It was a photo that had to be taken.  I have cropped in, but that is all.  It is not an exciting photo, but I still like it.  It is an example of what is out there if you take the time to look around.

Taken on my compact camera, the settings were (in macro mode) ISO80, 1/30secs at f/2.8.

I felt that I needed to try and take some shots of something different, and so I have some shots of the estate and associated warehouses, but this is my favourite shot.

I took it because I was struck by the way the light was catching all of the mosses and lichens – it made them almost shine and look like crushed velvet.  However, I couldn’t seem to capture that in a picture, it just seemed to look too flat.  I therefore settled back to my natural instinct, crouched down and took a close-up shot.

I like the different textures, the soft, fluffy moss and the hard pavement.  But I also like the different colours, and the fact that lichens and mosses are taking over something so man made and hard as tarmac.  I also tried to convey how the moss just seemed to stretch away, covering quite a large area.  I think the photo also captures a little of the feeling of the light – it just doesn’t capture the feeling of the cold that came with it!

The settings on the compact were ISO80, 1/320 secs, 6mm, f/4.0.

Instead of taking a picture of the lupin flowers (although I sort of did that as well- picture on Flickr ) I decided to take a picture of the leaf.

The in-your-face nature of the flowers means that the leaves are often overlooked – I have never taken a photo of them before (although I haven’t taken one of the flowers either so that just means that I don’t have any in my garden), but they are so architectural.  Just look at the shape, they seem very precise and neat, and get slowly darker from the centre to the edge.

As I was in Ryton then my macro lens came as standard, settings were ISO200, 1/125 secs, f/10.

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.)

Anyway, unlike most of my attempts at dew drops this has come out pretty sharp (although I have sharpened it a touch in Lightroom).  What I liked about this however, was not the dew drops, pretty though they are, but the shadows they cast on the other leaves.  The drops at the top and bottom of the picture are linked by an s-curve, and the picture retains a degree of simplicity by the fact that there is only one type of leaf and only one colour against a black background.

I decided to make the picture a little more abstract by cropping out quite a lot of the picture.

This picture was taken handheld using my EOS 400D equipped with macro lens, ISO200, 1/125secs, f/13.

What immediately caught my eye was the dwarf pine that I recently bought, partly because I like the feel of the needles (they are very soft and tactile – unless you have a pine allergy), and partly because I thought it looked nice.

I took a few close ups, not sure where to focus, and was pleased with nearly all of them.  For once they were better than I had expected when I looked through the viewfinder.  The close up shows up the shades of green and yellow brought out by the Winter Sun.

For those interested my 100mm Macro lens was back at work, handheld, ISO 200, 1/125secs and f/6.3 to get the shutter speed and a softer depth of field.