ohhh Finally - Spring is here!

[batman44]

Been so busy lately, but today was too nice to "worK" so I did wonderful yard work instead! Thought I would share - I love the smell of Hyacinth!!! Spring is a great time of year! Glad it's finally here!!!!




Kori

[Colin Southern]

Hi Kori - welcome back!

Did you realise that there's an 'orrible bug on that 2nd flower shot?

[crisscross]

looks a perfectly nice bug to me It used to be a constant source of amazement to me how high a proportion of flower pics turn out to have a bug in, then went through temptation to make use of the buglets for focussing on, lately conclude one has to concentrate on the one or the other as the DOF issues are bad enough on the small stuff without trying to encompass too much - becoming a slight problem on no 1

The need to take pics is a fanatastic excuse to limit periods of hard graft during gardening, especially pausing during weeding in case there are rare wildflowers

[Geoff F]

Yes I agree it is essential to have a camera (plus marcro lens and tripod etc) always beside you when working in the garden; and it is necessary to stop and check for rare insects etc at least every 5 minutes.

Then stop for a while to check that the camera settings are still correct, over a coffee. The weeds will still be there tomorrow!

Because there are always one or two dominant species I am finding that after taking a couple of photos to check their identity I want to experiment and try to include a decent bit of background as well. Which always has depth of field and exposure problems; particularly with dark insects on pale flowers.

Avoiding direct sunshine is best and flash or fill flash can be useful, especially with those smaller apertures when trying to increase depth of field. But it really comes down to varying the exposure until something works. Or pasting on an insect cut from another photo.

Example, genuine photo, not quite perfect but I don't think it worked out to bad considering all the potential problems.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Geoff,

Not bad as you say, although the silver neck rim of the bug's space helmet is a bit of a give away.
No PP indeed!

More seriously, one advantage of pale petals is they act as natural reflectors to lighten the underside.

Every cloud has a silver lining, as they say

BTW Kori's pics seem to have gone away, they don't load for me today.

Cheers,

[Geoff F]

Still work fine for me, including the full size image. Perhaps a browser glitch? I'm using Opera.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Geoff,

Yep, Browser glitch.

First time this has happened to me, but I shut down FF, closing all tabs, now OK.

Thanks for the confirmation,

[CNelson]

Beautiful shots. Thanks for sharing these.

My best to Robin

Chuck

[batman44]

Hey Colin-
I never left!!! Been super busy with work and driving my son to his Doc appts 3.5 hrs away... He's been sick, but now with the children's hospital help we are on the road to recovery! Another appt tomorrow - then we hope to stay away from there for a bit! Crossing my fingers!

I've been peeking every now and then on the forum to keep up to date.

Ohhh the 'orrible bug...nah! He's actually what caught my eye while smelling the flowers on Sunday - so I ran to get the camera! The only thing 'orrible in this world... is Spiders!

Hope I will get more picts up soon... Racing season starts next week....I'll make sure to get a few fun shots and post them!

Thanks all!

Kori