Hod Hill – Flowers and flies
Visited the hill fort of Hod Hill on Saturday, walking from the village over the hill and round again. The lane up the hill had lots of celandine out, and also some purple and white violet flowers.
I saw this nice contrasting shot of them and took them on a tripod.
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/14, 1/13 sec, ISO400)Purple & White Violets. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. ISO 400 F14 1/13. Tripod – Natural Light.
Further round and the path through the woods I came across a nice set of Celandine and Wood Anemones which I stopped to shoot. These I took hand-held due to there positions on the banks making them inaccessible with the tripod.
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO400)Celandine. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. ISO 400 F5.6 1/100. Natural Light.
This next shot of Celandine I soften in post processing by de-clarifying the shot in Adobe Camera Raw to give it a sort of glow effect.
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/3.5, 1/200 sec, ISO400)Celandine. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. ISO 400 F3.5 1/250. Natural Light. Slightly de-clarified in Adobe Camera Raw.
All bar the following shot were taken using only natural light. But for this one I experimented with a small (1/64th power) burst of fill flash from my macro flash unit.
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO400)Wood Anemone – Anemone nemorosa. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. ISO 400 F5.6 1/250. Fill flash from Canon MT-24ex Macro Flash.
I positioned this one against the rule of thirds situating the flower centrally, as I liked the way it stood out from the green background.
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/4, 1/250 sec, ISO400)A pair of Wood Anemones gave me the chance to shoot them in line, deliberately blurring the further one out by shooting at a wide aperture.
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec, ISO400)Pair of Wood Anemones – Anemone nemorosa. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. ISO 400 F5.6 1/160. Natural Light.
There was not much bug life showing on the walk, mainly due to the early time in the year and it being fairly colder than the previous day. Some fly were about but it was only on the walk lower down by the fields that I got some shots of them. The first was a common yellow coloured dung fly, which seems to me to be grinning for the camera in this shot.
Canon EOS 50D (65mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO400)Common Yellow Dung Fly – Scathophaga stercoraria. Close up at 2x. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens. 2x Magnification. F11 1/250 ISO400. Flash Manually set with Canon MT-24ex Macro Flash.
Next another as yet to be identified species of fly was posing nicely on a stem.
Canon EOS 50D (65mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO400)Fly on stalk. Close up at about 2.5x. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens. About 2.5x Magnification. F11 1/250 ISO400. Flash Manually set with Canon MT-24ex Macro Flash.
And lastly another dung fly in some nettles.
Canon EOS 50D (65mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO400)Common Yellow Dung Fly – Scathophaga stercoraria. Close up at about 3x. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens. About 3x Magnification. F11 1/250 ISO400. Flash Manually set with Canon MT-24ex Macro Flash.
Map of Location
Small car park is around here.
