A little Common Blue

 

 This is a picture of a Common Blue butterfly which I took in my garden this morning. I'd actually been gardening and not planned to take any photographs. We normally just have cabbage white butterflies in the garden so I was a little excited when I saw this little fellow. It crossed my mind if he would still be there once I returned with my camera. Luckily it was still there although on another bush in the garden. So I fired off a couple of shots and chased him around for a few minutes. This is the result, I hope you like it. 

  MHDigital

Seed Heads

seed-head, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Well, not sure at all what these are from, but I thought they were most eye catching. Again taken at Mark's Hall in Essex.

It's a great place in the autumn for the nature photographer.

There are Fallow Deer around the area too, only saw a very small glimpse of one yesterday, before it ran off through the woods.

Mark's Hall has a good visitor centre/Coffee shop, which sell some nice home made cakes :-)

Damselfly

Damselfly, originally uploaded by Markonmersea.

Not sure what kind of Damselfly this is, but it was a remarkable blue colour. I am sure it was playing with me too, as I got close it would fly away.

Cactus Flower

This is a shot of my Cactus flower, it only last between 24 and 36 hours. I read on the internet how to get it to flower and thought I would try.

Basically you have to NOT water your cactus between November and end of March, none at all. It's now July and I have had success with this beautiful display.

Once the bud starts growing, it is so rapid, probably only took a week to get to this stage.

Apparently the flowers in the wild are pollinated by Bats. Hope you like the shot.

Something a little prettier

Another shot of a Cosmos Daisy in the garden, they are excellent subjects for a flower photographer.

The wind was only slight today and made the job easier.  Used a very shallow DOF, I used f2.8 with the Sigma 105mm Macro lens.  Using the shallow DOF really focuses you onto the flower.

Any way hope you like it.

Monster house fly

I think I was lucky with this little fellow, no matter how close I got he just didn't want to move.  Good for me.

Well this is a shot of a common house fly in all it's glory.   It never ceases to amaze me how hairy these things actually are.  The detail in the eyes are quite spectacular too.

Bee Closeup

Managed to get a good close up of a bee today.  He was cleaning the pollen off his eyes, hence the leg.

I actually used "Live View" to set this shot up, as the ground was wet after the rain.

Settings:

ISO: 100

Speed: 1/250th

F stop: F10

Flash fired -1.25 stops

Cosmos Daisy

We have some lovely Cosmos Daisies flowering at the moment, this one is from the Greenhouse, so pretty much under controlled conditions.

Used my macro setup.  Settings used:

ISO: 100

Speed: 1/250th

F stop: F10

Flash fired -1.25 stops

Using these setting gives some nice lighting on the flower, and the background is pretty much non existante. 

Hawthorn Shield Bug

Another shot from the garden today. This little critter was on the Pear Tree, and I was wondering if to sqaush it or not. Apparently they do not harm the plants......... Well hopefully.

Techie Bit:

Exposure: 1/125

Aperture: f/7.1

Focal Length: 105 mm

ISO Speed: 200

Another Crocus

Not that I am getting predictable or anything, but here is another Crocus shot.  Well they are a nice little flower to practice with my macro setup.

I like the way this shot has turned out, with the stamen just showing behind the petal. 

Not sure that I will get many more shots of the crocus's as they don't tend to last that long, and the wind and rain (which we had today) has pretty much laid them to the ground.

However, I have been trying to get some shots of the helibores that are coming to flower in the garden at the moment.  Plus I can just about see the bluebell shots starting to poke through.

Anyway, hope you like the shot.

Now with the new macro rig.

Ok, I have now got my full macro rig for my camera.  I bought a Kirk Macro bracket with the addition of a Giotto Ball head.  These two pieces of kit combined with my Speedlite 430EX II & TTL Off shoe cord work a treat. 

The photo is of a viola, I was suprised myself of the detail I have captured, and I never knew that they looked like that inside.

Thanks for looking.

3

Not really inspired to go outside today, as it is raining.  Waiting for spring to turn up, and at least I will be able to do some flower shots.

In the meantime, I have been playing around with the Speedlite, and doing some still life.

Chilli

Well I have been playing around with my 430EX II flash gun today.  Used it on an off shoe cord (purchased from Ebay), bounced the light on a gold reflector to give a bit more warmth to the shot.

I am waiting for some remote triggers to arrive from Ebay, so I will be trying out lots of other shot with my strobes.

Hope you like the shot.

Chinese Lanterns

Happy New Year!

I thought I would get my light tent out today and have a play around. With my tent it came with a number of coloured back drops.  I thought that the black one would show the subject off the best.

The reflective surface was obtained by using a piece of polished black granite.  I used my flash gun remotely for the lighting.

Hope you like it.

Waterdrip

Taken with my Sigma 105mm EX DG macro lens.  Shows a waterdrip, which in itself is acting as a lens and it focusing the seed head behind it.

Cyclamen

Last year we created a Woodland garden underneath one of our trees. The area doesn't get much nature sunlight during the autumn and winter months, which is perfect for the Cyclamen to grow in.

Tried to isolate a single flower.

Unknown Caterpillar

Well this is the first shot with my new camera, just recently got a Canon 40D. Very impressive camera, I feel like a pro now.
Not sure what this caterpillar is, but there are lots of them eating our salad crops. It is unbeliveable how fast these little critters eat, so I expect that there will not be much left for us to eat.
If anyone know what this is, please drop me a comment.
Hope you enjoy looking.

Gatekeeper

This butterfly is called a Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus). Wingspan Male: 37 - 43mm Female: 42 - 48mm.

Took a while for this one to settle, but managed to fire off a couple of good shots. Was lucky enough to be able to drop the ISO down to 200, and the light was good.

Hope you like it.

Heavy Bee

This made me laugh watching this Bee trying too land and feed from this flower.  He was just too heavy and kept sitting on his backend.  You can even see his legs sticking out of the side.

Hope you like it.

Photoshop

Yes, you guess it, another shot with my Sigma 105mm EX DG macro lens. I processed this one in Photoshop CS3, but used some other filters to see what results it brought out.

Filters that I used were "Alien Skin, Exposure" and "Nik Software Sharperner Pro". The Exposure filter give you a chance to apply film filters, on this shot I used Velvia film filter, this give the shot a warmer tone and highlights the colours more. The Sharperner pro filter is pretty good, I think it's better than the "Smart Sharpen" in CS3. Anyway I hope you enjoy the shot.