Indian Summer

Currently we are enjoying a brief ‘Indian summer’ – blue skies and soaring temperatures during the day; misty mornings. Yesterday as I closed the bathroom window I looked down on the garden as it lay bathed in early morning sunshine. Such wonderful spiders’ webs – glinting in the sunlight. So today I was up early dressed and ready with camera in hand waiting for the sun to rise over the trees. Here are the results:

(526) ISO 400; 1/20 sec; f/22; focal length 78mm

This had the sun to the left and behind me, and I was fascinated by the size of the large web – and its hole, but also the sunlight glimmering on the horizontal webs at the bottom. Does the tall grass distract? Without it there would be no web.

(536) ISO 400; 1/25 sec; f/8; focal length 70mm

I love the swinging element of the web here. It probably should have been framed more to the left – maybe it can be cropped? Also the top of the web is hidden by the top of the flower head. I like the colours and out of focus background.

(541) ISO 400; 1/30 sec; f/8; focal length 114mm

I like the shapes in this one – but feel the light at the top is too bright and draws the eye away from the subject and out of the picture.

(544) ISO 400; 1/30 sec; f/8; focal length 149mm

Again that light – but otherwise a fun shot.

I also took a photo from a window since I know birds often perch here:

(519) ISO 400; 1/25 sec; f/8; focal length 215mm

Unfortunately the depth of field makes this a muddled photo with no real focus. Lovely colours and hopefully it can be improved.

Equipment used: 

Olympus E520 camera

Zuiko digital lens 70 – 300 mm.

No polarising filter

This telephoto lens was chosen as I could not get close to any of the subjects – the webs were too fragile and the branches several feet from the window.

Inspiration:

Photographing Garden Wildlife by Marianne Taylor and Steve Young.

Within this book is a beautiful image of a song thrush with dappled light.

ISO 200; 1/80 sec; f/5.6; focal length 390 mm