Today we're going to do a 180.  From fun to art (or at least I think it is).  A small backstory... I got the idea to shoot this subject back during Spring Break.  Playing with a dead leaf while michael was working on his car at his house, I realized I could literally pull a vein out of the leaf.  It was no wider than a strand of hair and no longer than 1/2 inch.  I looked at it, studied it and then it hit me... Macro + extension tubes!  I quickly ran inside and attempted to make an impromptu shoot outside where I lost the thread due to the wind, so I gathered some more leaves to play with later in the week.

That day came, I set up something black to lay it on, picked at the leaves until I got another satisfactory vein and did a shoot with natural light.  I posted 2 on flickr and got some feedback.  The two biggest suggestions I applied to my next shoot (early this month) was increased DOF and different backgrounds (oh and focal point).  I'm quite pleased with the way they came out this time around.

Shot at 11 p.m. at night using an external flash with a hand-fashioned bounce card at 90mm macro + 78mm of extension tubes, these are my results:

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Thanks for looking and sorry I talk so much.  I just thought the backstory might help in viewing them.  As for the festival, I'll return to it next week sometime.  I only have jousting, human chess and Paolo Garbanzo left.  Have a great day and comments, critiques and suggestions are always welcome and taken with a smile!