Ladybird Ladybird...

[Richard]

Seem to be quite a few of these around my garden at the moment, which is good for the plants and also makes a nice subject :thumbs:

http://static.flickr.com/82/246729464_417ee7bc7f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardbaker/246729464)

http://static.flickr.com/94/245530952_978761c5eb.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardbaker/245530952)

http://static.flickr.com/95/250479906_44efd0d7e7.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardbaker/250479906)

http://static.flickr.com/85/246729635_9cc5ca6495.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardbaker/246729635)

Larger versions are on Flickr (click the pic!).

C&C welcome :)

[Hacker]

Great shots Richard, I particularly like the colours in #3 and the water droplet makes it although I might be tempted to crop out a portion from the top but still keep some of the blue.

:clap: :clap: :clap:

[chuckles]

Number 3 for me too..... just the right amount of everything IMHO ;)

Although I do like the "vegetable jaws" of the first one!

[Richard]

Cheers :)

Yes someone else suggested a similar crop on Flickr but I just don't like cutting the ends off petals. I'm still undecided :thinking:

[Marcel]

Numbers 2 and 3 for me Richard.

I love the 'bleakness' of number 2, like he's just reached a ledge on the edge of a vast canyon :lol:

Number 3 for the balance of colours and composition. Spot on mate :)

[RobertP]

So how many bad shots did you get to go with these good ones?

I tried to take a shot of one of these a few weeks back and the little bugger would not keep still for a moment. Gave up on it in the end. Need to get faster with the manual focussing :)

Nice job.

[moomike]

2nd & third for me too, really great set of images overall :thumbs:

[RickMezza]

All nice shots, but #2 is definitely my fave :)

[namllihs]

Number 3 for me, it's spot on.

[Richard]

So how many bad shots did you get to go with these good ones?

I tried to take a shot of one of these a few weeks back and the little bugger would not keep still for a moment. Gave up on it in the end. Need to get faster with the manual focussing :)

I took about 11 shots of the first ladybird (shots 1, 2 & 4), and there's three that got binned. I reckon I was very lucky actually because he kept moving up and down the leaves, always in full sight. Just never happens :)

The second ladybird was harder because he just wouldn't move. I had to give him a few pokes to get him started but even then he wasn't interested. In the end I picked him up and placed him in the middle of the sunflower and waited. So there I was, half crouching in a flower bed, one hand holding a sunflower in the right position to get the sky behind and the other holding a camera and trying to focus. All it needed was my neighbour to look over the fence and shout "ARGH SPIDER!" again.... :lol:

There's another 5/6 pics of the second one which I've not got round to processing yet. Thank you all for your comments :thumbs:

Autofocus always seems to work ok for me. What's the advantage of going manual?

[Boon]

#3 for me mate, love the angle and compostion of it all.

[CT]

Two and three for me too Richard but they're all excellent. :)

[sypix]

Love the colours of no. 3, but all are good

[Trung_EP3CTR]

Very beautiful shots.
The colour on the 3rd one is just spot on.

[kamion]

Number 3!! :love:

[Forbiddenbiker]

All good. Number three for me too. :love:

[digitalfailure]

2 and 3 stand out above the others.

:thumbs: