Timing is everything

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.