On the way to Middle Hill Common (24 images)

[GardenersHelper]

These were captured a couple of days ago along 100 yards or so beside an unmade road on the way to one of the local nature reserves. I spent an hour and a half there and never actually got to the nature reserve.

There are 1300 pixel high versions of these images and the others from the session in this album at Flickr.

1.1

1960 04 2021_08_04 DSC04475_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

1.2

1960 14 2021_08_04 DSC04514_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

1.3

1960 16 2021_08_04 DSC04523_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

1.4

1960 10 2021_08_04 DSC04497_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

1.5

1960 18 2021_08_04 DSC04542_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

1.6

1960 19 2021_08_04 DSC04549_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

1.7

1960 23 2021_08_04 DSC04571_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc (1) by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

1.8

1960 21 2021_08_04 DSC04566_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


Continued in next post.

 

[GardenersHelper]

2.1

1960 25 2021_08_04 DSC04580_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

2.2

1960 27 2021_08_04 DSC04582_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

2.3

1960 28 2021_08_04 DSC04583_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

2.4

1960 29 2021_08_04 DSC04584_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

2.5

1960 30 2021_08_04 DSC04588_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

2.6

1960 33 2021_08_04 DSC04594_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

2.7

1960 35 2021_08_04 DSC04613_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

2.8

1960 36 2021_08_04 DSC04618_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


Continued in next post.

 

[GardenersHelper]

3.1

1960 77 2021_08_04 DSC04931_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

3.2

1960 76 2021_08_04 DSC04915_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

3.3

1960 34 2021_08_04 DSC04598_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

3.4

1960 55 2021_08_04 DSC04824_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

3.5

1960 64 2021_08_04 DSC04839_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

3.6

1960 70 2021_08_04 DSC04858_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

3.7

1960 47 2021_08_04 DSC04711_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

3.8

1960 72 2021_08_04 DSC04888_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

 

[derbydude]

A cracking set you make it so look easy till I have a go

 

[Cobra]

Cracking set as always Nick, brilliant detail especially in 1.4
The larger sizes are well worth clicking through too.

 

[Graham]

I do like the Hoverfly shots.

 

[GardenersHelper]

A cracking set

Thanks.

you make it so look easy till I have a go

Practice, practice, practice. Loads of shots (typically 300 to 500 in a 90 minute or so session). Mostly misses, from near misses to completely empty frames. Trawl through to find any that might be usable. Process very carefully. Throw out some more (near duplicates and ones that on looking closer didn't really work well enough). Of the ones that I keep, on forums only show ones I'm most comfortable with.

You only get to see the tip of the iceberg.

 

[GardenersHelper]

Cracking set as always Nick, brilliant detail especially in 1.4
The larger sizes are well worth clicking through too.

Thanks Chris. As you will have seen from the album I was very lucky with that hoverfly. It didn't move (and neither did the leaf it was on) and let me take loads of shots, enough that I could construct a couple of "zooming in" sequences (they don't necessarily get shot in the order they are shown).

 

[GardenersHelper]

I do like the Hoverfly shots.

Thanks Graham. I was quite pleased with how they turned out.

 

[Paul Iddon]

A fine collection - lighting work pretty well for you?

The rove beetle is cool...

Paul.

 

[GardenersHelper]

A fine collection

Thanks Paul.

- lighting work pretty well for you?

Up to a point.

I'm trying to come to terms with the fact (or it seems to be a fact for me at least) that reflections of the flash from reflective surfaces are inevitable, much to my annoyance. Still, the light from my current setup is at least pretty even, which makes it easier to damp down the reflections.

With the current flash setup I'm using (illustrated here at Flickr), the lighting gets increasingly top down from 6:1 or so, giving an all too sharp transition between illuminated and unilluminated areas on convex/rounded surfaces like a fly's head, and very dark shadows underneath the subject. I've tried to cure this a few ways, including mounting the bowl lower so the lens passes through the bowl and the bottom of the bowl can reflect from "ground level". It didn't provide much of an improvement, if any, and it was prone to lens glare, made the rig more awkward to use and it was a bit more limiting as to what low angles were possible. I also tried mounting an extra pair of flash heads, pointing forwards at the level of the lens. That lit up the shadows but I couldn't diffuse them too well and it made the illumination patchy with difficult to handle reflections, and it was a pig to use because of the extra weight and the restriction on how I could hold the rig because of the extra pair of bendy arms getting in the way.

I've run out of steam for any more flash experiments at the moment. I currently have no new ideas to try out. So I'm sticking with this current setup for now.

The rove beetle is cool...

Paul.

It performed very nicely for me. Thanks for the ID.