Seasons come, seasons go

"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.”
~Charles Dickens

Camera: Canon PowerShot A710 IS Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400) Aperture: f/4.0 Focal Length: 5.8 mm Date & time: March 8, 2009 at 3.30pm EET Location: Kerimäki, Finland Well, what do you know? It seems only yesterday when the sight of the the first spring flowers delighted my senses and now it's already June. Hellooo summer! I don't have nice & bright summer pics yet because it actually feels like mid-autumn here. It's been raining for days and it's quite cold to do anything outdoors. So for now, join me as I reminisce about the sweetness of spring.. I think the cutest spring insect is the scarlet lily beetle. These critters munch on lilies like crazy, but I can't get rid of them because they are quite photogenic. Their color stands out from the sea of leaves, so spotting these insects should be a piece of cake. Moreover, they don't move much which makes them brilliant subjects. 1. A Beautiful Pest, 2. I'm back! From calm beetles let's move on to some action shots.. Experts always recommend taking photos of bugs either early in the morning or late afternoon because they are not hyperactive during those times. Since I am not a morning person, I've got to choice but to chase insects at mid-day. It's not a wise idea because the shots may be at risk for overexposure. Of course one can always adjust the exposure settings but I do have a tendency to forget that- dementia is catching, you know... A few days before spring bid farewell, I saw hoverflies fluttering over yellow daisies. But then I've got so many photos of insects on yellow flowers and I'm quite bored with them already. For that reason, I concentrated on capturing the hoverflies while in mid-air, luckily most of the shots turned out well. Picking which ones to upload, was as usual, a bit of an agony. Here are 2 of the successful captures: 1. Soaring over fields of gold, 2. They come in threes.. Blooming beauties It's a crime not to take photos of flowers on spring time. I experimented more on control of depth of field, the results were quite good. I tried to make the photos more dramatic by keeping them as simple as possible, it worked fine. At least they don't look too mediocre. 1. Thankful 2. Sunlight Beginners tend to include some not-so-important elements in their photos. As a result, the composition is all over the place, meaning that the photo fails to tell its 'story'. I was like that too, back when I thought that photography merely involves pressing the shutter. There are pieces of evidence like this pointless shot from years ago that one spring in my life, my photos sucked to the highest degree. I often here nice words from some people who are interested in photography, bless their hearts. They say that my work somehow inspires them, wow I am ever so flattered. If they would see my old shots, I bet they would come to their senses, haha!! The truth is, I am just someone who enjoys taking photos. I try to improve my skills through my own simple ways, hoping that I would always nicely capture the beauty that nature brings, season after season..

Weather talk

I often say that I rarely take photos when the weather is ugly. It's because I want to avoid the hassle of making the images look good through post-processing. I am not against photo editing, the truth is I suck at post-processing. There are hobbyists that are well-versed in that area, like my friend Romy who can make a drab pebble shimmer like a piece of jewelery. Since my skill in Photoshop is not that good yet, I just rely on good weather condition. Great light will always produce good images. The image below is SOOC- straight out of the camera:

Untouched beauty
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 5.8 mm

The weather is seldom perfect. But if you want your photos to convey a sad mood then rainy days can be your friend because raindrops symbolize tears and conditions that call for anti depressants.

Taking photos of droplets is a lot easier than stalking bugs, at least you can get very close to the droplet without fear because it won't sting you. I saw a lot of photos of reflections on water drops last year and I thought that it was impossible for my little camera to produce such images. Well, I was wrong. One of the tricks is to focus on the reflection itself. It's also best to use manual focus, but if you think that the water drop will fall in any second then use full auto mode. I guess tripod would be very helpful but I haven't used one yet. Take a look at my water drop photos:

1.Shedding tears
2.Look Deep into nature

Water drops give dramatic effect to flowers. In case you don't feel like going out to take photos, then use a medicine dropper to put a few drops of water on petals. Make the drops as big as possible so that it be easier to focus on.



I only have a few droplet photos in my gallery. Now that it rains almost everyday,and the bugs are slowly disappearing, I think I will concentrate on droplet reflections. One of Chris Marquardt's photography tips is to Learn to love overcast days. Maybe I should.