278: One Dozen Ladybirds

Settings: f/5.6, 1/10, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 19mm extension, tripod.

215: Squash Leaf Ladybird

Is this possibly one of the larvae I placed under this plant? I'm not sure how long they take to fully develop, but there were a lot of them around.

Settings: f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 19mm extension.

203: Ladybabies

Babybirds? (Baby bugs.)
These were found under a curly parsley leaf a couple of days ago, but then all a cluster of tiny yellow eggs. I was unsure what they were, and left them indoors. I noticed they had hatched this morning, and initially thought they were blackfly. On closer inspection I was delighted to see they were ladybird larvae. I put them ouside under a blackfly-encrusted squash plant - even though it doesn't seem affected, I hope that the larvae will find plenty to eat there, as well as adequate shelter.

Settings: f/8, 1/4, ISO 100, P-FA 50mm, 136mm bellows, 1/4 flash, white cards, copy stand.

099: Three Ladybirds

Ladybirds, ladybugs.
They seem to be everywhere right now, but I can't help but keep taking photos of them. It's only a pity I've barely found other than the common seven-spot variety so far. I will keep a lookout for more in the coming weeks.

Settings: /6.3, 1/25, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 48mm extension, tripod.

086: Ladybird, Spruce & Ant

I came across no less than five seven-spot ladybirds having some quiet time on a dwarf spruce.
I decided to take a shot of one in a more secluded position halfway up, through the branches which provide a blurry green vignette around the main subject.
The ant appeared from nowhere, its appearance is a happy bonus.
Rather than the bugs, the most detail here seems to be on the needles (although I don't mind it like this.) Probably just a very slight back focus, or that I wasn't paying enough attention to where the center AF point was.

Settings: f/8, 1/400, ISO 200, Tamron 70-300 tele-macro. Cropped slightly closer for compositional effect.

023: Ladybirds on Holly

A lucky find today.
I was doing some pruning at the end of the garden when I discovered some red spots on the stubby end of a holly twig, partly obscured by a bushy growth of leaves. I didn't expect to find ladybirds somewhere like this in January.
I set up a tripod right next to the twig and mounted the camera with flash. After much fine repositioning (a requirement of very shallow focus range) I took this final image at f/7.1, 1/180 sec. ISO 100, low power flash. I pointed the flash forward with a foil reflector to angle the light down, and used a piece of white polystyrene underneath to reflect some light back up.