HONEY BEE

What i

 am trying to achieve here is to get tghe pin cushion effect of the Bees eye,to do this i managed to get this bee early im the morning before it had warmed up and become more active,i ntried to get as close as i could with a macro lense set at f/5 at 1/320 sec at 105 mil and an ISO of 400.the first shot was nicely poised but looking back now it doesn't really appeal to me but i don't know why.

The second shot has got the eye effect i was after but i still don't like the picture it just seems bland and the Bee is going no where.The settings were the same except i lowered the aperture to f/4.2.

The next three shots are of a different Bee which again were taken early in the morning before it became to active,the setting were this time taken at f/22 to try and get more of the Bee in focus and so i slowed the shutter right down to 1/60 sec with an ISO af 400.i had to slow the shutter down to get the light as i did not want to raise the ISO any higher in case i got noise on the picture,so putting the camera on a tripod and using a cordless shutter release the images are sharp and luckily the Bee kept still because at such a slow shutter speed any movement would of been disasterrous .

Again the end results are not what i wanted but the images are sharp and colours and compositions are half decent

Lesser periwinkle

Having looked through a very old AA book of the British Countryside (1973)  I think this is a Lesser and not a Greater Periwinkle as the lesser is approx 1" and the greater is 2" and these are 1 1/2" so they are in the middle of the both of them (confused so am i ).Right these were taken at F6.3 at 1/200 sec with a max aperture of 3.6 and an ISO of 400 ,what i wanted was to get the centre of the flower sharp as when you pass them in the hedge rows you dont notice the inside of the flower which on closer inspection are very complexed indeed.This first shot has the centre sharp but i have not got the whole flower in the shot which is what i wanted.

For the last two shots i changed the settings to get more in the shot and too get more in focus so i changed the f stop to f/11 and the shutter speed down to 1/30 sec on a tripod with the vr turned off with a max aperture 3.5 and this last shot is what i wanted a sharp image with good colour and a semi blurred background .

Orange Tip Butterfly

Having taken photos of this small Butterfly i used  The Readers Digest Book on Britains Wildlife,Plants and And Flowers to find out the Butterfly's Name  and habitat

I spent a morning at Bluebell Woods between Tatenhill and Marchington on a fine bright Good Friday to try and capture Bluebells but found them a bit dissapointing as we have not had much rain recently i think they had gone past their best,but not put of by this minor problem i started to look for other things to photograph with what equipment i had taken with me.So with my NikonD300s fitted with my Nikon Macro lense 2.8/105m i came across this Orange Tip Butterfly,so with the camera on a tripod and a cordless remote already set up i got as close as i could without frightening it of and also not treddind all over the vegitation that was all around ,this first shot was taken with the sun to my left and with a shutter speed of 1/500 sec  at f/5 at 105m with an ISO of 200.For me i think it is over exsposed so the the photos below were taken with a faster shutter speed of 1/800sec which appear much better.

This photo is being ruined by the Pink flower covering the Butterfly,none of these photos have been cropped which on reflection i should of done first but when enlarging them the clours and details are quite sharp .

Bird Songs

what I'm doin....

Lapwing/pewitt

Here are a couple of love birds ,actually Lapwings in a courtship ritual taken inbetween Buxton and Leek .Having spotted them ,my next problem was cathing them on my camera and they dart and dash everywhere at really high speeds.Right the light was in my favour plenty of sunlight against clear skies so a fast shutter should be ok 1/1600 sec i chose with an aperture of f5.6 at 400mil with 320 ISO hand held at a tripod at these speeds would have been imposible as the dont fly were you want them to go and they can tuen in an instant,so panning was my only option so moving with the birds in my viewfinder and setting the camera to 7 shots per sec i started and not quite as sharp as i would have liked but not ruined by being to blurred ,my only concern was i had no background in the frame to compare the speed of the birds as there was nothing to blur out which then you would of seen the movement more,insted they look as though they have been stuck  their.

Once the had settled down and landed i could see that the female shown here was being entertained by the male below and its obvious intentions ,

The male here was parading round after the Female above with out a care in the world and i was not on his list of priorities and so therefore i could get closer and take the shots as they strutted their stuff.The colours are striking as the sunlight hits there plumage.

The last shot was taken just before the deed was done and then he flew away.

Curlew

THE CURLEW .

