Early Spring at Garston Wood.

A pre Easter weekend visit to Garston Wood on a sunny, but still fairly cold Sunday afternoon was an enjoyable walk and produced several opportunities to shoot some early spring wildlife and flora.  I took my Canon 50D armed with my Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens, with yet another home made diffusion setup, as per other recent trips.  I also carried my 100mm lens and tripod for some further away shots.

The first bug that I can across was this ladybird crawling up an old grass stem.  I’m fairly pleased with the light diffusion, though there is still room for improvement as there is still some highlight burn coming through.

Ladybird on a grass stem (about 2x mag)..  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens.  ISO 320 F11 1/250.  Flash from Canon MT-24ex Twin Flash.

Next up it was a inanimate flower – a wood ananeome – unusually for me I took the shot on the MPE-65mm and used flash.

Wood anemone (about 1x mag).  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens.  ISO 320 F11 1/250.  Flash from Canon MT-24ex Twin Flash

I think it compares fairly nicely though to this natural light shot of a group of them.

Wood anemones.  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens.  ISO 100 F3.5 in natural light on a tripod.

Lastly I came across this sleepy solitary bee which I took these couple of shots of.

Sleeping Solitary Bee (about 1x mag).  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens.  ISO 320 F11 1/250.  Flash from Canon MT-24ex Twin Flash

Sleeping Solitary Bee (about 2.5x mag).  Taken on Canon 50D with Canon MPE-65mm Macro Lens.  ISO 320 F11 1/250.  Flash from Canon MT-24ex Twin Flash

Map of Location

RSPB Nature Reserve.