After I moved from my point-and-shoot camera to my first DSLR, and got a really good lens for it, this was the first photo I ever flat-out loved. I have loved willow trees since childhood, when I’d read under one in its shade on warm Summer days. And here’s one at the nature preserve, on the edge of its pond, keeping its bright green color as the world around it falls into the muddy brown that Chicagoans think of as Fall. The sun is low enough already to give us that great light, and this is another example of the macro lens, designed for closeup photography, just working with the scene to give us some gorgeous color and light and shade. I take credit for the composition and the camera settings it took to capture this, and not much more.

October 30, 2010. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 105mm Nikon macro lens (35mm equivalent: 155mm), f/4.5, 1/500, ISO 640.