Raynox newbie

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Rachael

I have a new toy, a Raynox DCR-250 super macro conversion lens. It is a cheap alternative to a macro lens but I am actually using it to get even closer than my macro lens. It clips onto my 100mm macro to let me get super close.

Depth of field at these sorts of magnifications is ridiculously thin and to get the most out of it you need a tripod and flash. So I doubt it will be an oft-used piece of kit for my favourite genre, natural light bug macros outdoors.

Still, it did give me a lot of fun yesterday afternoon putting it through its paces trying to capture something of the very smallest critters in my garden. The red-eyed fly below is smaller than an aphid.

Volucella Zonaria

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Rachael

One of the many interesting insects I snapped for the first time last year was this hoverfly. It’s a whopper and if you don’t know your hoverflies from your hornets, rather scary. This critter is designed to mimic the European Hornet, and it does a good job! Apparently this one is a male. Yes, I can now sex hoverflies – is there no end to the fairly useless and geeky things I am learning through photography?

Remembrance

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Rachael

What is Death?
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
that we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect,
without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you,
for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just around the corner.

All is well.
~ Henry Scott Holland

Please note, I have not recently suffered a bereavement. I admire this poem and wanted to take an image to fit it.

Red

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Rachael

Red is such a very photogenic colour. It looks great against snow and ice.

And makes a vibrant focal point for a colour-popped black and white.

We love red over here, on our buses, phone boxes, and postboxes.

It is the colour of earth, from the slopes of Kauai’s Waimea Canyon…

…to the raw power of the mighty Kilauea.

It is the colour of fire, and those who fight it.

But it is also a colour flowers use to lure bees,

the colour of a robin’s breast,

and of Christmas.

From a boat on Lindisfarne’s fair and ancient shore,

to the far more ancient walls of Egypt,

deserted cliff-dwellings,

and the roof of a Quebec church,

red is all around us.

It is the colour of our very life’s blood,
and of remembrance.

Ranunculus

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Rachael

Just revelling in the ruffles of a ranunculus.

Weightless in water, swift as the wind

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Rachael

I live in a town on the confluence of rivers. Water is a significant part of my local landscape and so is rowing.

In any weather, the hardy rowers can be found ploughing a furrow through the Thames.

We are a nation of rowers and Surrey is in the heart of rowing country.

We like to do well at rowing in international competitions. This year, there is a small sporting event taking place on home soil, and water. You may have heard if it.

Hopefully, we will do well. But however we do, the rowers will still be out on the Thames, doing their thing, every day.

“How fared it with the wind,” I said, “when stroke increased the pace?
You swung it forward mightily, you heaved it greatly back.
Your muscles rose in knotted lumps, I almost heard the crack.
And while we roared and rattled too, your eyes were fixed like glue.
What thought went flying through your mind, how fared it, Five, with you?”
But Five answered solemnly, “I heard them fire a gun.
No other mortal thing I heard until the Race was done.”

R.C. Lehman

The devil in the dark

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Rachael

Regular readers will know that I have been following the antics of some speckled bush cricket nymphs in my garden. From cute first hatchling through inquisitive early instar stages to greedy adolescence and approaching adulthood. And what do I get as a reward for bringing them fame and adulation? Plants with holes! I counted at least 25 of the devils out there yesterday, nibbling away at my carefully nurtured dahlias. Have they no gratitude? The youth of today (sigh)! So a suitably more sinister image of one of the little monsters today. And now I have a dilemma…

Whoever struggles with monsters might watch that he does not thereby become a monster. And when you stare into an abyss for a long time, the abyss also stares into you.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil (1886)

Blue skies

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Rachael

I was blue, just as blue as I could be
Ev’ry day was a cloudy day for me
Then good luck came a-knocking at my door
Skies were gray but they’re not gray anymore

Blue skies smiling at me

Nothing but blue skies do I see

Never saw the sun shining so bright

Never saw things going so right

Noticing the days hurrying by

When you’re in love, my how they fly

Blue days, all of them gone

Nothing but blue skies from now on

Irving Berlin, ‘Blue Skies’

The images:
Chesterman Beach, Vancouver Island, Canada
Northumberland Coast, UK
Moab, Utah, USA
Northumberland Coast
Sorrel River Ranch, near Moab
Desborough Island, Surrey, UK
Arizona highway
Lake Mead, Nevada, USA
River Wey, Surrey, UK
Zion National Park, Utah