A JEWEL IN THE WOODS—

Drops of moisture take on the appearance of crystal jewels in soft afternoon sunlight along a wooded trail.

The water on the maple leaf is hard to explain. There had been heavy frost overnight in the local area but, none here, and no other precipitation that day of which I am aware.

This arouses the curiosity of my scientific nature. Perhaps the droplets are the result of that magical dance along the fine line of temperature-dew point spread where water vapor cannot decide whether it wants to be a liquid or a gas.

Regardless, the creative side of me says--simply be thankful and enjoy these visual delicacies whenever they occur.

Amen.

Photo notes: This picture was done by extending the camera’s lens to full telephoto and manually adjusting focus to the macro mode. Then the picture was composed and sharply focused simply by moving the camera until that was achieved. The exposure also was manually controlled and slightly underexposed to lessen the shadow detail so it did not compete with our center of interest for the viewer’s attention. Caution: this kind of photo work leads to muddy knees.