April 19 2009 – I’ve been obsessed for some weeks now with getting a good photo of the leaves at the bottom of a pond out in the woods.  I’ve struggled with glare off the water, depth of field distortion, mud, silt, and dogs splashing in front of me. I realized I needed the sun right above me to light up the bottom, a powerful lens to zoom in, precise depth of field and good class to cut through the water. I got lucky today with a 180 mm w/converter shooting through seven inches of water. I am amazed at the life cycle of leaves. These have been on the ground since Autumn, and have only recently been dropped or blown into the pond (which didn’t exist until the snowmelt). Time to move back to stone walls and dogs.