Very large Big Leaf Maple trees live in the woods where I live. These trees are now beginning to bloom. With the soft light of this early morning, light rain and a soft breeze, the clusters of catkins stood out against the dark trunks and shadows of the woods. EF 200-400mm + 1.4x @ 784mm; f/8 @ 1/80 sec, ISO 800, Auto exposure, TV mode; Evaluative metering, Manual WB. Due to the wind and shallow depth of field I used a five-image focus stack to capture all the catkins and branches in focus yet create a soft focus (bokeh) in the background.
