Too Close for Comfort

I spent a long time recently taking photos of the bees on a tree in my garden. I wasn't happy with the results.

Bees aren't easy subjects. The ones I was watching were very active, making it difficult to get properly focused shots. And I couldn't get close enough to get detailed shots. I didn't want to risk getting stung.

This shot was taken a few days earlier. A lucky shot when I was concentrating on the flowers from a safe distance. Perhaps that's a better approach for me.

I have this more detailed photo of a bee in my DPChallenge archive - a photo of a dead bee. And no, I didn't kill it.

Another Moth

I finally finished the job of moving my bonsai blog to its new domain last night, but in the process I've been neglecting this one. Although I suffer terribly from writer's block, I'd be lying if I said that the problem was entirely a lack of inspiration. I can be terribly lazy too.

But even when I'm struggling for ideas, old photos are in plentiful supply, so I figured I might as well share another moth. This one wasn't quite as spectacular as the Big Brown Moth that I shared back in May, and if memory serves me correctly it was a lot smaller, but I like the way this photo came out too.

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Linking up to Monday Macro 2, Black and White View and Nature Notes.

Weeds in Black and White

Lately I find that I can't stay away from black and white when editing my photos.

This was a photo of some weeds I shot a while back. The flowers were actually yellow, but they stand out against the background so much better this way.

If you click on the photo to see a larger version you may be able to see that the flower on the left was covered with ants.

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Linking up with Floral Friday Fotos and Saturday Show Off.

Chilli Flower

I'm still hard at work moving my bonsai blog to it's new domain and, while working with the photos I need for it, I came across this shot of a chilli flower which I used in a post I first published in early January this year.

I was very excited by this little flower, which was the first one on a seedling that I'd acquired a few months before. It was really tiny - about the size of my thumbnail, and I found it quite difficult to get a decent photo.

When I'd done editing it for my bonsai blog, I spent a little time playing with it in Photoshop and created a couple of semi-abstract flower shots.

This first one isn't too different from the reality, but the second one is much more abstract, though still recognisable as a flower.

By contrast to these, a lot of the images I create from my photos bear no resemblance to the photos I started out with.

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Linking up with Saturday Show Off and Macro Monday 2.

Caterpillars

Every now and then I'll come across a caterpillar on one of my bonsai trees. That's not good news because if I let them stay there, they can strip all the leaves off one of my little trees quite quickly.

However, as a photographer, I love to come across a pretty caterpillar and can't resist getting a quick photo of it before I relocate it to one of the bigger plants in the garden where it can't do too much damage.

These are two that I came across a couple of years ago.

Both photos are part of my Stockvault portfolio, so feel free to download higher resolution copies free of charge for non-commercial use.

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Linking up with Macro Monday, I Heart Macro, Camera Critters and Friday Greens.

Cactus Distortions

Sometimes photos don't work out quite how I hoped they would. This one was such a case.

After a lot of messing around in Photoshop, I managed to turn it into this:

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Linking up with Little Things Thursday and Friday Greens.

Cam O'Flage

I don't often take photos of flowers growing in nature. Usually my flower photos show flowers growing on potted plants. More often than not they're growing on my bonsai trees. However there are occasions when I need something a bit different and in May 2011 I needed to find a more natural view in a hurry.

I didn't have to look far as the daisy bush in my garden was covered with flowers. It's not a beautiful plant though and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to get anything interesting, but I had to try.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this little guy hiding in one of the flowers.

He moved around quite a bit during this shoot, but was cooperative enough to let me get several shots I liked.

I'm still not sure which one I like best.

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Linking up to Monday Mellow Yellows, Macro Monday and Through My Lens.

Me and My Shadow

This moth wasn't nearly as spectacular as the one I shared yesterday, and the photo would almost certainly  have lacked interest but for some lucky lighting. I wish I knew what made him position himself so perfectly facing into his shadow.

It's been quite a while since I took this photo and I can't remember what I was actually shooting that evening, but I was using my extension tubes and had the camera on a tripod, so everything was set up perfectly when I spotted this moth on the wall. He was really tiny - much, much smaller than he appears in this picture.

I wish I'd seen him with his wings spread out, but no doubt if I'd tried to get him to move he'd have flown away.

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Linking up to ShadowShotSunday and Camera-Critters.

The Big Brown Moth

I'm not often lucky enough to find moths or butterflies that are prepared to keep still for long enough for me to get decent photos, and it seemed that things would be no different when I first came across this moth, perched high up on a wall of my greenhouse. There was just no way that I could get close enough to get the shot I wanted and reluctantly I was forced to give up on what I was sure would be a one-off opportunity.

Second chances rarely happen, but this time I was lucky. Two days later I found him on the garage wall at just the right height for me to get the shot I wanted without having to do any uncomfortable contortions.

It was only later, when looking at the photo, that I noticed how much his wings resemble a curled-up leaf.

It's nearly two years since I took this photo and I've never seen another moth quite like him. Perhaps I never will.

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Linking up to Saturday's Critters.

The Fly

When looking for subjects for my photos, I try to look beyond the obvious.

A couple of weeks ago I had to fetch a friend from her flat and while waiting for her to come down to the car I was looking around to see if anything interesting caught my eye. It didn't take long to find something.

When she arrived she saw me taking photos and asked if I was shooting a pretty orange flower that was growing close to where I stood.

I wasn't. The tiny subject that captured my attention was this fly.

Although I don't have a dedicated macro lens, I was quite pleased with the amount of detail my camera managed to capture. At full size one can see lots of tiny hairs and there's also quite a bit of colour in a creature that appears black to the human eye.

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 If you would like to use this image, you can download a high resolution copy free of charge at Stockvault.net.