Just as I leave the M1 at Junction 8 on the way to work, there’s an amazing field ablaze with poppies, which I’ve been meaning to photograph for the last couple of weeks. On Friday of last week I made a quick visit during my lunch hour; all of these photos were taken using my 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens.

Double Poppy	New Wheat	Single Poppy

I learnt a few valuable lessons during this brief shoot:




1. Taking close-up photographs of wild-flowers is enough to make the air turn blue (with my swearing), as even the slightest breeze is enough to ruin your composition and focusing. I can understand now why a lot of flower photography takes place indoors!




2. Depth-of-field is all-important in macro photography. If you take a close look at the “New Wheat” photo, you will notice that the top and the bottom of the wheat is less in focus than the middle, which is where I focused. I think the aperture was f/2.8 for this shot - it should really have been around f/5.6 to ensure that all of the wheat was sharp, whilst keeping the background out-of-focus. Next time I’ll use the DoF button on the Canon 10D and take a selection of shots of the same subject at different apertures.




3. Attention to detail is all-important in macro photography. The “Double Poppies” photo has some annoying elements in it that should have been removed; I completely failed to notice them!




4. You need a lot longer than 1 hour to do justice to your subject and yourself. I was literally running round the field at one point, desperate to realise the next great idea that I’d had, before having to go back to the office.




5. Always wear a hat when exposed to 28 degrees sunshine in the middle of the day…