And an unexpected visitor...!

Sempervivum, flower

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm not very familiar with the manual settings on my camera and I often fall back on the auto settings. Although, over the past few months, I've been increasingly dissatisfied with the results so I've been making an effort to learn and use the manual settings.

With my latest garden shoot, I wanted close-ups of some flowers and initially, I just started clicking without thinking. When I looked at the first set of photos, most of them seemed just a tad out of focus or the focus was on the 'wrong' spot.

Sempervivum in flower

So the following day, I went out to try again... some new flowers had opened overnight (which I was rather pleased about) however, I chose a time of day that was much too sunny and ended up having problems with over-exposure and some odd shadows that just happened to shade out the details that I was trying to capture.

Sempervivum, flower

So, thinking 'third-time-lucky'... I tried once more to get the photos I imagined... and again, the sun was too bright. At first, I tried blocking the sun with my body but it didn't take long to realise this was a pointless exercise and I decided I'd be better off waiting for the right conditions rather than fighting with the current ones.

Sempervivum, flower

Just at that moment, an unexpected visitor dropped in to have their photo taken and I thought, 'Wow, this is becoming a habit; maybe the universe is trying to tell me something; maybe insects on flowers is becoming my niche.'

Only time will tell I guess..!

Sempervivum, with visitor

Anyhoo, since this will be my first post on HIVE, I thought my visitor was rather appropriate for the occasion - even though it's not a bee, (TIL) it's actually a hover fly.

Hover flies are considered to be 'good' garden-bugs and definitely a friend in the garden. They usually lay their eggs near aphid colonies, giving the larvae an immediate source of food once they hatch. The larvae are a true maggot, they are very predacious and love soft bodied insects, such as aphids. src

Sempervivum with Hover Fly

So, despite the poor conditions, I continued clicking until I was sure I had some good shots of my backyard buddy... taking a lot more care to focus in the 'right' spot and using a few different settings to see how they would turn out.

Overall, I was much happier with the photos and know I still have much to learn... but ever the optimist, I saw it as a great opportunity to practice taking photos in less-than-ideal conditions - and with a live model, no less..!

Until next time... xxx