ladybird, ladybird

Very brief sunshine today (about 30 minutes) and the only insect I could find in the garden was this ladybird, probably the same one I photographed last week. This time though I had my tripod to hand and my diffuser (although I didn't need it for these shots). Taken in RAW and converted to JPEG in PPL with no mods whatsoever, not even a little sharpening.




K10D / D-FA100 / f8 / 1-8sec / ISO100




K10D / D-FA100 / f16 / 0.7sec / ISO100

C&C welcome as ever!

Great shot, I like his cute little moustache.

When you shoot do you try to get eye too eye with your subject : I ask because you seem to get alot of OOF foreground. I try to avoid this by getting about 30 too 40 degrees above my subject or ensuring there is nothing in the foreground

So did you use a flash without a diffuser or no flash at all :
There is that reflection on its head is why i ask.

They are excellent shots mate,

All this macro stuff is making me very jelous, only 20 more days till my kit arrives at my door, I cant wait

Regards
PaulM

Looks like no flash at all, long shutter speed would also indicate that. The reflection is the sky (first one you can see a cloud), and on the second one you can see Hefty's head.

Dan

Thanks for the kind words folks!

Clarky: Yes I do tend to get drawn into taking photos at eye level. Actually, I always take some at other angles as well but I nearly always select the eye-contact ones as the "printers". I seem fascinated with insect faces...

As for the flash...

Dan: 10/10! I do have the 360 but if there's enough available light then I'd rather work with that instead (I may have to review that when I start taking shots of things that move at a faster pace though). You were spot on about both the cloud and my head in the reflections!