The onset of spring and the lighter evenings was the perfect excuse to dust off the macro lens and hit the meadows to see what emerging plants and insects we could find. The overcast Bank Holiday weather created a wonderful bokkeh and cast incredible colours across the Scottish forests and fields, enabling us to capture some beautiful shots of emerging flowers and trees. Here’s a few of our favourites.Further images are available in our TarajiBlue macro photography gallery.
I think I was one of the few people who was genuinely excited to see the rain this Bank Holiday weekend. Whilst marooned in the middle of a Scottish field, the spring rains provided the perfect opportunity for me to indulge my love of macro photography. I was equipped with my new macro extension rings (a Christmas gift) and was eager to give them a trial run.
I started on the Saturday with the 25mm extension ring on my Canon ES 100mm lens and was astonished at how close I could get to ‘the action’. Hand-holding the camera in the blustery winds proved to be a challenge, but in half an hour or so I’d become accustomed to the equipment and the weather, and had started to produce some good results. I spent most of my time with my bottom pointing skywards, rain dripping down my trousers, as I took to the undergrowth in search of raindrops on grass stems and weeds. I fell in love with what I saw. The extension rings enabled me to get so close to the plants that three or four raindrops would fill my eyepiece and I’d begin to notice fine hairs on weeds, individual patterns on a single blade of grass and see colours and landscapes reflected in the tiniest of waterdroplets. The picture above was one of the first I took and it is pretty much straight out of the camera – no editing and crucially no cropping.
I especially like the image below because I love how an ‘ordinary’ weeds has been transformed to look like a Venus fly trap preying on the single and vulnerable raindrop.
I’ll think twice before I weed our garden next time!
Additional macro photographs taken this weekend have been added to the Taraji Blue macro challenge photo gallery. I hope you like them and I welcome any comments and feedback.
Whilst most people might despair at the turn in the weather I was thrilled to see that Jack Frost had been dancing around. This is for two reasons:
a) It provided a great opportunity for some macro photography shots out in the field – frost patterns on flowers and leaves made great subjects, as did and the formation of water drops as the frosty morning gave way to a bright sunny afternoon.
b) It means winter is well and truly here – and I have some grand plans for winter photography this year…bring on the snow!
In celebration of this turn in the weather I thought I’d share the picture above – I hope you like it.
As much as I adore the manatees, elephants and big cats of the this world (heck, I have even become a twitcher), there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a spider. Not only are they incredibly intricate and stunningly beautiful to photograph, they also create what I consider to be one of the world’s most beautiful structures…the web.
This love has not emerged overnight – far from it. But over the last few months I have been studying these most fascinating of creatures at home and abroad. I thought my love for them was sealed when I discovered the giggly wee fellow in France – but it was not until a wintery weekend in Yorkshire that I fully appreciated these incredible creatures.
Whilst wandering in the forest of Fairburn Ings, Yorkshire (a RSPB reserve), one misty afternoon, my attention was grabbed from sky to ground as I noticed hundreds upon hundreds of stunningly beautiful dew laden spider’s webs, bouncing light around like crystals. They were on trees, holly bushes and formed a bejeweled carpet under my feet. I did not hesitate to grab my macro lens and jump right in. These images (above and below) were my results.
Both photos were taken with a Canon EOS 7D with my EF 100mm macro lens at f/2.8, ISO 640. On a misty, winter’s afternoon it was quite dark in the undergrowth, hence the need for a higher ISO than usual with my macro shots. I hope you like them as much as I do!
Additional macro shots are available in our online macro gallery.
I’m always striving for the best colours and exposures from my images – ideally so I need to do as little post processing as possible. Not only because this makes my life a lot easier, but it also gives me great pride to produce a great shot ‘as is’, without the need for extensive touch-ups and fixes. Now it’s not always possible – especially when shooting in limited light, but I have become all too familiar with my personal desire to obtain HDR quality shots without needing to HDR.
I was, therefore, surprised when I fell in love with these shots – they’re not the bold and more ‘obvious’ style of photography which I tend to lean toward. Instead they favour a more muted but contrasting colour palette which is more akin to the style of photography of some of my good friends. I must have been inspired by them the day I took these.
Both of these shots (above and below) are wildflowers from the Loire Valley, France, from the wild fields and orchard surrounding our gite. They were both taken at ISO 160. However, in a break from macro tradition, the shot above was actually taken with our Canon 100-400L lens at 400mm, f5.6 with an exposure bias of -1/3 EV , whereas the image below was taken with my favoured Canon EF100mm macro lens at f3.2 and with an exposure bias of 1/3 EV.
I like both results – and will strive to try and repeat this style of shot again in the future..watch this space.
