The leaves for a silver and green matt at floor level, and the flower heads form lovely spirals before giving this lovely display, white tinged with a delicate pink – definitely need to put them on my shopping list.

I had to crouch on the fortunately dry and paved floor to get this, even better it was at the edge of the border as I am not sure Ryton Gardens would have appreciate me doing any pruning outside their restaurant windows!

I think this captures the essence of a cyclamen, there is nothing much more I can say – just a lovely plant portrait with a sufficiently subtle background.

Taken with my macro lens, ISO200, f/7.1, 1/125secs.

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.

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.

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?

I liked the way that most of them seemed to curl indiscriminately, with abandon.  Although there is probably a reason for this, it didn’t seem obvious, other than to look more interesting.  I took two shots of the same plant, one with the focus on the front of the stem, one on the back which is the one I have chosen.

I preferred this one because it had more interest, with the bug and the patterns on the leaf looking sharper, the bug also adding a sense of scale.

I had my macro lens fitted, and the camera set to ISO200.  I was on shutter priority to reduce the chances of losing a good shot to camera shake, and therefore at 1/125 secs the camera used an aperture of f/6.3.

Whilst everyone was distracted by the big eyes of the birds, I managed to make an escape along the hedgerow to see what I could find.

The light was quite subdued at times, and although I had brought a tripod, I still cannot get used to it, it seems cumbersome.  This is my excuse for the large aperture for a number of my photos.

I am trying out using shutter priority at the moment in order to stop myself getting carried away with macro shots and losing a perfect opportunity through camera shake.

Although it may not look exciting, this picture of a weevil (I know not what kind it is) is probably my favourite shot of the day.  I thought at first that it would have been better if the insect was looking at the camera, but I have changed my mind and prefer it this way – it looks as though it is contemplating life, the universe and everything.

What I like about the picture, other than the fact that it is actually fairly sharp, is the combination of colours, which makes for quite a serene picture.  I have cropped the picture, but that is all, and that puts the weevil right in the centre – this goes against the rule of thirds, but, I think it works.

The lens was, of course, my 100mm macro lens, it was handheld, ISO200, 1/160secs, f/7.1.