Sunny Mid-Summer's Day

Blue Dragonflies Mating (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Sigma DG 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Macro Lens at 300mm, ISO 2500, 1/1,600 sec at f/11, Handheld)

Today was Mid-Summer's Day and we had a power outage at the office.  So after trying to do as much as possible in the office I decided enough was enough and popped out to take advantage of the lovely sunshine to try and capture some shots of the species-rich meadows on the croft land at Drumbuie & Duirinish, and to see if I could get any decent macro shots of dragonflies at Loch Achaidh na h-Inich.

This first shot was taken in the woods at the edge of the loch and shows two dragonflies mating.  I like to soft background and the blue male dragonfly is pretty sharp.  You can actually see the hairs on his back and the tiny spines on his legs when you zoom in to full size.  This has been cropped a fair bit to remove a lot of the background distractions and to focus on the insects.

The next couple of shots are of the same two dragonflies from slightly different vantage points.  I am not sure which I prefer most as they all have bright distractions that take away a bit from the overall quality of the images.

Blue Dragonflies Mating II (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Sigma DG 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Macro Lens at 300mm, ISO 2500, 1/1,600 sec at f/11, Handheld)

Blue Dragonflies Mating III (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Sigma DG 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Macro Lens at 300mm, ISO 2500, 1/640 sec at f/11, Handheld)

I also got a half decent shot of a Green Veined White butterfly by the side of the loch.  This one is not entirely in focus because the flower was moving around a little in the breeze and I should have increased the ISO to get a faster shutterspeed, but it was the best one I managed to get.

Green Veined White Butterfly (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Sigma DG 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Macro Lens at 300mm, ISO 400, 1/125 sec at f/22, Handheld)

Yellow Flag Iris in Sunshine (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Sigma DG 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Macro Lens at 214mm, ISO 2500, 1/1,000 sec at f/20, Handheld)

While at the loch I captured this nice shot of Yellow Flag Iris in the sunshine and the following reflections of the reeds on the loch itself.  I really like the ripple effect and the colours in this last one, it almost looks like smoke.  The slow shutterspeed has smoothed out and blurred the reflections a little.

Ripples in Reflection (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Sigma DG 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Macro Lens at 70mm, ISO 500, 1/30 sec at f/22, Handheld)

Finally, I stopped off at Drumbuie for a few shots of the croft meadows.  There was a lot of motion going on in the grasslands due to the stiff NW breeze.  I like these two shots which capture the scale of the view quite well and also the brightness of the day.  There is no better place to spend time on a summer's day.

Drumbuie & Duirinish Croft Meadows (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Sigma DG 150-500mm f/5.6-6.3 Lens at 150mm, ISO 100, 1/320 sec at f/6.3, Tripod)

Species-rich Grassland at Drumbuie (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 17-35mm f/2.8L USM Lens at 17mm, ISO 400, 1/200 sec at f/22, Tripod)