 Having looked for Curlew before without much success i tried a different approach,I could here them but could not see them,so i got myself lower down so if they did pop up i might get a glimpse of them in the skyline,after half an hour i spotted this one quite close to a small ridge standing quite proud and un aware of me hidden behind a shooting butt  for Grouse shooters .The condition's were warm with grey skies to start with so i had already chosen a ISO of 320 and an aperture of f/6.3 at 1/400 sec at 400m as this was my first shot i was pleased with the outcome and left the settings well alone .

This my third take  as the Curlew started to move away it was beginning to merge in with the winter coloured grasses and as you can see soon becomes difficult to see and its own colours blended  in very well (no wonder they take some spotting)but the light had changed marginally so upped the shutter speed slightly to 1/640 and now i was shooting a little bit faster if it did take to the wing i could possibly pan my camera with it and try to get it on the wing,but it walked away and that was that

The next three shots are of a different Curlew ,the first shot took me by surprise as it was asleep as i walked through the grasses up towards the ridge and their it was ,at first i thought it might be sitting on a nest of eggs so i went know further and got the camera ready (Nikon D300s with my 80/400 lense)hand held but now it had brightened up so i changed the shutter speed again ,this time up to 1/1250 sec and i also stepped down to f5.6 and took the shot with good results/sharp image,blurred background and no distractions .

Here the Culew had spotted me and started to get aggitatetid so i retreated back and took a few more shots ,now at 1/1600 secs as the light improved more.

This last one as you can see is the result of me trying not to frighten the bird but wether it was me or it had enough rest it was off,but not before i bagged this one.These were all taken hand held with changeable sky conditions on the outskirts of Buxton heading towards Leek.

Water Crowns.

What i wanted to do here was to drop water into water and capture the moment just as the two met which would give you a water crown.The set up consisted of a large bowl of water and a container suspended above with a small hole at the bottom so a drip of water would constantly drip into the bowl,to improve the blandness of clear water i added a blue food die to the bowl of water but not to the water suspended above.I used my Nikon D300s with a Nikon 2.8 -105 mil macro lense with a Nikon speed light (SB600)attached to the camera with settings of f/11 at 1/250sec with an ISO of 250 at 105mil ,i also selected a 7 frame per second burst of photots to freeze the droplets or crown as it appeared (if at all) .This first shot captured the water droplets falling into the bowl but i was to quick and the droplets never reached the bowl of water when i had finished my burst of shots.

This second shot was taken using the same settings as before but this time i was too slow and capturing the splash too late.

For this shot i lightened the picture slightly by changing the aperture to f/8 so i could let more light into the lense but i still missed the moment when the droplet hit the water in the bowl.

These next two shots were firstly to early and secondly too late,but not by much.

Again nice images but not what i wanted,they are bright,clear and sharp but nit what i want.

This was just one droplet as it dropped towards the bowl ,i cropped the original image to get this photo as i liked the roundness and clarity of the falling water droplet.

Final shot and as you can see i nearly succeeded but the image is not good its is not sharp enough for me ,good fun though but not what i wanted.

Angled Liquids.

For this experiment i wanted to take a photo of three Wine Glasses upright  with the liquid at an angle ,First of all i taped the Glasses to a tray  and then tilted the tray with the glasses taped down and then filled the furthest right glass with water and then the second with less water and finally the third with even less water ,what i wanted was the water level to be in line with each other when at the right angle as not to spill any.This first photo (although under exposed )shows the plan of action,with my nikon speed light placed away from the glasses and although not shown i made the light bounce of the ceiling as not to over expose the shot.

This second shot now shows the glasses nice and staight with the water at an angle,but this time i have over exposed the shot.

This shot was taken with a better exposure but now i have not got the glasses level 

Finally i have the shot i am after the top of the glasses level as with the water nicely in a line at the required angle.With the light and shutter speed spot on and the lines clearly visiable.

Right the settings are set ,ISO 200,shutter speed 1/250sec at f/18 at 105m macro lense with a Nikon SP600 speedlight fitted with a slave so i could position the speed light any where ,but to fire the flash i had to pop up the camera flash which i didn't want as this would cast a shadow on my background (a wipeable vinyl white sheet).Having done all that i had to get the glasses at an angle to be level when the photo was taken,so in my viewfinder the grid lines that are in you view finder had to be parrell with the top of the glasses,so tilting the camera to the desired angle so the line in the view finder was in line with the top of the glasses ,once they were levell i took the shot and it automatically shoewd the picture as above when it was displayed on my camera screen.

Just to add a little more interest in the picture i then   trickled a few drops of food colouring into each glass whilst still at the angle and here are the results.

Finally i cropped out the image so you couldn't see that the glasses were taped to a tray.