The Birds & The Bees, And The Butterlies...

So today I decided to head up to Ulley Reservoir which is pretty local to me as I can be there within 5 minutes of setting off from house, I wanted to try and get some birdi shots and mainly looking for some great crested grebe shots.
After mastering my remix of Padam Padam by Kylie, I thought I'd head out and see what I can come up with.

As I parked in the carpark, which was a first for me, I was so surprised as it was only £1.00 for all day, although the carpark does close at 5pm. Before I set off I thought I'd put the big Sigma 150-600mm lens on as I knew the grebes that I was looking for are always miles away from the edge, walking over the carpark I saw this bush with loads of butterflies and bees going onto the flowers, there was red admirals and all sorts there, some white butterflies with black wing tips etc, it was great to watch, although I think the people there saw me with the big lens must have thought I was an idiot lol.

I'm not sure what was wrong with the lens/camera today, but it did struggle with focussing and at times I had to switch to manual focus to try and nail the shot, I think it must have been to do with the reflections on the water that was throwing it out, after all it's not meant to be used on my camera, I use it adapted as it should be used with a Canon camera.

I love the shot of the pigeons, although it was shot about 2 stops underexposed so had to ramp it up in lightroom, I had to be quick before the pigeons flew off.

Walking around the reservoir was so peaceful, until this gobby bloke decided to walk around, with his yappy little dogs, I'm not going to go into detail, but as I walked passed and said hello, as you do, he just looked at me and continued trying to tell a woman how to control her dog, even though that was on a lead and his was yapping at her dog, the guy was an idiot.

Seeing as the peace had been shattered and no doubt the wildlife had been scared off, I decided to head back to the car, watching swans with their young at the other side of the water, and some young kids decided to go fishing there, ahh, to be a kid again and off for the whole summer, bliss.

I headed home, as I reversed onto the drive, we have some clover on the lawn and the bees were going mad for it, I have been itching to get a bee or hoverfly or something in flight around flowers, the bees seem too quick for my macro lens, especially to keep them in focus with the small focal plane you get when shooting macro, I thought I'd have a go with the big lens.

I am quite pleased with the overall result.

I'm certainly going to try the big lens technique in the future for this shot, although I do think I need to buy the sony mount version as I think the autofocus will be quick and more accurate, maybe it was me today, I dunno, even thought it wasn't the most successful days for photography, I am more than happy with what I did get, especially the butterfly and bee shots.

I really hope you've enjoyed todays blog, thanks for reading :-)

All the best :-)