Although this is not compositionally great, I think I have done well to capture the sun on the seed, and the motion of the wind, blowing the fine hairs about.

The camera settings (macro lens still in place) were ISO400, 1/125secs at f/7.1.

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.

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.

From a compositional point of view I think it sticks to the rules, the bee is on a third, as is the lavender.  I also like the feel of the shot – I can almost smell the lavender and hear the bees buzzing around.

This is a male bee (you can tell this by his yellow face) and is a bright yellow and black bee – they really stand out if you see them.

The shot was taken hand held – I had upped the ISO to 400, and put it on shutter priority, 1/125secs, at f/8.0 (needless to say my macro lens was put to use).

The fly was sitting in the sun on a slightly breezy day on some parsley flowers in the back garden.  The difficulties lay in getting close enough without falling in the pond or making the fly move on, and also to catch the fly facing the camera.

The image was taken using my macro lens on my 400D at ISO200 1/160secs at f/7.1.

Twisted Branches

I went for a walk in the Winter sunshine yesterday, not necessarily with the intention of taking photos, but took my EOS400D with me.  As I did not know what I would be taking photos of I chose my kit lens (17-85mm), it is a lens I have not used for some time; the results can be a little disappointing at either end of the focal length range, but it does the job in the middle.

I am contemplating buying another lens at some point, perhaps a fixed focal length of 35mm or 50mm, so this lens also affords an opportunity to test out how much I would use either lens.

I also took my polarising filter with me as the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

So, why did I take this shot (and the many others that look remarkably similar)?  Firstly, and most obviously, I liked the shape of the branches – the effect differed depending on position, and, with the lens set at one of two focal lengths, I found myself moving around the subject quite a bit.  I also liked the contrast of the semi-bleached branches against the blue of the sky.  But they were not just dead wood, they had lichens growing on them as well.  So there were two stories to the tree, it is both architectural and a home to other flora and fauna.

A third reason for photographing trees is that this is one of our set subjects this year, for projected images, and so I am looking for inspiration and opportunities for the competition.

I cropped in from a larger picture, preferring to focus on the twists of the dead branches rather than show the whole of the tree in context.

For those interested this was taken at ISO100, 1/30secs, 35mm, f/9.

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.