Lockdown - one year on
Here we are, one year on and still in a lockdown - but hopefully not for much longer! I am booked to have my vaccination this week so will be pleased when that is done.
Once we were in lockdown 1, I was unable to work so I started taking pretty pictures everyday which I uploaded to my personal facebook page to cheer everyone up. As I was furloughed I could not do any work for my business other than the statutory requirements so I sadly didn’t share on my business social media.
I have always loved taking pictures of nature, it is surprising what we miss when we are not actually looking at what is around us! I took my camera with me on my daily exercise and took photos in and around my garden. There is so much beauty everywhere and also some things I wouldn’t consider beautiful but still interesting and amazing. A lot of the plants I have photographed in my garden are actually weeds but I think they are pretty!
I used my camera but you can take really good photos with your phone. You can get attachments that turn your phone camera into a macro lens - this would be worth having a go.
I photographed a blue butterfly that has stripy legs - you can’t easily see the stripes when you look at them but you can see them in the photo! I also discovered that Oak trees have a catkin like flower - I had never noticed this before!
I thoroughly enjoyed watching things grow and change through the spring and summer - I guess I had never had so much time before but last year time wasn’t a problem. Being blessed with such gorgeous weather certainly helped!
I hope you enjoy looking at these images and they inspire you to go out and have a look what’s in and around where you live.
You may want to get a coffee before you start looking at them as I have uploaded rather a lot - but no where near the thousands I took!! I have added a few tips as you go through the blog. Enjoy and thanks for looking.
One morning we had frost - the grass looked pretty with all the ice crystals on it. I simply held my camera near the grass and clicked the shutter - I wasn’t quite prepared to lie down on the freezing grass!
Tip: If you want to take photos that are low down with your phone camera - turn it upside down! That way the camera is at the bottom and you don’t have to get so low yourself!
Some of the photos took a bit of patience - catching the water dripping off the red leaves especially - it was hard to get the timing right on that one and once the drop has fallen the leaf moves up.
Also the hover fly in flight - they are super fast but also like to hang around for a bit so if you can focus you should be able to capture them. The bees were a bit slower especially when laden with pollen.
Ants - they just don’t stop - they were down to luck and a fast shutter speed!
Tip: If you don’t want to go out in the rain, use a spray to add the water to plants!
You will see that I was a little bit obsessed with the dandelion clocks - they fascinate me and even look lovely after it has rained. I actually managed to find a clock with part of the old flower still attached - never seen that before!
Tip: I will admit to sometimes picking the dandelion clocks and carefully pegging them to my washing line so I could photograph them at eye level rather than bending down! This makes them much easier to photograph and you can keep them a distance from any background which will help with make it out of focus so they stand out!
I will now add a bit of everything including the sky, plants, birds flowers, trees, bug and spiders. Thanks for getting this far!
Tip: After it has rained there are normally snails about so this is a great time to capture them!
Tip: If you have any wood or things stacked in your garden I can guarantee there will be spiders - we moved a load of sticks and there were so many different types - if you stay still they will stay still so you can get some pretty good photos of them.
