Macro madness at Hebbal lake

Off late I have kept my telephoto aside and am using my macro lens for good amount of time. I thought I was getting into a rut shooting birds all the times and looking at my  recent shots from trips to Hebbal lake I realized that I was not capturing anything different. It was same old shots of the same birds. So I decided to take a break from shooting birds and move on to shooting macro subjects.

Also, these days the mornings are not really dramatic. Its cloudy most of the days, so no point in shooting birds. However I found such cloudy and wet conditions really helpful in doing some macro photography. The cloudy sky provides nice diffused light and the wet conditions brings out the colors in the green foliage really well. During last couple of visits to Hebbal lake I have been shooting only macros, using my trusty Sigma 150mm Macro lens. I have also started putting my cheap tripod to good use. Now I have realized the benifits of using tripod, especially when doing macro photography. Doing macro work hand holding the camera really tires you out and under certain conditions it becomes virtually impossible to take a sharp shot.

Here are some shots taken during my last couple of visits to Hebbal lake. I have been lucky to get some rain the previous night, so the following morning  provides nice refreshing scenes.

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Buggy morning at Hebbal lake

10th Oct, 2010

Hebbal lake was one place which I wanted to visit since long time, but never took time off to go there. This weekend I decided to set off to Hebbal lake with expectations of getting some good shots. While surfing the net I saw many good early morning sunrise shots taken at Hebbal lake and I too was eager to get some good sunrise shots. Once shot that I specifically had in mind was the lake being lit the golden color morning light with a silhouette of pelicans or ducks against the golden colored water.

I left for the lake early enough so that I do not miss the sunrise, though was bit disappointed to see the sky as there were plenty of clouds and I was getting doubtful that there won't be a spectacular sunrise. I reached the lake at 6 AM and as I had expected the cloudy sky did not leave any chance of a beautiful sunrise, infact the sunrise was not at all dramatic. I took couple of shots but none to my liking. Posting one below.

Early morning

The light and sky was dismissal for any kind of landscape shots. I did take few shots but none to my liking. Here are few of them

I did not waste much time taking them and mounted my Sigma 150mm macro lens as there were lots of bugs, spiders and butterflies around. There were few water birds around but I did not have any lens with a longer focal length so there was no point in shooting them.

I spent next couple of hours looking for and shooting various insects around.


As the sun came up I also saw few butterflies around. So captured them too.

Common bush brown

Common Castor

Lemon Pancy

Common Grass Yellow

Not sure about ID of this butterfly

Well this was it. It was almost 9 AM by now and the park was almost empty. All the shutterbugs, early morning walkers had left the park and I also called it a day. I had come to shoot sunrise but went on to shoot bugs. A sunrise shoot still remaining on the list and so does Hebbal lake.

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