Noticing a patch of forget me not leaves with dew and raindrops, there was an obvious opportunity for a nice shot. The easy option is to just point the camera and start shooting, using the machine gun approach and hoping you’ll hit the target. But that’s not ideal with any subject, it takes some time to search for a good framing of the subject, exploring the possibilities and choosing the best result.
Watching the edges
Here are four shots taken while exploring the patch looking for the best result. All of these have something that bothers me, a dark patch or area at the edges of the frame. The second frame has a large ugly dark patch, the others have varying amounts, with the fourth being almost “clean”. You can see slight variations in positioning, but in all the eye is attracted by the dark edge, leading the view away from the subject.
Eventually it was possible to find a frame with a clean edge to provide the design I was looking for, with no dark (or overly light) border to take the viewers attention. Always check your edges for distractions when composing. Of course if you find something after shooting you could crop or clone it out later on the computer. But it is simpler, and more satisfying, to get it right in the camera.
Forget me not dew