Weekends at cottage offers a good change for taking photographs of nature and this spring I took a bit closer look in what is going on in my garden.

I have one extreme macro lens which, due to its limitations, most of the time of a year collects dust in a drawer. The lens is capable of taking pictures of small objects/models that are only up to 15cm away (approximately) from the lens front element. The lens is Canon's MP-E65 which is capable of magnifications of up to 5:1x. So, as I've spent a lot of money for the lens and macro flash, I decided to use it for the purpose it was acquired for.

A close look at the uncut grass and... there it is, the macro world. A bit higher, on the bush leaves you may find beautiful colorful and hairy pests / caterpillars. Some of the caterpillars are smaller, some bigger, longer. For picturing longer caterpillars I used "normal" macro lens to get the whole animal into picture. And of course, we cannot get around of bees and wasps that collect pollen / farina on each flower bloom.












And as the spring is time for insects for mating, you may catch some of them in action as well :) (the picture has content filter applied, which means you may not see it because of 'adult' content, if you've turned your content filter option to on).





But not everything is nice and cool in spring (and summer), in terms of wildlife in the macro world - mosquitoes become alive as well. And if you're near areas with lakes, pond, sea, marsh, then, because of the humid air, there are a lot of mosquitoes. And they all want you! :)





If you are OK to sacrifice good sweet early morning sleep for photography, then, at the time the sun has not yet risen high, at closer look to trees, hay and bushes you may find many insects coverd with water bubbles. They stand still because (probably) the heavy water cannot let them fly away. And therefore they are very easy to photograph. Once they dry up in the sun, they fly away.