www.DanielBridge.co.uk - Quality Photographs of Nature

Fingringhoe Macro Workshop

Daniel Bridge — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:55:00 +0000

We still have spaces on this Sunday's Close-up and Macro Photography Workshop at Fingringhoe Wick, give the Visitor Centre a ring on 01206 729678 to secure your place.

Details of all my photography workshops are here.

New Macro Workshop Date

Daniel Bridge — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:35:00 +0000

I have added a new 'Close-up and Macro Photography Workshop' date, at a new location - Chafford Gorges Nature Park.

I've chosen to run a macro workshop there because it's a superb location for Dragonflies, Damselflies and Butterflies, as well as having excellent wildflowers. The workshop will be taking place on Sunday 24th August 2008, 10.00a.m. to 4.00p.m.

Here's a few shots from the park, showing the visitor centre, and a couple of dragonflies.

More details of this, and all my photography workshops, can be found here.

The Geffrye Museum

Daniel Bridge — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:21:00 +0000

On friday we took a trip up to London, and paid a visit to the Geffrye Museum in Shoreditch, which "shows the changing style of the English domestic interior in a series of period rooms from 1600 to the present day". It was very interesting, and allowed a range of opportunities for photography. The Anti-Shake feature of the Pentax K10D really helped here, as exposure times were around a half to one second, and I was hand-holding, with only a wall or two to help.

There is a garden room, which has a beautiful mural painted by Jonathon Early, but I can't find any details about him. If anyone knows who he is, and where else he has painted, I would be grateful if you could drop me a line - I'd like to link to his work from here.

Later, we ended up crossing the Millenium Bridge, so I got some shots while I was there, ideally the sky would be clear, giving a deep blue rather than the murky look here.

It was a very nice day out!

Outdoor Photography Magazine

Daniel Bridge — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:15:00 +0000

If you've seen the listing for one of my workshops in the latest (April 2008) Outdoor Photography Magazine, you'll find that it doesn't match up with any of the workshops that I'm actually running. This is because I sent through details of two workshops - the 'Photography in the Park' one at Thorndon Park, Brentwood, on the 30th March, and 'Close-up and Macro Nature Photography' at Fingringhoe Wick on the 4th May.

Unfortunately, these two workshops got combined at OP so nothing really matches up.

Oh well, never mind. There are plenty of dates to choose from, so you will find something to suit you, and there are more in the pipeline for later in the year too.

Don't forget, there's always the option of One to One tuition fi you want to learn something specific, or just have the luxury of my undivided attention for 4 hours.

Lastly, if you saw the listing in OP, you may be wondering why some of the other workshops cost £80 - £150 per day, whereas mine are £30 (£35 at Fingringhoe, which includes lunch).

The simple answer is one of numbers and what's included. My workshops can have up to a dozen participants, others may restrict numbers to 2, 3 or 4. Also, if it's a residential course, this should include accommodation and food.

Above all, I want to give you a enjoyable day, for a reasonable price. I make a reasonable wage from the day, Essex Wildlife Trust (the charity that hosts these workshops) receive a good donation, even better if you Gift Aid your course fee, and you go away at the end of the day feeling that you've had excellent value for money. Everyone's a winner.

See you soon,
Daniel

Pentax Photo Gallery

Daniel Bridge — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:48:00 +0000

The Pentax Photo Gallery is an online gallery, run by Pentax, for Pentax SLR users. I'm very pleased to have had some images accepted into the gallery, and I intend to expand on these in due course.

You can see my images (and a slightly scary self-portrait, might change this) here.

Ducks and Geese

Daniel Bridge — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:18:00 +0000

I was at Weald Park in Brentwood yesterday running a 1-2-1 tuition session, concentrating on animal photography - Weald has a decent lake with a good supply of ducks and geese, so I thought it ideal.

I rattled of a good number of shots myself, but as ever with moving subjects and my manual focus long lens, many were not sharp. We were especially trying to catch some good wingflapping poses from the ducks, and I did at least get one good sequence.

However, it did make me think more about getting an autofocus 300mm lens, and Pentax have just brought out a new one, which is tempting...

I was particularly pleased with aspects of this shot, although the branch top right was unfortunate, but I like the action as these ducks had a squabble - there's three of them, but the right-hand one is underwater!

The Graylag geese were as bold as usual, so some good close-ups could be had.

It has left me with the urge to go back and try some more.

Workshops getting booked up!

Daniel Bridge — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:16:00 +0000

I've checked with the staff at Thorndon Park and Fingringhoe, and the Photography Workshops (both 'Close-up and Macro' and 'Photography in the Park') are getting booked up - just a few spaces left on the March 30th PITP at Thorndon for instance.

If you want to be sure of getting on the workshop of your choice, book today!

Details of my photography workshops are given here.

Details of the One-to-One tuition I offer is here.

North Norfolk Trip

Daniel Bridge — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:46:00 +0000

I had a few days in north Norfolk last weekend, an area I've only really visited once before, but one I wanted to see again. The area around Cley (pronounced to rhyme with 'eye') is a beautiful region, with large areas of saltmarsh, beaches, farmland and lakes, and it's a mecca for all sorts of birds.

