My turn at ‘Sounds of Spring’. C has given a stellar introduction to this topic – being mentioned in National Trust’s Instagram post! For those who don’t know, the National Trust releases a challenge every weekend, announcing the winners the following Monday.
This was the first time that we went out with a mission to answer a question around what were sounds of spring. Initially quite difficult but then we managed to find sources of sound. Considering the lenses we were each using, I got stuck into finding small creatures to photograph, like flies. Not so glamourous or ‘cute’ like bumblebees but, there are more of them in the Spring so I got to work and ended up getting four different types of flies!
I used the macro lens to the best that I could and in addition to having to get really close to these creatures, I was determined to use manual focus the whole time and I did. This meant that I was usually chasing bumblebee butts because by the time I had the focus right, they were out of my frame. Nonetheless, they have cute wee butts, so enjoy.
Considering that bees are endangered and we get to see more of them in the Spring around the blossoms, I wanted to find just one bee. I managed to get the little guy below mid-flight – it looked like he was jumping! I would have preferred to have been closer to him, to really zoom in onto his features, but I was happy with this. After all, it showed his flight path, and I love flying!
After spending over an hour around one bush where all the bumblebees socialised, I needed something a bit different. So we walked on. We found some other flowers that were not yellow and I got some great shots. I have decided to wait for the next blog post to show those so please do return.
Flies are not usually the topic of admiration as they are incredibly invasive and they always want our food. That being said, I found myself being grateful for them not moving, remaining still long enough so that I could get my focus right and take the shot. The colours of these flies was quite extraordinary, from the metallic blue of the abdomen to the wine-coloured eyes. I would not hazard a guess as to the types of flies these are but they are fascinating, with so many tiny parts to them.
This last fly, was my favourite. When viewed on big screen, you can see all the little hairs on his legs and body. You can see the strength and yet, fragility of the wings. Amazing creatures, really.
In other news, C and I are off to Portugal soon so we look forward to sharing some photos from our trip with you. T x.