Have you photographed different creatures due to lockdown?

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David
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Has anyone seen different creatures or not seen them due to lock down?
I saw 2 spotted ladybirds near the house for the first time for years. This is because the nearby primary school forgot to lock the carpark during lockdown and whilst I was recovering from Covid (I had a temperature for about 10 days but couldn't move very much for a few weeks) and I went there to get out of the house.
A bit sad they are so restricted but at least they survive somewhere

I didn't see Comma butterflies last year because the local playground, where I normally see them - full of hops was locked.
I also didn't see any winter bumblebees because I normally see walking to church - and that didn't happen (I could have gone specially but I never got round to it)

This winter I saw fewer centipdes because when we recovered from Covid the patio got cleared up, on the plus side whilst clearing it up I did see quite a few woodlouse spiders

LadybirdIMG_2192 by davholla2002, on Flickr

LadybirdIMG_2854 by davholla2002, on Flickr

I saw this spider for the same reason
SpiderIMG_2708 by davholla2002, on Flickr

IMG_3029 by davholla2002, on Flickr
 
I also like three pity about the leg shortage though
Not seen a woodlice spider
Though lockdown has forced changes not a lot is different in terms of what i have shot other than Lizards and Adders
 
It's difficult to know whether it would have happened anyway, but I think lockdown may have been at least part of the reason I'm now photographing more smaller subjects than previously and going in closer on larger subjects ("head shots" etc) and getting greater DOF than previously, for subjects of various sizes..

Because of lockdown and the fact we were shielding rather rigorously, I didn't go to any nature reserves last year and I was restricted to our garden. Perhaps it was the lack of photo opportunities and not having to spend much time on processing new stuff that encouraged/enabled me to work through my large backlog, and eventually clear it completely by the autumn.

I was still in the process of doing that when, in the summer, I decided to have a serious go at photographing the small and highly active flies that turn up on our tiny pond every summer, but which I had never managed to get decent images of. I decided to carefully explore options, determined to put as much time into it as necessary rather than, as I usually do, doing a session or two and if it doesn't work give up. The tiny flies disappeared quite quickly but from mid summer to the end of the year one thing led to another, both in terms of kit and processing, until I eventually ended up with the paired teleconverters on full frame approach, using apertures that were even smaller than apertures I thought I had shown wouldn't work (here in my Journey thread) 5 years ago.

As part of this, in the absence of other opportunities outside of our garden, late in the year I sought and received permission to go into the little wood beside the church which is opposite our house, and there I found more and more varied subjects than in our garden.

I'm thinking I'll start visiting some of the local nature reserves quite soon. And I'll go back to that little wood opposite too (haven't visited it since the turn of the year).
 
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It's difficult to know whether it would have happened anyway, but I think lockdown may have been at least part of the reason I'm now photographing more smaller subjects than previously and going in closer on larger subjects ("head shots" etc) and getting greater DOF than previously, for subjects of various sizes..

Because of lockdown and the fact we were shielding rather rigorously, I didn't go to any nature reserves last year and I was restricted to our garden. Perhaps it was the lack of photo opportunities and not having to spend much time on processing new stuff that encouraged/enabled me to work through my large backlog, and eventually clear it completely by the autumn.

I was still in the process of doing that when, in the summer, I decided to have a serious go at photographing the small and highly active flies that turn up on our tiny pond every summer, but which I had never managed to get decent images of. I decided to carefully explore options, determined to put as much time into it as necessary rather than, as I usually do, doing a session or two and if it doesn't work give up. The tiny flies disappeared quite quickly but from mid summer to the end of the year one thing led to another, both in terms of kit and processing, until I eventually ended up with the paired teleconverters on full frame approach, using apertures that were even smaller than apertures I thought I had shown wouldn't work (here in my Journey thread) 5 years ago.

As part of this, in the absence of other opportunities outside of our garden, late in the year I sought and received permission to go into the little wood beside the church which is opposite our house, and there I found more and more varied subjects than in our garden.

