He who hesitates is lost.

Inspired myself by Life Inspired, I was determined to prove just how easy it is to shoot these macros of dandelions, succeeding only in proving that they are in fact very difficult!

Having worked out the exposures and decided upon the DoF I was looking for, then all I needed to do was get the focus right. With my eyes, easier said than done! So I took a fair number, mostly because there was actually a slight breeze, and these things are pretty light, thus swaying with the slightest whiff of the breeze. During one of those moments when peering through the viewfinder waiting for the breeze to leave my subject alone, my moment came as I could see it centre itself in the picture (The centre of my image today). In the split second that i took the shot, My eye caught a bit of debris at the bottom left of the seed head. Of course, being the one flower you do not want to blow to remove debris, off I went to get my tweezers and magnifying glass.

When I returned, and got down on my knees, peering down at the offending item, I realised that first, it had moved, and second....it was alive. I was not sure exactly what is was, but guessed a caterpillar? (The left hand side of my image today) If it was, it was the smallest I had ever seen. I watched it make it's way up the side of the spherical seed head...then it suddenly dawned on me I should be shooting this scene! So back into the study to choose my lens, thinking I may just have to try the reverse lens trick to focus on something that small. Picked up two lenses and decided to put the kettle on when passing through the kitchen.

As I rounded the corner of the conservatory and got within 5 ft of my set up, I could see immediately....all was gone....all was lost! (the right hand side of my image today). When I say all, I mean I could no longer hone my focusing skills either...the whole seed head had blown away. :(

The only rescue for today's blip was to show all three shots and tell my story. It also highlighted in one shooting situation the effects of using a f1.8 lens with the softer focus areas having much less noise.

So, I know I had lost, but I couldn't wondering where the caterpillar was?