One of the delights that should never be missed when visiting Venice is the little island of Burano.
Less than an hour’s Vaporetto ride across the lagoon, Burano is a tiny island where all the houses have been painted in vibrant shades. A photographer’s dream.
You aren’t going to win any originality contests with your photos – Burano is already copiously recorded in pixels – but still you can hardly resist snapping away like a photog possessed.
Now that I have noticed these moss spore capsules, I can’t seem to stop snapping them. Once again, getting really close courtesy of my 100mm macro lens with Raynox 250 attached.
I love this time for year for many things, including the crab apple blossom that attracts a rather nice little seasonal character, bombylius major, the bee-fly. I am perhaps slightly ridiculously fond of this little furry fly. I did a post about it this time last year and you can see more images of it there. These are three new ones, snapped in my garden this afternoon.
There’s just something about its little round, furry body, and the way it hovers… well, I am a ‘bug lady’ after all.
Come on admit it, it is cute.
The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness. – John Muir
Every now and then I like to experiment. Panning is a fun technique and so easy to do. Just move the camera with a slowish shutter speed. All done in camera; no fuss. With trees, I like to slow the movement at the bottom of the scene to get a little more clarity. I think this helps to ‘ground’ the image. It’s very different from my usual, realistic style but it stops me from taking photography too seriously, and that has to be a good thing, right?
I thought I might share another shot from our recent trip to Venice. This was taken from nearly the same spot, on the same day, as my earlier post, but in very different light. This one was taken at dawn, the other was taken at dusk.
Moss spore capsules
Last month I celebrated a brief sunny interlude by exploring the abundant crop of moss growing where my lawn used to be. Well, we have had some more sun this week so here are some more mossy explorations.
A bug’s eye view
I was particularly taken with these colourful spore capsules. I was used to seeing the spiky sort before but this was the first time I had noticed these alien-looking alternatives.
All about colour
I used my macro lens with Raynox DCR-250 attached to get very close indeed to these tiny plants. Here, the colourful background is my out of focus recycled garden trug.
Can you spot the explorer?
The above shot isn’t very special but I included it because there is a tiny explorer getting in on the act. Apparently, recent studies have shown that springtails play an important part in moss fertilisation by carrying scent from plant to plant. Who knew?
Misty moss
The difficulty with using such extreme magnifications is that depth of field is wafer thin. I decided to make the most of the difficulty in this last image, for a more minimal, suggestive take.
If you missed my earlier moss extravaganza, see here.
I am honoured to have this photograph featured as image of the day at Photobotos, where I explain a little more about it.
We have just returned from a wonderful weekend in my favourite city in the whole world, Venice. Apart from Friday, the weather was kind to us and it was a great opportunity for me to get to grips with my new travel camera, the Fuji X-E1. I have more than a few files to process and a review of this camera in the pipeline, to follow up on my review of the Sony NEX-7 in January. But I must concentrate on my studies for the next few days so they will have to wait. Suffice it to say that the camera is all I hoped and more. I am looking forward to May when I can get back to serious blogging and catching up on the blogs I follow.
When will this winter end? Clearly no-one has remembered to tell these snowflakes, on the windscreen of my car, that it is supposed to be Spring.
Winter either bites with its teeth or lashes with it tail – Proverb
“The English winter — ending in July, To recommence in August.”
– George Gordon Byron
Thank you to those who have enquired about my recent absence from Focused Moments. I am fine, just flat out with college work and having to be very strict with myself about all things photographic as otherwise they might easily take over. ‘Normal service’ will hopefully resume next month, after we return from a brief visit to one of my very favourite European cities where I will be putting my new travel camera through its paces!
This weekend is the last for the Albion exhibition in which six of my images are included. If you are up in town, why not pop by for lots of interesting photographs exploring Britain and “Britishness” and some lovely, affordable original paintings and sculpture (we bought a beautiful painting for our living room). I will be dropping by on Sunday with my daughter, the only family member yet to see it. Maybe we will see you there!
Albion is open from 11am to 6pm at the Cock ‘n’ Bull Gallery under The Tramshed restaurant, Rivington Street, Shoreditch.
Focused Moments 