Downy Feather or Christmas Tree?
I found a downy feather next to the feeders, so of course, I photographed it.
I found a good-sized down feather this afternoon, near where the Pterodactyl, I mean Pileated Woodpecker feeds. It was about an inch and a half long and in inch wide, so not from a small bird.
Whatever the source, naturally I took it inside and set it up in front of the camera with a microscope objective. (LOMO 3.7X, the little wonder)
I have been noticing that while many people doing this like to get perfectly lit photos of insects and other objects, I seem to use limited lighting and unusual angles because I like to try for more imaginative results. This one knocked my proverbial socks off.
(I’m wearing compression socks these days, so that’s really saying something!)
Technical info: Sony A7r IV camera with about a 150mm extension tube to the LOMO 3.7X objective. This is near the tip of the feather. Exposures were 0.8” in the weak-ish light of my tiny LED desk lamp. From a technical standpoint, this image is full of flaws: things that are in the background show up in the foreground during the image merge; a large barb on the left (vertically) is far out of focus, and blah blah blah.
It’s a pretty image, and that’s what I prefer. I will leave perfection to others.
Other technical info: I noticed that the image naturally divided into warm and cool sections: one side had a tan wall as background, and other had my deep mauve desk as background. I accentuated that in processing, but the real magic is in the lighting and the bright base of the barbs on the feather. A little late for Christmas, but it looks almost as if that seedpod at lower right is a tiny bird in an evergreen tree with some snow on the branches.
A particularly exquisite image. It would print up beautifully. A soft image for a peaceful room.
You have a Pileated woodpecker in your neighborhood? Lucky! They are fascinating. I am curious to know about your feather. Someone could identify the bird.