Summer Flowers

Summer Bugs

Hope you all had a good summer solstice.  With summer well and truely underway it tends to be macro season for me.  With so many bugs, bees and damselflies about and nice bright Sunlight to light them it all comes down to skill, patience and a steady aim..

A banded demoiselle about to land on a lily pad.  Actually taken with my 100-400mm with x1.6 teleconverter.  Another lens combination that really needs a bright subject..

Bees, always busy and always looking good in purple..

Tiny flies always make for great shots it seems, with only about 3cm of background to keep clean they tend to make nice simple compositions.

The Elusive Princess

Another flying visit by a steam locomotive through my local area, originally supposed to be the stunning Sir Nigel Gresley, but replaced with the Princess Elizabeth in the end.  It passed through at lunchtime and then returned in the evening.  Thankfully I decided to take a quick trip out at lunch to catch it arriving, charging past within 2 minutes of me arriving at the bridge over the line.  It was running early and caught me by surprise (I didn't get a chance to get in position, the photo below was pretty much a snapshot - hence the photoshop meddling).   

After work I then travelled out to my carefully chosen location (courtesy of google streetview + Earth plugin) to catch it on its way back out.. only for it to never arrive?!   The disappearing train apparently.  I can only guess that it went back a different line than it arrived on, much to the disappointment of me and the others gathered to watch it steam through...   next time...

Another purge of the left behind..

Engineers working at the East Somerset Railway workshop.

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Baby Swans in stained glass.  Very seasonal!

The colour of Summer.

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... and a practice shot from my car boot challenge.

Seasonal Macrosnaps