Mating craneflies

My son spotted these 2 flies on these blades of grass at Hardcastle Crags today - he was initially drawn to the raindrops on the grass. We didn't realise at the time that they were actually mating!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/8, 1/60s, -1 step exp bias (keep forgetting to turn it off!), hand held.

Big hairy caterpillar crawling through grass.

My son spotted this caterpillar as we walked along a section of the Pennine Way on Heptonstall moor today. I haven't seen one like this for years. No idea what kind it is, or what it will, therefore, turn into eventually. We both agreed it looked so cute and furry that we wanted to pick it up; but it also looked equally big and possibly poisonous (probably overreacting there!), so we didn't!

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/100s, 35mm, hand held.

Ladybird and its reflection on a windowpane

This ladybird was walking up one of our windows this weekend, so I grabbed my macro lens and took a few photos of it. I soon realised how difficult it was to get the right bits of it (its eyes) in focus whilst using a wide aperture, so switched to a higher f-stop and used flash instead.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 200, f/11, 1/200s, 90mm, hand held.

Red admiral butterfly on pink Sedum flowers (3)

Here's another one from the series I took about a year ago in my garden. I chose this one out of many others because I really like the underside of butterfly wings. This picture showcases the colours in both sides of the wings - the fact that the head is out of focus also helps to draw your eye to the wings.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/1000s, 90mm, hand held.

Insect on Sedum flowers (2)

I took this in September 2014 in my garden. I don't know insects well enough to be able to say what it is, but I love how its wing and hairs shine golden in the sun!

I cropped the image substantially to get a closer view of the insect, but made no other changes.

Insect on Sedum flowers

Here's another flying critter taking pollen from my pink Sedum flowers a couple of weeks ago. No idea what type of insect it is, but it looks like a shiny little alien up close!

Just cropped the image - no other changes made.

Bee on pink Sedum flowers

I took this in my garden last week. The Sedum flowers attract all kinds of insects - I sat next to them and snapped away for way too long (appx 250 pics and a sore neck!).

I don't know exactly what kind of bee this is - need to start learning about insects if I'm going to do this more often - but I just loved the way the sun lit up its wings. Also love the detail on its head (again, not big on insect anatomy!).

I just cropped the image for better composition - no other changes post production.