Dragonfly

I couldn't miss this opportunity to capture such a beautiful insect as it landed so close to me. I had my 100-400mm lens on the camera so had to back away a bit because I couldn't focus as close as I was, and fortunately he stayed put for several minutes just enjoying the sunshine!

Studio Macro Wildlife Photography

I have recently become interested in macro photography and have been shooting bees and other insects in the garden, but when I found a dead wasp in the house I noticed that it still looked as vibrant and beautiful as it had when it was still alive. This idea fascinated me and so I collected a dead woodlouse and moth and took them with the wasp in to the studio. I had thought about ways in which to photograph these beautiful insects and tried various approaches, however, the images you see here are the ones that really stand out for me. The idea was to photograph as if cataloging them for a museum archive or something similar, although I did add some colour by placing a piece coloured card behind each one in an attempt to increase the intensity of their colour. Therefore, even though these little creatures are no longer living, their intricate detail and natural beauty is still more than evident.

Photographing Bees In The Garden

Now photographing insects is something I have never done before, however, I have noticed a fair few bees and wasps in my garden recently and although I don't have a macro lens I thought I'd give it a go. Obviously I couldn't get too close with a telephoto lens but with this in mind I tried to capture not only the creature itself but also an interesting composition around it. Using a large aperture o give me a shallow depth of field I was able to create blurred backgrounds so the main focus remains with the bee and the flower it is collecting from. To add a little impact and more colour I was able to use the grass behind the subject as a backdrop to help the purple flowers and colour of the bee to stand out even more, and with the bright sunshine this has enhanced the composition nicely.

Later in the week I was able to borrow a macro lens and although I had to wait for the rain to clear and the sun to shine, I was able to get a handful of very close up photographs of this bee, and as it was my first attempt I was quite please with how it turned out.

Crow Pulling Branches For Nesting Material

Well we actually had some hot sunny weather here in May and early June which meant that photographing birds is a little easier seeing as though they often move so fast, particularly the small ones. However, with larger birds it can be easier to avoid motion blur, and here I have a shot of a crow perched on a tree near my house. It seemed as though he was searching for nesting material as he was trying to pull small branches off and eventually he got one, as you can see.

for me, another great thing about photographing birds in bright sunlight is that the background can be so vibrant and colourful.

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick post to wish you all Merry Christmas, this is a shot of a bauble on my Christmas tree, snapped it a few weeks back as I realised I didn't have any Xmas related images!

Close Up Photography

I have been having great fun getting to know my new digital SLR and it's many many features and functions, and have been photographing all kinds of things including everyday objects that you wouldn't necessarily think of as being great photographic subjects. While this is certainly true of some things, I believe that there is potential in many everyday objects and sunjects if you look closely enough, and I also believe that sometimes you just have to take the shot before the subject or light changes and it is lost. Take this close up abstract for example, I wasn't even thinking about photography at this moment in time but the sun just broke through the clouds and lit the window and net curtain casting a shadow on the curtain itself and it looked interesting so I shot it, close up, as I saw it.

The First Photograph With New Camera

This is the very first photograph I took with my new camera, the Canon 450D digital SLR. I couldn't wait to use it and so pointed it at the first thing that looked interesting and took a few pictures. Until now all the images you see on this blog have been taken on film with a manual SLR camera but from now on there will be a mixture of film and digital images.