Floating ashes

Yesterday I burned some dead brush in the back yard. The air was still, and when the large dead leaves caught fire, the heat would loft them straight up into the air. I watched the curling smoking blades twisting and twirling aerobatically while they floated and drifted drunkenly down to earth. They underwent an interesting transition with their veins glowing bright orange contrasting against their flickering white and black sinus. Cooling and blackened, they disintegrated, shedding small particles in all directions. Spirals of smoke trailed behind their descending souls.

I put my Nikkor 85mm on and tried to capture the scene. I shot the leaves at f/1.8, and therefor caught only a very shallow pane of focus. If I had shot them around f/4 or 5.6, I probably would have caught the entire leaf in focus. Still, the D800 impressed me. I used the continuous autofocus for these shots and while I tracked the floating leaves with the shutter release half depressed the camera zipped the scene into focus with speed and accuracy.