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.

If this was entered in a competition, I know that the judge would potentially have criticised the less than pristine state of the butterfly, and the distraction of the grass under the butterfly and the brown stripe at the side.  Also, perhaps the butterfly doesn’t stand out enough and I should have tried a different one.  (I did try, but the orange tips were having none of it).

So, why is this picture with all of its attendant faults making an appearance on my blog (apart from the fact that there is an insect in it)?  The main reason is that I went out with the intention of a) taking some architecture shots (which will appear on a later post) and b) some nice pictures of bluebells – after all, I do have a club competition coming up next week.  The architecture shots were OK, but not startling, and the bluebell shots were frankly disappointing – although I have a cunning plan which involves me, a tripod and Badby Woods (on a sunny day).  So, getting my best shot of a brimstone, on a bluebell, that is compositionally OK, made me feel as though my visit to Everdon Stubbs was not completely wasted.  Sometimes you do get an unexpected lucky break.

In the traditional manner, the shot was taken using my EOS 400d, handheld with 100mm Canon macro lens, settings were ISO200, 1/160 secs, f /9.0.

Postscript – I did enter this in a print competition at the club, and it scored 18/20.  There was no request to take anything out, thankfully we had a judge that was not Photoshop crazy.

At the bottom of the garden I found that our winter flowering Viburnum was starting to show signs of Spring, so I tried a few shots.  I had originally been tinkering with the idea of finding some contrasting backgrounds to brighten my pictures, but I think the muted background (an almost out of control ivy) sets off the light greens and pinks of the viburnum very well.

As I was handholding the camera and the light was low I had upped the ISO and reduced the aperture, the latter being responsible for throwing out the background so well.  I wasn’t very hopeful of getting a decent shot with such a wide aperture, but I am particularly pleased with the fact that the furry texture of the opening buds was picked up.  I also think a square crop works well with this picture and allows the subject to move across the diagonal.

On to the technical bits – ISO400, 100mm macro lens, f/5.0, 1/100 secs.