A constant problem – how hard can it be to photograph a snowdrop?

I have a confession to make – I have been trying to get a really good photograph of a snowdrop for at least two years.  It is now turning into a bit of an obsession.  I may even have to compromise my principles slightly and drive to somewhere with lots of them posing in broad daylight, just waiting for the legions of photographers.

However, I digress.  Why do I have such an issue.  For starters, they come out in February when the light is not always kind to photographers.  Secondly, they are quite low growing, so it can be a bit of an effort to get to the correct level  and not a) get covered in mud or b) squash lots of its friends (and without cheating and picking the snowdrop).

Then there are the other problems – they are quite small, so having sufficient depth of field to get the snowdrop sharp, without having an irritating background, or needing a tripod (difficult again due to their low growing habits) is a task in and of itself.  Then, the biggest problem of all – they are white.  Yes, I know, that is why they are called a snowdrop, not a yellow drop or sky drop, but anyone who has ever taken a picture of something white, and relied on the through the lens metering of the camera (TTL) will know just how difficult a task getting the exposure right on a white flower is.  So, what to do.  I tend to hedge my bets, start off with -1/3 exposure compensation (even my Ixus allows for this) and work it down a couple of notches and hope that one of them will work.

The picture I have chosen, whilst far from perfect, is my best to date, and, I am particularly proud of it as the weather was mainly dull with only 10 minutes of sunshine at any one time.  First, the positives, I am pleased with the lighting on the snowdrop, I like the crop and the dark background (this is a result of setting the exposure to the flower – everything else is underexposed).  I also like the square crop.  However, I would have liked the image to be sharper, and there are parts of the petal that have lost detail because they are overexposed (particularly the petal on the right).

The picture was taken with my macro lens (100mm), set at ISO400 (due to poor light), f/6.3 (due to poor light) and 1/125 secs.  In the future I may try a tripod down low, better lighting and reducing the exposure compensation more than the two notches as I don’t think that this will particularly underexpose any other parts.