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Tuesday 5 June 2012

Buggy photos

I've been taking tons of photos over the last week since getting a new DSLR camera and macro lens - shared with my OH of course, if I ever let him get his mitts on it!

Here's a selection of some of the insect macros I've taken. I'm starting to get better ones now as even though I have still not read a word of the manual and 10 days ago apertures and depth of field was all chinese to me, just by pressing buttons, fiddling around and taking hundreds of shots on different settings, then seeing how they come out and looking at the photo info on my viewing program, is helping me to understand the settings I should have the camera on.

So, early days yet but I'm quite pleased. I won't post all the photos at once as I have quite a few!

Sloe Shield Bug on catmint

The rest I'll show today are bees. I can't begin to ID them - I can't even be sure what's a bumble bee and what's a solitary bee! I have had some help IDing some of my insects from the wonderfully knowledgeable people on Google+ which is a brilliant place for sharing photos and knowledge.

A solitary bee (possibly Andrena cineraria), on Verbena bonariensis

The same bee as above. I've never seen one this colour before.

You'll notice in the following photos that chives are extremely popular right now! They are just crawling with many species of bee. I think the following fluffy ones are bumble bees, followed by a couple of tiny ones that I would barely have noticed if I hadn't been looking out for anything I could try to photograph! So, are they solitary bees, the kind that may be interested in those tiny holes we've drilled in our bee hotel? One day I may find out, but for now can only label them as 'tiny bees' - and the only reason I think they are bees is from their antennae. It's quite a minefield, this world of bees, let alone the whole insect world out there! 

Bee bottom!

Another bee's bottom! Possibly Red Tailed Bee?

I think this is the same bee as above.

I think this is a bumble bee.

Tiny bee on chives - solitary bee?

Tiny little bee on oxeye daisy

Honey Bee on thyme. They weren't interested in the chives but all over the thyme.

Many more insects photos to come - just have to find the time and stop keep picking up that camera.......!!

4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you Ladybug, I've got some more of you too! ;-)

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  2. I was going to say fantastic but Ladybug already did :}

    You can't post lovely shots like these and not tell me what camera/lens combination you've got .... inquiring minds want to know :}

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    Replies
    1. It's a Canon 600D - chose that because my OH has had several Canons so already has quite a number of lenses. But we also splashed out on a 100mm macro lens because I find taking pics of bugs and close ups of flowers totally fascinating. My other camera used for most of the photos on this blog is a compact Sony Cybershot which is pretty good for macros and general landscapes etc but falls very short on the zoom and I'd really like to have a go at taking some bird photos and for that I need a decent camera with a telephoto lens (which we already have). So that'll be my next experiment with the camera! And thanks for the lovely comments!

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