Macro madness

For most of today the wind was blowing in the upper teens of miles per hour, gusting to the mid-thirties, and was driving waves of mixed but largely unenticing weather. These were not ideal conditions for outdoor macro photography, obviously, but when the sun emerged in the middle of the afternoon after a heavy rain shower, that's what I found myself attempting. Because invert season, of course.

After searching the garden I decided to walk down the lane to see if anything was feeding in the hedgerow, and found another gorgeous, fresh Andrena fulva on the blackthorn. She was working the tree at about shoulder height, and was far too busy to be worried about me approaching her, a combination that would have presented the perfect photo opportunity if the branches hadn't been whipping around in the gusty wind. As it was I had to adopt the spray'n'pray technique, occasionally even resorting to holding the end of her current branch steady with one hand while working the camera with the other. All the while thinking that it's just about time I changed to lighter, mirrorless gear.

In the circumstances I was happy to get a handful of quite nice shots, of which this image is my favourite.