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.

Once down the hill, the heath land is a mix of sandy trails, small trees, ponds, gorse and heather.

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.

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.

My final image of the day, was this pleasing find of the less common 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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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

And onto some more Dragonflies…

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

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.

Hope you enjoyed looking through this post.

All images taken on a Canon 5D MkIV using Canon 100mm Macro Lens / Laowa 15mm Macro Lens.