A small world

Now spring has really started (with even temperatures reminding of summer) its a lot more fun going outside again. Walking around in shorts and a sleeveless shirt is a lot better as all those warm winter clothes. So my 300mm lens can go back into the bag (well, I still take it out sometimes) and the 180mm can come out again. The first dragonflies have been seen already and there are lots of flowers and other small insects. The nice thing of macro photography is that a whole new world opens for you. The world of small creatures. Today I spent some time with a nice place with Wood Anemones. Laying (in the sun) on my belly taking pictures of them, my eye fell on a tiny spider that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. He was just enjoying a freshly caught fly. By placing him in front of a flower of a Wood Anemone I placed him in the spotlight.

The picture is a but full, but taking away the distracting leaves would destroy the web, and thus the photo opportunity.

More pictures in this months gallery

Going South

This year was the second year I joined a couple colleagues to the southernmost part of the Netherlands, Zuid Limburg. We use the excuse that we have to prepare the 3rd grade excursion in May, but we really just want to enjoy the scenery and the culture there. Being with a group makes it a bit harder to take many pictures (especially nature ones), but I always find some time to take some shots.

One of the places we visited was the US War Cemetery in Margraten. This place is very impressive as there are thousands and thousands of white crosses of American soldiers who died during the fight against Nazi-Germany in WWII. I tried to focus on an individual cross, but also show the enormity of the place.

In this picture I took out almost all green and yellow colours to emphasize the reds in the flowers.

More pictures of our trip south can be found here.

Waking up again

Now spring has finally arrived, its time to look for insects again. The first butterflies have been seen already and soon the first fresh dragonflies will emerge from the water. For the third year in a row, mining bees are the first insects I try to capture. These little bees make holes in the ground and are found in sandy soils. I had a look a few weeks ago, but no bees could be found then. Today I had more luck, the first bees were flying around. They were not very active yet, flying around a little, but didn't do much with their holes. This made it harder for me to get nice shots, because they don't have fixed places they return to. This individual was cleaning his hole, but was too busy to come out of it.

So I'll have to get back for better shots, again...