foliage Workshop” (in Gush Etzion).
For details and additional workshop information, visit www.yehoshuahalevi.com.