Spring is finally here with all its color, but I thought I would take a look back at the drab winter and give you a few thoughts.

My cure for the photographer’s cabin fever is finding interesting subjects to shoot indoors.  It’s not that I’m a wimp and don’t want to brave the cold, its just that what sells the best for me is images with color, and winter takes its toll on any color in nature here in the north. 

I can better spend my time marketing during the winter then out shooting images that won’t sell.  As much as I like winter, most people that view my images at the art shows tell me they don’t care for winter and they don’t want to look at it all year hanging on their walls.  I’m always looking for something interesting to shoot indoors.  Probably the most used indoor subject is flowers, and I do my share of flower shots, but I’m always in search of something new to shoot. 

I’ve always liked the look of bird feathers, the lines, texture and patterns have always interested me.  I have some turkey and sea gull feathers I’ve picked up locally from the parks where I shoot, but I wanted some feathers with a little more design and color.  I went online and did a search on feathers.  I found sites that were selling a variety of feathers, mainly used for home decor arrangements. 

Here are some images of the feathers I received. I had some fun setting them up and shooting!

I arranged these three feathers at slightly different angles as to not have them looking too composed. Shot at my favorite f/stop, f/32, with the Tamron 60mm macro lens. 

With this group I used two colorful feathers to flank the center feather which has more earth tones.  The resulting contrast allowed the center feather stand out.  Also shot with the Tamron 60mm macro at f/32.

These are tiny little feathers that I arranged in this group. I added a 25mm extension tube that would allow me to focus in closer on this small grouping.  I wanted a different and more abstract look, so shot this one at f/2.8.  The Tamron 60mm set at f/2.8 blurred the edges really well and I placed the point of focus on the center feather.

Even cooped up in winter, you can get your creative juices flowing!

That being said, I'll still take spring.

–Mike

You can visit Mike's blog here:  Tiny Landscapes