Do you ever get in the mood for a single color? This evening I am in an orange mood. (As a disclaimer I should mention that I drive an orange car, so orange plays a larger role in my daily life than it probably does for most others.) To scratch that itch, I decided to post some photos from late May of an orange poppy and some of the insects that visited it.
May was the month when I first started getting more serious about photography and these photos were an early indication to me that I was improving. I still enjoy looking at them, remembering some of the early twists and turns of the photography journey on which I have embarked.
As I think back, I feel like I was just learning to walk. Now I can walk with much greater confidence. I look forward to being able to run.
Visiting bee
Visiting hoverfly (flower fly)
Visiting ant
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I love the orange! The depth of field in your photos is super.
Being on a tripod really helped with that. I had to worry less about shutter speed..
Mike did you take these photos with the 18-55 lens, or a macro lens. They are really sharp.
I had not purchased my macro lens yet. I checked the RAW file and the info for the bee photo, for example, was ISO 100, f 7.1, 1/200, and the lens was the 18-55mm at 50mm. I am pretty sure that I was using aperture priority and auto focus.
I’m with you, Mike. There is nothing like a good tripod (if the situation will permit the luxury) to raise the probability of really good results. It’s not always possible, of course, but as a general rule it’s a most excellent bit of insurance. Too few people realize this, and I’m glad that you’re one of the ones who do.
I have an excellent mentor and friend, Cindy Dyer, who is an awesome photographer (http://cindydyer.wordpress.com/). The use of a tripod is one of the first and most important things she taught me. My equipment at the time of these photos was really modest but the results were pretty good. I attribute that to a large degree to luck, persistence, and techniques like the tripod,
I’m with Sue – your images are nicely sharp. You’ve got good control of your gear and technique to deliver such quality in your images.
Thanks for the encouragement. I am endeavoring to improve both the equipment and the technique. A bigger challenge is the one of creative vision and I appreciate thought-provoking postings like your most recent on Posing the Environment. http://melmannphoto.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/posing-the-environment/
[…] like a hover fly (or flower fly), but the coloration was different. (Check out one of my earlier postings to see a photo of a hover fly.) The unknown insect, featured in the third photograph below, acted […]