These irises have only just come into flower in the last day or two. I love them not only for their vivid purple colour, but for their amazing array of shapes and markings. I noticed that they have little, if any, scent, yet bees find their way quickly and unerringly to the centre of each bloom. Do they navigate by those markings, I wonder?
I love the challenge of portraying textures in a photo – it isn’t always easy! Here, yesterday, I spotted these beech leaves. This hedge is made more interesting by the presence of one copper beech among all the other ordinary ones, which only augments the contrast between the glossy flat upper surfaces, and the fluffy, hairy edges of the youngest leaves. Nature is fascinating.
Yesterday, as I found this gorse bush in full flower, I felt cheered up – it’s a plant I love for its vivid colour. But a photo seemed just very ‘ordinary’ at first. Then I remembered something I often tell other people; lighting is everything. I moved round, and shot almost into the sun, so that some of the colour is from transmitted light (not just reflected light) and the background is much darker. I found the high contrast suited the subject.
Once again, I’m illustrating the effects of our recent strange weather patterns. This beech hedge would normally remain dormant until spring, but yesterday I noticed these buds had appeared. What will happen to them next? I don’t know…
I found these flowers while out on a short walk yesterday (Saturday.) I’m not even sure what they are, but what struck me was the way this picture is symbolic of the turn of the seasons; there are still a few flowers around, but there are seed heads and fruits, too. Here, they sit side by side, just for now.
I only found this plant today. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. The lower, rounded, part of the flower heads varied between about 60 and 80 millimetres, and they weren’t particularly prickly. In fact, there were no spikes on these plants at all. Shortly after I came across these flowers, I found out that they were planted for the benefit of bees and butterflies – an idea I love!
Some situations, as we all know, are easier to get into than out of. This ant evidently found out too late. If you’ve seen those pictures of insects encased in amber (or even the real thing) then you can imagine how such things occurred, a very long time ago.
I found this scene on the side of a pine tree in my garden. The resin is seeping from a small side branch that was recently cut off. There were, in fact, many more ants running about, and they seemed to keep well clear of the resin!
This week, I wanted something that said something about my day on Saturday. Well, where I was, on 30 July 2016, nothing amazing happened. But, if we look at nature and the world around us, life need never be boring. So in this shot, I used the concept of ‘negative space’ to symbolise summer – the top branch of an apple tree, reaching into a vast clear sky, with just a few smeary clouds at high altitude. Looking up at cloudscapes of all kinds is a marvellous way to relax, yet sharpen your power of observation at the same time!
‘Filling the frame’ – the opposite photo technique – is also one I use and love a lot, but the ‘message’ is different, yes?
I was just taking a breather yesterday afternoon (11 June) and having a go at a spot of macro flower photography (as one does) when this little insect came by and dropped in of a few moments. I’d be most grateful for help in identifying both the flower and the insect!
This shot of raspberry flowers is something of an experiment; I was testing out a new acquisition – a 50mm lens. I purposely used a wide aperture setting to keep the depth of field small, as something of an art form. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will see that only certain parts are in focus, giving a rather delicate effect. So I’m giving you, not what I saw exactly, but what I want you to see. A kind of impressionism, if you like.
In passing, I’ll explain a couple of terms that often get mixed up: this lens is both a prime lens and a marque lens. A prime lens has a fixed focal length (i.e. does not have a zoom function.) Generally, they have better optical performance than zoom lenses (at similar price points) but are more challenging to use – composition becomes more of an art! A marque lens is simply one made (or, at any rate, branded) by the camera manufacturer – in this case a Pentax lens for a Pentax camera – as distinct from one from an independent lens maker, such as Sigma or Tamron, for instance.
