A few weeks ago these were just in bud, the weather was gloomy and I had no chance of hand holding a camera attached to my macro lens.  Then the sun came out.  I like the shape of the petals and the richness of the purple contrasting with the yellow of the centre.  They are the very essence of spring.

The settings on the camera were 1/500secs at f/7.1 with the aforementioned macro lens attached at ISO200.

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.

I took the picture with my compact camera, but cropped in close as the centre seemed to be fairly sharp.  I like the brightness of the petals, and the slight clash with the yellow parts of the centre.

Taken at 1/160secs, f/4.0mm, 6mm, ISO80.

The camera was on macro setting, 1/80secs, f/4.0, 6mm, ISO80.

I found this group as I was wandering across a field after looking at some other mushrooms.  I thought that taking the group from above would make for a different shot, usually mushrooms, as with many other plants, are photographed from the side.  There were so many shapes, sizes and colours all crammed together, that I thought it was quite an interesting group – even if there are some bits of grass and dandelion leaves muscling in on the action.

The part of the picture that I am not sure about is the large mushroom in the top left hand corner, maybe it is a little too large?

I took this with my Canon Powershot S90, set at 1/30secs, f/4.0, 6mm at ISO80.

Well, not much because all of the grass appears to have cut and therefore most of the flowers, fungi etc.  It also seems to be too cold for the insects at 8am, and, who can blame them.

I meandered slowly, took pictures of autumn leaves etc, but this is my favourite from the hour long session.

Dandelions can be such fantastically photogenic subjects.  The thing that I liked about this was the shape of the stem which just gave it an added dimension.

Unfortunately the light wasn’t too bright and neither was I, so instead of upping my ISO to 400 I took this at ISO200, f/5.0, 1/125 secs with my macro lens which is why the lovely stem is not as sharp as it could be.  Other than that, I am pretty happy with this.

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.