Frozen Still-life.

I shot this one on Nikon D3 with 105mm f2.8 macro lens, and post processing on Nik software.  Camera setting it was on A mode at f/16.

1. First, you 'll need to find a suitable subject.  Leaves are the most obvious subject to freeze, being something that you might find natural frozen in a puddle, or the edge of a lake at this time of year.  A maple leaf caught my eye, thanks to its colors and interesting shape.  However, you may well have other ideas, and just about anything will work, from a feather to a pine cone.

2. Pour some water into your dish and place it the freezer-ensuring it is lying flat so that it freezes evenly.

3. Once the water has frozen, you can begin snapping.  You could shoot it indoors, using a lightbox to backlight it, but it opted to take it outside, so I could use the softness and warmth of the natural light.  Using a tripod, I positioned my camera overhead, composed my shot and released the shutter.  However, the brightly-lit ice fooled my metering system into underexposure.

4. To solve the problem, I knew I needed to apply a degree of exposure compensation.  As with most DSLR's, my camera has a dedicated exposure compensation facility.  Using this, I selected a compensation of +1stop.  I took another photo and, having studied the result (and corresponding histogram) on my camera's LCD, I knew that the exposure was now correct.

The final image:  Ice thaws quickly under direct sunlight, so work quickly.  With the exposure now correct, try different compositions.  I tried horizontal and vertical formats, and went in close to isolate specific detail as well as including the leaf in its entirely.