Do you ever feel restricted by a lack of vertical images? Not that you couldn't post them, but it seems like you don't, and I wonder if this is by design or by choice (not that choice and design would not be the same). Though for what it's worth, I post very few verticals as well...

Robert: I do shoot portrait format shots, but rarely post them as i) I don't much like posting lower res' images, and ii) larger res' ones rarely seem to benefit from being scrolled.

I do really like this shot. Its nice once in a while to see something "out of the ordinary". But I think that the beetle takes away from the vibrant colors of the flowers.

Wow david! This is sweet man :) Really love the strong colors and the crisp bug in focus.

Really good!

Great shot. That has to be really trippy to be that small and have so many eyes. Very enjoyable.

Interesting colors and contrasts all around, but there is a lack of detail on any subject. Looks like the depth of field is just a tad bit off.

That is a fabulous image - I really like the depth of the image

WOW, Amazing colors

Jessyel: yep, it's not quite as sharp as it could have been, but it's about the best I've managed hand-holding at this magnification. More practice needed ;-)

It looks like click beetle to me - the can snap their abdomen and thorax quite violently (which makes a clicking noise) as a predator escape response. Don't know the flowers. Nice shot.

Think the blue one is a Forget-me-not and the white one looks like the flowers I shot (not posted yet) on some holly the other day.

No idea about the bug.

Yup, it's a snap bug.

Hmm, very nice, great bokeh.

I think Ted is right, it's an Elaterid beetle (not a bug):

http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/factsheets/clickbee.html

The yellow bits are amazing. What is it? They look like they are floating mid-air.

This is by far the best photo I've seen in a long while. Excellent work!

I have spent the last days going through all of your photos here, and I have to say; I am very impressed by your work. I will definitely visit as frequently as I can.

wow!! so very pretty.

It's a shame the bug is blurred because it would have made a good image if it was sharp. Personally i'd have cropped out the side flowers and just had the white one with the bug - but that's obviously personal preference. I personally don't think it's up to your usual standard of excellence - but that doesn't mean it's bad :)

Dave, the previous two landscape images have a really magical aura about them and signfy a welcome shift in your endeavours. Not being ungrateful though. I must confess that although I grew up in Pembrokeshire with 10 beaches (well, more really) within an 11 mile radius I do not miss the sea, but, English countryside never ceases to please.

Continuing the theme of surprise images brings us to todays. I do agree with Chris, the beetle somewhat detracts from the warm glow of the flowers, like it's fouling the image by its presence. Still, it is nature at work.

The glowing ethereal yellow stamen are particulary lovely. I am enjoying the right angled bend in the road that is chromasia.

P.S. never thanked you for getting back to me on the process you described approx 10 images back, appreciated.

Although the focus is off it's still so striking. It reminded me immediately of the concept art for Pixar's Bugs Life (hence the title of this entry, duh!). The blooming blur of your shots is one of the most recogniseable elements in your work so the fact that it comes from slightly shaky hand doesn't bother me. I also love the softness of the colours! :)

Wonderful selective focus on the bug. Any blur due to handholding works very well with the DOF to give the softness to ther rest of the picture. The colours are so crisp that I was wondering whether the flowers were fake! Great shot.

a nice focus on the insect in the blurr of the petals! nice shades!

a riot, a predict a riot.

i guess tomorrow.

united colors.

I love this - the colors, the focus, everything. It's great.

This is a very nice composition. Would have been nice to have that bug sharper though. :)

I agree with pat; doesn't seem as sharp as it could be. The blured flower on the left is also kinda distracting. Love the flower on the right, though!

I am a big fan of nature/macro shots, and was also surprized to see this on chromasia. i'm glad you posted it. Keep up the good work!

have no ide what flowers or beatle your showing here but I know that I really like the convination of colors and the DoF.

The blue flowers look like impatiens (busy lizzie). I suspect they may have been more pink/violet originally? - neither film nor digital is very good a accurately recording this colour due to the high UV content reflected. The white one could be a saxifrage, although I'm not 100% on that. - I'm sure you must have avid gardeners amongst your viewers who will put me right.
Nice hand-held macro - have you noticed that there are more bugs around this year?

after i got my tamron lens, SO many shots came out like this because i was determined to get the 1:1 going, so i flicked the focus mode to manual.. but everyone knows that people tend to sway back and forth so all the wrong aspects are focused :( anyways! i've since started using the auto focus for bugs and insects and whatnot, and they've turned out.. well.. not too bad, actually. *see below*

so dave - seriously now :| DONT BE AFRAID to auto focus. it doesn't make you any less a great photographer! lol. if you did use the autofocus.. you have my permission (tis written too, see?) to shoot me..

also.. i THINK this is a photo that could have benefitted from being taken from further back (greater DoF) and then cropped tighter. the focus wouldn't have been such an issue with this, either. nevertheless! i look forward to MORE usage of your macro lens in the near future - you simply don't post enough from it! i've seen.. 3? may have missed a few days.. but you KNOW you want to :|

on a brighter note, how was edale?

Stunning colours and a lovely bug!

Dave: This photo is unfocused and hardly up to your standards. Maybe taking the camera off aperture priority into full manual mode, and adjusting your ISO setting a little higher to give you a faster shutter would have yielded a crisper shot.

I tend to agree with Alec. There's no excuse for this shot :) .. magnification or otherwise.

Good attempt though.

I love the effect!!

Hi chromasia.

I've got a question.
A first, sorry, Your shoot is realy good. pistils seems to be fliying...excellent.

My question, is : does the RAW converter is a product of Canon?...
Is it possible that you link me something about it?

'gards.

Thanks everyone. And no, it's not as sharp as it could have been but I'm not convinced that that's too much of an issue ;-) Also, chromasia is a work in progress and while I'd like to be able to produce 'perfect' shots every day, it's never going to happen.

pierre-nelson: no, C1 Pro is produced by Phase One.

Hand-held...?? I was going to add a word or two of my own about the slightly 'disturbing' quality of the DoF on this one... But I'll just clam up... The day I get something even remotely as good as this on a hand-held macro I'll come back and play truant... ;)

Until then- Gorgeous...!

Fantastic detalis!

Hi and first of all congratulations for your website! I discovered it a few weeks ago and now I'm stuck here all the time !

Re: this photograph and the flower.
The white flower is some kind of stellaria (in French it's called a stellaire), maybe a Stellaria holostea although this is only a guess - thanks google ;-)
Check out this one:
http://www.aphotoflora.com/Stellaria%20holostea-%2019-04-04.jpg

Cheers!

Ah, I love this one WITH the beetle. It's gorgeous (the photo, not so much the beetle, though, the beetle is nice, too!)

This guy is most likely a flower visiting beetle. Here's a page with a bunch of descriptions of different sorts of beetles that into flowers and such...

http://www.shout.net/~jhilty/files/beetles.htm

i love this photo. it says so much. beauty with a "flaw" the beetle. it is great