I therefore took advantage and went for a walk in the sunshine this lunchtime.  I took lots of pictures (even more than I took on my way to work), but when looking at them in Lightroom, this one caught my eye.  It is of a seed head from a greater willowherb plant – these are the pink flowers that spring up on all the roadsides.  However, I had not noticed before how intricate the seed head is when it has just opened.  They look a little like spider webs, with the fine parachute held between the prongs of the seed case.

I just wanted to share my new discovery with you – it is amazing what you find when you start taking pictures.

The photo was taken with my S90 at ISO80, 1/320 secs at 6mm, f/4.0.

This time the picture is of part of a Hellebore leaf that had caught the morning sun.  I like this picture because of the texture, the jagged edge of the leaf and the different shades of green – there is something almost reptilian about the leaf.  It also shows how intricate so much of nature is – I am sure there is a reason for the patterns of veins on the leaf.

I had the camera set to shutter priority (to stop me accidentally wandering into the realms of camera shake), at 1/125secs, ISO200 and, because it was quite low light the aperture ended up at 5.0.  (Needless to say I was handholding the 400D with my 100mm macro lens.)

What do I like about this apart from the fact that there is an insect in the shot?  I love the orange and the green – they work well together, and again, give a feel of Summer.

However, most of all I love the clarity of the wings, and the fact that, up close, the abdomen of the hoverfly appears to be shiny – something I didn’t expect.

Is there anything I would change  – two things – the top of the frame – less noise would be nice, and the exposure of the hoverfly – it was pretty dark down there and I left the judgement to the camera – next time I will try a few shots on different settings.

Handheld macro lens, ISO200, 1/125secs at f/9.

I like this shot out of all of them mainly because of the shape made with the shadow, the syringe is on one third, the shadow on another and together they make a triangle.

I have also tried playing with some of the presets in Lightroom 3 to change the colour – although I think I prefer the other one, for which I used a blue LED light fitted into my bedside lamp.

I took the pictures with my macro lens because I like the sharpness that it is possible to get (although the fluff and dust also stands out as well!).  I used a tripod and put the camera on timer as the light was intentionally low and I needed to avoid camera shake.  As I was using a tripod I had the option of ISO100, and could choose any aperture that I wanted.  For this shot I was at 0.3secs at f/14.

I wanted the focus of this to be the centre of the flower, but rather than zooming right in I also wanted to show the petals to get that extra colour.

For a change there is nothing I would alter about this picture – it has come out just how I wanted it to.

Taken with my EOS400D, Canon 100mm macro lens at ISO200, 1/160secs at f/5.0.

Settings on the camera were ISO200, 1/160secs at f/4.5 (handholding my macro lens on the EOS400D)

The composition of the main flower is just right, it sits in the right place in the frame, the hoverfly is sharp enough as is the centre of the flower.  The background is blurred enough that I don’t think the green interferes with the photo.  No, that is all OK, the thing that is not right is the other flower.  I am happy that it is blurred and its position in the picture, almost a reflection of the main flower.  What makes me unhappy is that it is chopped off at the bottom.  OK, I was the person that chopped it off at the bottom, but it was better than the alternative which was an array of incredibly distracting foliage!

This was taken handheld on my EOS400D with Macro lens, at ISO200, 1/125secs at f/10.

From a compositional point of view I think it sticks to the rules, the bee is on a third, as is the lavender.  I also like the feel of the shot – I can almost smell the lavender and hear the bees buzzing around.

This is a male bee (you can tell this by his yellow face) and is a bright yellow and black bee – they really stand out if you see them.

The shot was taken hand held – I had upped the ISO to 400, and put it on shutter priority, 1/125secs, at f/8.0 (needless to say my macro lens was put to use).

In this picture I was aiming to get the composition right, which is not always possible when nature is involved (for some it is, but I don’t believe in putting insects in fridges or cutting them from one picture to put in another).

The composition of this could be improved if the hoverfly had decided to sit on the left hand side flower, other than that I think that the focus is in the right place, and the bokeh works well.  In addition, the hoverfly (apart from the wing furthest from the camera) is pretty sharp in close up, and the colours are quite soft and muted.

The photo was taken at ISO200, 1/160secs at f/5.0 (the sun had gone in at this point, hence the wide aperture, and the muted colours) – I had the camera set to shutter priority.

I am thinking of entering this into the club’s natural history competition, but I am torn, the shot also looks quite good when cropped in on the hoverfly.  I have included the cropped version below – what do you think?

However, there are a lot of great plant photographers out there that I don’t think I could ever rival, so I concentrate on pictures of plants that are nearby and am trying to take more abstract and close up shots.

This is the same pine that featured in one of my most  abstract photos of about six months ago.  This time my eye was caught first of all by a small water droplet, then by the light on the needles at the edge of the shot.  I also liked the fact that it refused to be buffeted by the blustery breeze that made all the other plants impossible to photograph.

In essence I think that this photo, especially compared with the more abstract shot, shows a different facet of the plant.  There is the glaucous, subdued colour of the small cone and the fresher green of the needles, particularly when many plants were starting to look a little parched.  Unlike many conifers this is quite a soft needled, tactile plant which is one of the reasons that I bought it, and I think that comes through in the picture.

The picture was taken with a macro lens, handheld, ISO200, 1/125secs at f/4.0.