I'm thinking I'll start visiting some of the local nature reserves quite soon. And I'll go back to that little wood opposite too (haven't visited it since the turn of the year).
Have you managed to photograph the flies? Do you mind shielding, it would send me mad to be honest.
Unlike you my health problem (a bit dramatic, Covid was far more annoying than dangerous for me, I was worried for a total of 5 minutes, although it was frustrating that I had to lie down every time I walked up the stairs) let me see new creatures.
 
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Has anyone seen different creatures or not seen them due to lock down?
I saw 2 spotted ladybirds near the house for the first time for years. This is because the nearby primary school forgot to lock the carpark during lockdown and whilst I was recovering from Covid (I had a temperature for about 10 days but couldn't move very much for a few weeks) and I went there to get out of the house.
A bit sad they are so restricted but at least they survive somewhere

I didn't see Comma butterflies last year because the local playground, where I normally see them - full of hops was locked.
I also didn't see any winter bumblebees because I normally see walking to church - and that didn't happen (I could have gone specially but I never got round to it)

This winter I saw fewer centipdes because when we recovered from Covid the patio got cleared up, on the plus side whilst clearing it up I did see quite a few woodlouse spiders

LadybirdIMG_2192 by davholla2002, on Flickr

LadybirdIMG_2854 by davholla2002, on Flickr

I saw this spider for the same reason
SpiderIMG_2708 by davholla2002, on Flickr

IMG_3029 by davholla2002, on Flickr

I could never :eek: I'm scared of insects and smaller creatures, but I absolutely love the first two photos!
 
Since lockdown in March last year, not one shot have I taken. Been thinking about it, but my wife got taken ill and have had to look after her. Sadly she passed away beginning of January this year, and now I'm on catch up hope to get my cameras out soon, been studying my garden and can see lots of possible photo's some have already passed by.

Trevor
 
Since lockdown in March last year, not one shot have I taken. Been thinking about it, but my wife got taken ill and have had to look after her. Sadly she passed away beginning of January this year, and now I'm on catch up hope to get my cameras out soon, been studying my garden and can see lots of possible photo's some have already passed by.

Trevor

Sorry to hear your sad news Trevor
Thoughts with you and your family
 
Since lockdown in March last year, not one shot have I taken. Been thinking about it, but my wife got taken ill and have had to look after her. Sadly she passed away beginning of January this year, and now I'm on catch up hope to get my cameras out soon, been studying my garden and can see lots of possible photo's some have already passed by.

Trevor
So sorry to hear that.
 
Have you managed to photograph the flies?

They weren't around for long, and that was in the early stages of my experiments, so I didn't photograph them with the setup I'm now using. However, the images below are from the first session where I tried using the A7ii, having finally decided that I wasn't going to get anywhere with any of my close-up lens on telezoom lens setups no matter how hard I tried. I wasn't keen on using a macro lens rather than close-up lenses, partly because I would be restricted to manual focus and partly because the setups were heavy and felt awkward to use.

For this first macro lens experiment I used the Laowa 25mm 2.5X to 5X macro lens. I didn't like the usability aspects of it (the 2.5 to 5X magnification range was too narrow for me and the magnification/focus ring was very stiff and difficult to use). However, it was images from that session like the ones below, particularly the fourth one (despite the wing being clipped, which was irrelevant in this experimental context) that made me think there might be some mileage in using a macro setup. In this first session, using kit I was unfamiliar with and didn't really like, I got a number of shots that turned out better than I had previously achieved with all my hard work with close-up lens setups. It was the start of 6 months of fairly intensive experimentation, not just with the Sony but also using the same, various, lens and flash setups on micro four thirds and APS-C. And it turned out that the macro lens setup I ended up with worked nicely for larger subjects too.

(1300 pixel high versions over at Flickr.)


