The woods (Woodland Trust’s Everdon Stubbs) are full of bluebells and stitchwort, but this one flower stood out, probably because of the way that the sun was lighting it.

I have cropped the picture in so there are fewer distractions and think that the tall thin crop reflects the elegance of the flower.  I like the way the sun catches the petals, but also the simplicity that comes from just having green and white (plus a tiny hint of yellow) in the photo.

I had my macro lens back on (although only briefly) and the settings were 1/800 secs (on aperture priority) at f/5.0 (to blur the background) at ISO200.

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.

Settings on the camera were ISO200, 1/160secs at f/4.5 (handholding my macro lens on the EOS400D)

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.

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.

Heliophilus Pendulus hoverfly ovipositing

One of my favourite competitions at the camera club is, unsurprisingly, the Natural History Competition, even though I never expect to win.  This year, we could enter three pictures, in any combination of projected or printed.  The main rule is that the pictures are ‘straight’, cropping and adjustment of exposure, levels etc are allowed, but taking things out or adding things in is not.  It also has to be a picture taken in the wild, e.g. no garden flowers.

This hoverfly is one of those I entered as a projected image.  It is a photo I took last year and is one with which I am pretty pleased, I hoped to do well.  I had even discovered the latin name thanks to John Showers, someone I met through the Northamptonshire bird club, who also runs Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust hoverfly identification courses – my picture will now feature in one of these courses (a fact of which I am very proud)!

The judge on the night apparently takes a lot of pictures of wildlife for competitions and has been judging for a few years.  He was also a very poor judge.  I was not too unhappy with the points awarded, and do not doubt his ability to judge a picture (well, not too much), but, his knowledge of Natural History appeared to me to be woefully inadequate.  Whilst I am not claiming that you need the knowledge of Chris Packham to judge a local camera club competition, I do expect the judge to know the difference between a hoverfly and a wasp (especially when the title of the piece was ‘hoverfly’) and to know the difference between baby blackbirds and starlings (with the latin name in the title). Although, apparently, the judge professed to making up latin names if they were needed for any of the competitions he entered.

He also stated that some pictures would have gained more marks if they had been photoshopped – perhaps he should have read the rules before starting the judging.  Is there any way of complaining about a judge?

For those interested in the photo, it is of a Heliophilus Pendulus hoverfly, taken in my garden, handheld using my 100mm macro lens, ISO 400 (remarkably clear for this setting), f/8, 1/200secs.

Hoverfly on a Cape Daisy

I make no apologies for adding another insect shot in to the library. This is as much about the reminder of Summer that it brings as it is about the shot. It is also a homage to my macro lens. The level of detail that I have managed to get from this lens has amazed me, but it has also started an interest in the world of invertebrates.  You can see the pollen on the insects legs and around its face, even without zooming in.

I also like the colours of the picture, the centre of the flower complimenting the colours of the insect and colour of the flower reminding me of the last days of Summer.

From a compositional point of view, I have cropped the photo and the hoverfly is sitting on a third and the central focus is sharp.

Picture was taken at ISO 200, f/10, 1/320 secs, hand-held.

Ladybird

At the moment I am supposed to be revising for an exam, so I am aiming to resist the lure of my camera, but, when the sun is shining and the sky is blue it is difficult to resist wandering outside into the light to feel the warmth of the sun on your back.  Occasionally, you just happen to find yourself outside with a camera.  But I digress.

As far as macro shots of ladybirds go (well, the ones I have taken) this isn’t bad, but there is a bit of blurring and movement about the face.  I had been watching this ladybird for a while, it had mainly been sat doing nothing.  Then, all of a sudden it seemed to wake up and zig-zag up a nearby plant.  I took a few photos along the way, then it got to near the top and I took this one.  Then, it flew away.

If I had paid attention to ladybirds over the summer, rather than developing a bit of a bee obsession, I would probably have recognised the signs.  As it is, you can just see that the wing cases are starting to open.  If I had waited a second longer I may have got a picture of it in flight – or I may have had a picture with some red fuzzy blurr, who knows.  But, patience is the key and timing is everything.  The time between shots when shooting in RAW meant that I couldn’t take another before it had gone.

Next year, I will mainly be studying ladybirds, and hope to catch one in flight without resorting to any trickery or imprisonment of said creatures.

For those interested, I had my trusty macro lens hand held, ISO 200 (light was variable), f/11 and strangely steady at 1/80 secs.

Fly

My previous post pointed out that you don’t necessarily need expensive gear in order to take photos, much more important is being there with a camera, otherwise, no picture. Some of you may think this is a little hypocritical considering the number of pictures of insects I have taken this Summer with my much loved macro lens. But, without the macro function on my compact camera, I probably would not have bought the macro lens. It was really this function, and the fantastic pictures I get from my Ixus that got me into photography in the first place.
The picture shown here was also taken with my point and shoot (P&S). There are very few settings I can change, but I can put it on a macro setting. The light at this time of year is variable, and not always great at the time and place you want to take a photo. I had tried taking some pictures of the fly with my macro lens, but, although the sun was out I would have to open my lens to f/7.1 in order to get a decent shutter speed, especially as it was a little breezy. With a macro lens, f/7.1 gives very little depth of field. The resulting pictures were a little less than impressive.
Therefore, out came the Ixus and here is the result. As usual, ISO was set at 200, the camera then selected f/2.8 at 5.8mm, shutter speed 1/1250 secs. Yes, I could have reduced the ISO, but as I didn’t know the shutter speed was that fast then it didn’t occur at the time. (Note to self, adjust ISO setting on Ixus once initial satisfactory shot has been achieved.)
For a few more photos taken with my compact P&S camera, please see my set on Flickr.

Hoverfly on Calendula

The thing that I liked about this shot was the colours, the bright orange of the calendula gives the picture a really warm feel, and then the colour of the hoverfly matches. If I zoom in to 1:1 the entire hoverfly, wingtip to wingtip, front to back, is sharp.

As usual, I used my macro lens at ISO 200, f/14, 1/250secs. The brightness of the flower allowed me to stop the lens down to give me that extra depth of field compared to some of my other shots.