Extreme contrasts, Welsh Moor, Gower Peninsula

I originally went to Welsh Moor to photograph the varied and plentiful grasshoppers and crickets on Welsh Moor. The ideal weather for this is high cloud with good light levels; this helps reduce the contrast and gives better details. As usual my plans went astray due to the cloud clearing on my arrival and?producing some interesting cloud patterns. As most of you know I’m quite partial to the odd cloud photo, so suitably distracted I wondered off in search of clouds.

I did manage to get back to my original subjects, but most of the images were too contrasty to be of any use. This little Froghopper is only about 5mm long so it was quite a challenge to get it in focus, plus get an interesting composition. At this level of magnification any slight breeze looks like a hurricane in the view finder and as a result only 2 of about 30 images were sharp. It didn’t help either that I was trying to do this hand held as well.

Although the light is quite contrasty in the spider image, I still like the “feel” of it produced by a shallow depth of field, close magnification and a burst of fill in flash. Most of the time we are used to seeing the top of spiders as they scuttle around, so I like the different view point showing some of their different colours and details. I’m not sure what spider this is as I wasn’t able to get to see the other side and none of my guide books show the underneath of the spiders.