1642 Reworked 2021_03_26 DSC02282_PLab4 LR 1300hDNAIcLoLo
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


1642 Reworked 2021_03_26 DSC02280_PLab4 LR 1300hDNAIcLoLo
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


1642 Reworked 2021_03_26 DSC02302_PLab4 LR 1300hDNAIcLoLo
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


1642 Reworked 2021_03_26 DSC02305_PLab4 LR 1300hDNAIcLoLo
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


1642 Reworked 2021_03_26 DSC02332_PLab4 LR 1300hDNAIcLoLo
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

Do you mind shielding, it would send me mad to be honest.

It has not been too bad. We are both very home centred and didn't go out much anyway, so it hasn't been a huge wrench for us.

Unlike you my health problem (a bit dramatic, Covid was far more annoying than dangerous for me, I was worried for a total of 5 minutes, although it was frustrating that I had to lie down every time I walked up the stairs) let me see new creatures.

Did the problem go away?

We have been more concerned for my wife than for me. I was diagnosed with mesothelioma in spring 2018. Mesothelioma is incurable and unfortunately most people with it die with 18 months of diagnosis. On average chemotherapy only extends life by four months or so so I decided not to bother, given that the chemo would have taken some months and can be nasty in its own right. Then something very odd happened, something pretty much unheard of as far as I can tell. With no treatment, the symptoms quickly disappeared and all traces of it on scans went away over the course of a year or so. Despite consultations between specialist professors here and in London it remains totally unclear what happened. The diagnosis appears to have been solid but it seems that the disease does not spontaneously regress. It is a mystery. And do I now have mesothelioma or not? No way of knowing. Maybe it will come back, maybe not. I'm just carrying on carrying on.
 
It has not been too bad. We are both very home centred and didn't go out much anyway, so it hasn't been a huge wrench for us.



Did the problem go away?

We have been more concerned for my wife than for me. I was diagnosed with mesothelioma in spring 2018. Mesothelioma is incurable and unfortunately most people with it die with 18 months of diagnosis. On average chemotherapy only extends life by four months or so so I decided not to bother, given that the chemo would have taken some months and can be nasty in its own right. Then something very odd happened, something pretty much unheard of as far as I can tell. With no treatment, the symptoms quickly disappeared and all traces of it on scans went away over the course of a year or so. Despite consultations between specialist professors here and in London it remains totally unclear what happened. The diagnosis appears to have been solid but it seems that the disease does not spontaneously regress. It is a mystery. And do I now have mesothelioma or not? No way of knowing. Maybe it will come back, maybe not. I'm just carrying on carrying on.
Nice photos and I am glad that you don't mind home shielding.
I completely recovered from Covid in about 7 weeks or so. I don't know know if as I am fit as I was before - because I used to swim and obviously I don't know if I can swim as much as before.
For us it was not a big issue, just like a bad flu - I know that we were lucky. To be honest I was quite pleased to get it and know that I don't need to worry.
In some ways, was better than the flu - people don't phone you every day with flu to check that you are still alive.
 
Since lockdown in March last year, not one shot have I taken. Been thinking about it, but my wife got taken ill and have had to look after her. Sadly she passed away beginning of January this year, and now I'm on catch up hope to get my cameras out soon, been studying my garden and can see lots of possible photo's some have already passed by.

Trevor

I'm so sorry to hear that Trevor. My thoughts are with you.
 
Excellent, although presumably that was not because of lockdown.

TBH, lockdown hasn't had much of an affect on my usual routine.
I still go to work.
Although most of the mill has been furloughed on and off, I'm part of a security/safety works continuation team so I've never been furloughed.
I live by the banks of the River Don here in Aberdeen so my daily exercise is walking the dog along the riverside path and of course I always have my camera with me.
As with everyone else, I'll be happy when I can travel further afield.
 
Thank you for all your messages, life has to go on and hopefully I will be carrying on.
Caravan has been serviced, but will wait for the mad rush to go then have my turn. When we are allowed to travel I will be off with hopefully camera in hand.
Surprising how much there is to photograph in the garden with bugs, beasts and flowers.

Trevor
 
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