Damselfly

At this time of year I believe the best thing to do with a camera is to go out and just look at what nature is providing. This was taken in my back garden and started life as a check to see if my new compact flash cards were working – obviously they are.

For this shot I was using my macro lens, hand held, 1/160 sec, f/13, ISO 200. If you want to take some really good close-ups of insects then you will need a good macro lens (although I have taken some great shots with the macro setting on my point and shoot). The problem with a macro lens however, is that there is a very shallow depth of field, so getting the entire insect in focus can be tricky and will lead to lots of deleted shots in the digital darkroom.

To avoid disappointment and having completely useless shots concentrate on getting the eyes sharp, and, if it is not a windy day, consider using a tripod.

In the coming weeks I will post some more of nature’s finest, I hope you enjoy them.

Damselfly on a leaf

Each year Badby Photography Club has a set subject competion (I guess this is the same for all photography clubs). This year the subject is shadows, the competition is on 20th May. I wanted to approach this with a number of ideas of photogenic shadows, I even toyed with the idea of a sundial, but the shots I took were all a bit underwhelming. The picture shown is one that I will be entering, entitled ‘You can’t see me’. I have spent far too many hours in the last two weeks photographing emerging damselflies with varying degrees of success, but this picture of a damselfly from below is just right, I like the way you can even see her feet hanging on at the sides.