Your Take Today: USA Today's Top Reader Photo
Sometimes, camping can bring beauty to one's eye.
Your Take contributor Jennifer Messina captured this beautiful shot while camping in California on the East side of the Sierra mountain range.
"I loved the symmetry, the colors, and the balance, so I grabbed my camera, waited for a cloud to pass in front of the sun to diffuse the sunlight, and took this shot."
She captured the shot using her Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera with a 24-105mm lens. Messina takes most of her photos in RAW format and edited this photo in Adobe Camera RAW. "I generally edit almost all of my photos, but I try not to overdo it, so as to preserve the actual look and feel of the moment," she said.
Messina took this photograph after noticing all of the little berries poking out of the plants at the camp site.
"Most of them were light brown in color, perhaps another species or the same plant in another stage, but there was one plant in particular that was filled with tiny pink berries and this branch really caught my eye."
Messina said she loves having an outlet for creativity, learning new things and trying to capture little moments.
"Most hikers just seemed to walk by without really looking, and it was fun to capture how happy and full of life it seemed in that moment," she said.
Messina believes some of the most difficult parts of macro photography are focus (especially outdoors when the wind is fighting against you) and providing context for the image.
"Photography has the power to speak to people in such a unique and real way, and I'm constantly in awe of and inspired by other photographers' work."
See more of Messina's photography on her website, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Google+ accounts.
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