Macro photography

For the last couple of days I have been using my macro lens. Its fun, but at the same time difficult given the slightest breeze or any other vibration result in blurry images. Ideally, always use a tripod but I find it a bit awkward. I get quickly tired of setting up the tripod and composing the picture, instead of just doing it freehand. It does result with many more blurred images, but usually I take series of pictures and just remove once that are bad.
Unfortunately I have not used the macro lens so much though I know how fun it is to get up close to the insects, the inside of the flowers and etc... But I'll try some more macro photo of this year.
Today we are off to the Isle of Skye in Scotland, an amazing place to visit. This will be our second trip there, but its too nice not to. And this time we know more what we want to see and explore those places, so hopefully I will be back with lots of great pictures from there :)

Happy Easter All!
                                                                    

Magnolia

Magnolia

Inside a Magnolia

2 Lady-bugs inside a magnolia

Inside a tulip

                                                                    

Boring Weather...

It has been bad weather almost a week now and I really have not had any desire to go out and shoot. But I've gone on walks down to the Rivelin valley where the kingfisher is, I've seen it a couple of times but since it rains so much water becomes muddy and it seems that the kingfisher do not like it so it disappears from the site.
I hope it comes back.
But here are some pictures of the cautious pheasant, they visited my feeding place in the woods before Christmas.

Have a nice day!
                                                                 

Male

Female

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Before the Christmas holidays start, here are few pictures of the male woodpecker. The pictures are taken from my hiding-place, which is nowdays almost a little too close even when the camera lens is fully zoomed out. Which means that I only get half of the woodpecker :)
Not complaining though, it's not easy to get that close to these birds :) and they are very nice to watch.
On one of the pictures below you can see its long thin tongue that it uses to get the larvae out once it has hacked its way to it.
Merry Christmas to You all, and see you in the Happy New Year :)
                                                                    

Small birds up close

Here are some photos taken from the hide i have in the woods, I have moved the perches even closer to the hide so I can take pictures and see the birds up close. Think it's a pretty nice relaxing to just sit there and try to get some good picture. The Christmas is approaching and on Monday I'm going to Stockholm to celebrate Christmas and New Year in Sweden, it will be nice to come home for a while. I'm not sure if I will be blogging anything from Sweden.
 
                                                                       

Nuthatch

Coal tit

Blue tit

Great Spotted Woodpecker

By now I have had time to sit in my hideout few times and the birds have gone used to me and the camera noise.
The biggest success is that even the woodpecker dare to stay at the feeding place, at most 4 m away. I find myself sometimes just sitting there watching it, its amazing as I usually just hear it or see if from afar. Both male and female are there but it is only the male that has dared to sit 'still', but from a bit further away I can see them talk or sometimes even argue :)
Other birds are much closer, at 2m, as I have rigged a branch there with the nuts and other yummy stuff.
Beside the birds, there is a little field mouse who also is visiting, will try to get some pictures for next post. Also a pheasant is getting closer, but it is the most shy of them all. It is carefully sneaking up among the ferns and listens very closely for any odd sounds.Will see later in the winter what the feeding place will have to offer, but for now here are some pictures of the beautiful woodpecker.

 

Bugs and forest flowers

This morning I took the opportunity to go down to the Rivelin Valley before the rain comes.
Overcast weather as it is today usually fits excellent to photograph flowers and insects because it gives a more even light.
So it was that I occupied myself for couple of  hours. Now it's nice in the forests with all the small flowers anywhere in the Rivelin Valley.
I photographed with macro lens and Nikon 3Ds with iso 1000 because it's so dark down there and hand held.

Squirrel

I have not only photographed flowers when I have been down to the Botanical Gardens.
I also have tried to shoot squirrels with a macro lens, which turned out to not be the easiest thing to do.
The short depth of field that you get from a macro lens makes it very difficult to focus on the right place on the moving squirrels.
You do not have time to check in the viewfinder, so it's best just to shoot and hope some pictures will be good.
What is the right place to focus on then, I think, and many other photographers that the eyes should ideally be in focus.
But it can be fun to experiment a bit, too, as with the macro lens you can try to take pictures of details on the animals if u are lucky to get close to them. :))
So here are some pictures of the experiment.

Check out the teeth

This one is taken with the Wide angle lens

Magnolia

Here are some more pictures from the Botanical Garden, this time of the beautiful Magnolia.
There are three different varieties there,  some are trees with small flowers and then there are two trees with big white and purple flowers.
But it is only those with large flowers that have bloomed out well so far.
I have always liked the magnolia trees big beautiful flowers, there is something special about them maybe because they are quite unusual.
I used  different lenses to shoot the Magnolia, and also photographed various times of day.
Hope u like them.

Mandarin Duck Couple

Yesterday morning I went for a walk through the Botanical Gardens and then to Endcliff Park and there I saw The Mandarin couple.
I had no camera with me but I thought that I will be back there in the evening and hope they are there still there.
Once I went out at evening it was dark clouds in the sky and the rain was close, but it can provide interesting pictures so I continued down to the pond.
The ducks were still there so I picked up the camera equipment, and just then it started to rain and it was a real shower, they 1.5hours that I was there, it was mixed weather. Then it's nice to have a camera equipment that can withstand rain.
It was actually the first time I photographed Mandarin female, I've seen it before but did not have my camera with me.
It was getting dark and the Mandarin couple wanted apparently not stay there overnight so they flew away.
Camera equipment: Nikon 3Ds and nikon 200-400 f4 lens with Kenko 1.4 konverter.