Photos: chasing the late spring

[aletheiafelinea]

And bugs. ^^


Southern Poland, 8 May 2016. It counts as late spring, doesn’t it?
Everything taken within 3 km from my home.


This is… a bug. Some species of checkered beetle, perhaps? Apparently ones with these colors reversed are more popular around…



And this is a comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album), or rusałka ceik in Polish. Judging on the miserable state of the wings, I’d say it’s a vet of the last winter. I think it’s too early for the new generation anyway.



This is a very proud ant who has a whole flower of her own! ^^ Full size recommended.



This is a little leafy twig waving you hello as you’re walking by.



And this is… something related to apple trees? Well, it’s spring wild blossom at any case. They’re taking turns in sunbathing. “Move over, you had your share by morning.”



Thank you for attention and proceed with your evening. :)

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Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Lovely as always! Very impressed with the butterfly especially -- so fuzzy!

Dandelion in Russian (oduvanchik) also comes from the word "to blow". So we've both got our priorities clear :D

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

so fuzzy!
Exactly! :D I hoped for better quality, dammit, he granted me a lot of time, so I sort of owed him a better portrait...

So we've both got our priorities clear :D
We just out of kindness do our best to help them spread, that's all. For sure. *g*

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

And Pusteblume in German! Pusten = blowing and Blume = flower.

Finally new flowers and bugs! Great pictures!

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Thanks, also for adding to the linguistic collection! :)

[hamsterwoman]

Aww, that sounds like a really cute word, too! :)

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

It is, actually! Something kids might say. The official word is Löwenzahn (lion teeth), because the leaves look like the teeth of a lion. But with Löwenzahn you always imagine the yellow flower. But everyone knows what a Pusteblume looks like.

We even have a famous fountain in Dresden that looks like it:

https://origin.img.fotocommunity.com/autumn-in-dresden-f9fd30b8-9890-4c70-802f-ff9fc8250b09.jpg?width=1000

[gelsey.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pics.

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[qwentoozla]

Lovely! I really like the ant with her own flower. :)

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

...Until her sisters come. ;)

[margaret-r.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pictures, as always. The butterfly is incredible!!

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Thanks! All butterflies are incredible! :D

[bearshorty.livejournal.com]

I love the focus on the tiny bugs here. And really bright colors. The picture with the ant is amazing.  Gorgeous pics.

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Bugs add some action and story to the photo. The tricky part is managing to get the focal point where it should be, which is really hard with extreme close-ups... On the other hand, indeed, with macro photos it's easy to have clear, strong colors and I love that! Thanks!

[ikel89.livejournal.com]

(ouo)b at obligatory dandelion! looks very nice, i think:) and general flaily aww at spring pictures :) do you use macro lens/settings for these? *curious*

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Yes, the first four were taken with a macro converter, and the other two without it. It has its pros and cons... :)

[ikel89.livejournal.com]

What is a converter? *curious* I only know lenses I can swap on the body camera! my preferred one is a fixed focus prime lens (portrait lens, basically, which does verreh nice high aperture bokeh pics)

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

I use just a high level point-and-shoot, so I can't swap lenses. Converter is a sort of additional lens you can screw on like filters. Shouldn't be mistaken with screwed-on macro lenses, which are just a single glass. Converter has two glasses combined, which makes it more versatile (you can choose how big magnification you want, without losing the focus) and much better for hunting critters, because it works from a bigger distance. Conveniently, converters are usually even better for point-and-shoots than DSLRs, because the latter have large sensors, which gives shorter focus range (because of reasons and physics) and when you combine it with the large magnification (so, shortening the focus range even more), it's really hard to get good results. Which is actually already hard even with point-and-shoot - the depth of field is milimeters, not even centimeters. High aperture can add a milimeter or two, but I have no more than 8f and anyway not every bug is kind enough to sit in full sun (which not necessarily is good, too, because of chromatic aberrations on reflective parts - wings, trichomes; a little clouded sky gives the nicest results, like here (http://aletheiafelinea.deviantart.com/art/On-the-Edge-381930705)), and high ISO is definitely not what you want for tiny details. And as for making up for dark with a low shutter speed, it's the higher the better with bugs, because most of little bastards fidgets like crazy. Especially ants.

I use a Raynox 250 and can recommend it. I think there's a video on YT, where a guy screws together 150 + 250 onto a DSLR and from about half a meter of distance counts a fly's ommatidias. That is, dunno if he counted them, but he could. :) Raynox sells also 505, but that's a little crazy for a regular camera. Granted, you'll probably take protozoa with this, but good luck with taking them sharp focused from hand, and with anything bigger it's not much fun if only what you can fit into the focus of a small caterpillar is one leg...

[ikel89.livejournal.com]

Oho, you really are full of photowisdom!:) Thanks for telling me all this! I'm not sure I need this atm - my range is usually flowers and faces and occasional facades (which, tbh, is something like a face and flowers but in building equivalent;), so I don't need that level of marco precision. But i was curious all the same, so, thank you :)

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

It's a "didn't know I want this!" sort of thing ;D but yeah, not really useful for portraits and architecture. *g* Fine for flowers, though, as long as it's not supposed to be a 'flower X in the scenery Y' photo. You're welcome and thank you for your interest! :)

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

No pewnie, że maj to wciąż wiosna!

Jak to napisałaś, to wydaje się oczywiste, ale trzeba mieć wyobraźnię, żeby dostrzec w gałązce machającą... no cóż, gałązkę :)

Mrówka wprawia mnie w zdziwienie i zachwyt nad jakością zdjęć z niektórych aparatów ;)

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Ale czy już późna...? :)

Zasadniczo machanie to treść życia gałązki, więc równie dobrze może machać do mnie, skoro już tam jestem. :)

Wbrew pozorom w robocie była taka sama matryca, co w każdej pstrykawce za trzy setki, a nawet w telefonach. Różnicę robią głównie szkła i software... Oraz nadludzka ilość szczęścia w tym konkretnym przypadku, bo mrówki na ogół strasznie się wiercą. :]

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

Nie wiem, może środkowa? W tym roku dość późno przyszła :)

Teraz gdy będę szła ulicą podczas wiatru, będę widziała machające do mnie drzewa. Mój świat znów zyskał trochę więcej magii!

*nieznasię* Pozostanę zachwycona efektem, niezależnie od technikaliów :) A mrówka pewnie wyczuła, że cała uwaga jest zwrócona na nią i grzecznie pozwoliła się sfotografować ;D

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Nie zapomnij odmachiwać! ;D

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous! The spring flowers in Portugal are gorgeous, too, but the weather isn't and I am not going out and about with my camera. If the sun ever shines again, maybe!

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Where did the sun go, if it's missing even in Portugal... I wish you sunny days soon!