The gray, overcast, and gusty weather seemed to present a challenge in composing an image in an “outdoor studio,” so I decided to give it a shot. This image looking down on a young milkweed plant was taken in the tall grasses outside our house.

I used my Nikon 60mm AF Micro Nikkor lens to get in close, mounted the Nikon D70 on a Benbo Trekker tripod that articulates to allow positioning at all angles, an infrared remote shutter control to avoid adding any shaking to the camera. Then because the wind was gusting, I propped a large piece of countertop laminate behind my legs to block the wind. I also have hidden behind the leaf in the bottom of the image a large clip from a Wimberly plamp, a kind of positionable clamp for holding things still. One end clamps to the tripod and the other to the object being photographed.

This particular exposure was captured at 1/5 second (hence the tripod, plamp, and remote control), with aperture of f/32.0 to give a greater depth of field, and an ISO of 200, which compromises between speed and noise (grain in the film days).