Macro shooting at Town Common
I spent several days hunting insects at Town Common – Christchurch in August. So for something different in this post ( which is going to be a long one! ), I will show you what the area is like, before proceeding on to the results.
Town Common is a heath land area, and in the late summer is a mass of heather. The entrance I come in from means you are at the top of St Catherine’s Hill, and this gives you views down over the heath.

View from top of St Catherine’s Hill of the Heath
Once down the hill, the heath land is a mix of sandy trails, small trees, ponds, gorse and heather.

Heather banks

A path through the heather

Dead Tree and Gorse on the Common

One of the ponds
Hopefully this gives you a good impression of the environment these images were taken in.
Now onto the first days results…where I first found this little dragonfly down close on the ground, taking in the sun.

Sunbathing

Hanging around in the Heather

Just Hanging Around
The above two images, I used Topaz texture effects to create some colour effects and boost the images.
This next one is ( I think a male ) Black Darter, resting on a bit of dried grass.

Black Darter

Black Darter in Profile

Pretty in Pink
My final image of the day, was this pleasing find of the less common red damselfly.

Small Red Damselfly
The above images were all taken using my Canon 100mm Macro Lens
One the second visit I took along my Laowa 15mm 1:1 Macro Lens ( on which the landscape above were also taken ). I like this lens as it gives a different perspective on the subjects, and can include a lot of the background too. This first dragonfly shot taken on it illustrates this, I think as it gives the details of the dragonfly and also shows the environment around.

Black Darter Wild Angle Macro
Getting close with this lens is maybe not something you want to do mind if you are afraid of spiders. Fortunately I’m not – at least the UK ones anyway!

Wasp Spider
The final Laowa macro images are of a dragonfly on a clump of heather.

Heather resting

Perched on heather

Wide Dragon

Wide Dragon Closer!
The next visit was in much more overcasts – and slightly damp conditions. My first find was a nice one though, a pair of Wasp Spiders on their webs. This is a merge of two shots to get both the male and the female in focus.

Wasp Spiders ( Male and Female)
Another non-dragonfly image – is this rather wing battered Gatekeeper – which I took shooting through some fern to give a subtle blur effect on the surrounding foliage.

Brown in the Green
Hiding down low in the heather near the Dragonfly’s was this nicely posing Cricket.

Bog Bush Cricket
And onto some more Dragonflies…

Town Common Dragonfly
This next one sitting in some heather – which I shot through to give some different effects on it.

Dragonfly through the heather

Black Darter in the Heather

Coming out of the Pink

Black Darter on Heather
Finally…the last visit saw me do some videoing – I have yet to finish the editing of that – but I did keep these still shots as well.

From Above

Dragonfly resting on a bud

I like this leaf

Strike a pose
Hope you enjoyed looking through this post.
All images taken on a Canon 5D MkIV using Canon 100mm Macro Lens / Laowa 15mm Macro Lens.