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..

Lucky shots

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” ~Seneca



Hover fly in flight
Location: Filinvest Alabang, Muntinlupa Philippines
Date: January 1, 2008, 3:23 PM Manila time
Camera: Canon PowerShot A710 IS
Exposure: 0.017 sec
Aperture: 3.5
Modifications: Cropping, adjusted brightness, noise reduction


If you have visited my Flickr photostream, you may have noticed that usually my reply to comments is: "it's just a lucky shot" especially when it is about photos of insects in flight. I even referred to the photo above as 'my ultimate lucky shot', why? Because it really was. I took that photo while I was in the Philippines. It was the first day of the year and I was my nephew's baby sitter for the day. We were walking along Filinvest Avenue in Muntinlupa. Of course I was prepared to take photos. I hoped to find lady bugs, but I didn't find any. Then I noticed a bug in stationary flight! Oh joy, oh rapture! If I may borrow that line from Helga G. Pataki. I normally take more than 10 shots of my subjects but that time, I didn't have the chance to press the shutter more twice. Thanks to little Clarence John for scaring the bug with his hand. When I asked him why he scared it away, his response was: "it may bite me". A piece of advise: if you want to capture insects in flight, don't bring a kid along, it's for your own good. Fortunately one of the photos turned out okay and it's my most interesting photo to date.


Okay so I did it once, big deal, but can I manage a shot like that again? The geek in me analyzed the probability. Based on my experience, taking photos of bugs in the Philippines wasn't exactly a walk in the park. I think the warm climate is the culprit, it makes bugs hyperactive. The temperature during summer months here in Finland will never match the summers in the tropics. That means that insects here can't be as restless. In a addition to that, my nephew doesn't live here, so I though maybe I can capture bugs in flight again. It shouldn't be impossible. And besides taking photos of insects on flowers or leaves has become too easy for me. I wanted to challenge myself that's why not so long ago, I set a goal to capture bugs in flight, while they are around. I found out that it is not time-consuming because you will only have a few seconds to press the shutter. I considered that as a good thing because at least I was able to attend to other things in the backyard like weeding & watering the plants.

Here are some of my bugs in flight photos:

1. Ready or not, here I come!, 2. captured in flight, 3. Almost there, 4. Off to the next destination

"How did you do that?", some viewers asked. Well, I was prepared to capture those critters and grabbed the opportunity to fire a few shots at them while they were in midair. Based on Seneca's quote, I can consider it as luck. So if you want to take photos of flying insects, remember that you need patience, camera and luck :-)