First stop was at Holkham, as there is a large roost of Pink-Footed Geese on the marshes here, but as I'm not a wildlife photographer, I don't really own the required lenses to get a close crop in on the birds, which tend to stay at a fair distance. However, I was more than happy with shots like this one looking across the reed beds.

The next day saw a trip into Cley itself, to visit the Norfolk Wildlife Trust visitor centre and reserve, briefly stopping off to see the White Crowned Sparrow which had arrived from North America a couple of weeks before.

It was quite surprising how many birdwatchers and twitchers (there is a difference) were there to see it...

Sunday midday was spent at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve & Gardens, home to a wide variety of mainly wetland birds on both the lakes and within aviaries. There's also a few mammals there too, Red Squirrels in an enclosure and on 'Squirrel Island', but also Otters in the river Wensum which runs through the reserve, and at least one Stoat, which unfortunately was far too quick for me!

Here are some of the shots I got there:

A Puna Teal

A Lapwing, in one of the aviaries.

A Baikal Teal in one of the aviaries.

A sleeping Red Squirrel in an enclosure, probably my favourite shot of the trip, either that one or the Baikal Teal...

Later in the afternoon saw a visit to the beach at Wells-next-the-Sea, where there are some lovely, and varied beach huts, as well as miles of sand, assuming you get there at low tide.

Monday was the last day of the trip, but before leaving the B&B (Holly Lodge Guesthouse, in Thursford Green, very much recommended) I had to take a few shots of the dewy grass and moss on the wall in the garden.

It was an excellent trip which yielded some great photos for me, and I can't wait to go back.

Pentax K20D

Daniel Bridge — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:51:00 +0000

Once again it's an exciting time for Pentax Users everywhere - Pentax are gearing up to announce two new Digital SLRs, the K20D and K200D.

It's been just over a year since the K10D hit the shelves, and it's a year that's turned Pentax's fortunes around. Winning just about every award that was going, the K10D truly showed that you had a choice in the camera market. Although the *ist series Pentax cameras were great, they were always a bit behind the competition. But the K10D changed that, with a whole range of features and a build quality far ahead of its rivals from 'the big two'.

The K20D looks to be about to do the same again.

Based on the body of the K10D, the Pentax K20D will have a new 14.5Mp CMOS sensor, Live view, full weather sealing (of course), even better Anti-Shake, possibly higher frame rate (I'd guess 5 frames per second), higher ISO options, and a price tag of, I would guess, around £999. Mind you, we thought the K10D would be around £900, and that arrived at £600. We can only hope.

There are rumours too, about 'something revolutionary'. It may be something to do with the focusing. We'll have to wait and see, all should be revealed in the next few days.

The problem I'm left with, is that I bought my K10D last spring. Do I upgrade so soon? I think not, but if the K20D is as good as the rumours have it, I may have trouble resisting...

Merry Christmas

Daniel Bridge — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:34:00 +0000

Wishing all my friends and customers past, present and future, a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous and enjoyable New Year!

Daniel

2008 Desktop Calendar

Daniel Bridge — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:32:00 +0000

Just to let you know that I have just added a page for my 2008 Desktop Calendar, which can be found here, or through the 'Design' page.

This is the fourth year I have produced the Calendar now, and it always proves popular. I pick some of my favourite photos to illustrate the year, and each calendar is handmade, so it's a real labour of love for me.

Below are some pics of the calendar, which is available to buy for just £5.50 each, plus 50p P&P per order. You can pay me direct through Paypal too, so it couldn't be easier.

Westhay Starling Roost

Daniel Bridge — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:26:00 +0000

This is the second of the articles I wrote for the Healthy Life, Mind Body and Soul magazine that I've published on my blog. It relates my trip to Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve near Wells, in Somerset, to see the starling roost. As it's that time of year again, and seeing as it's been featured on 'Autumnwatch' on the BBC, I thought it time to share it with you.

The Starling Roost

It’s not often that a much-maligned bird like the Starling gets its own slot on prime-time television, but I’m sure many of you saw Bill Oddie in Somerset as he watched a massive Starling roost performing its amazing aerobatics; strange shapes forming as the huge flocks wheeled around the sky, before plummeting down into the reeds to spend the night. It made me want to see them and, as luck would have it, my wife and I were going to Somerset for a few days in early November. A quick Internet search came up with the location of a huge roost - Westhay, near Glastonbury.

As it happens, this wasn’t the one that Bill filmed; he was near Slimbridge. That roost numbers 1-2 million birds, quite impressive. However, the Westhay one is estimated at between 3 and 7 million (you try and count them; I think we can give them a little room for error), and is well known as one of the best places to watch these birds performing.

Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve is cared for by Somerset Wildlife Trust, and consists mainly of reedbeds and open water where peat extraction works once scoured the land. Now it’s home to Otters, Bitterns and a multitude of wildfowl. That would be great in itself, but add the spectacle of the Starling roost and it’s surely somewhere any keen wildlife enthusiast should visit.

Our trip in November coincided with the early arrivals at the roost - numbers don’t fully build up until December onwards, and will include many birds from the continent, not just Britain. They’ll stay until winter’s over, which, as far as they’re concerned, is early February. Still, estimates for the time we were there were around 1 million birds, and it was absolutely stunning.

The Starlings prefer to do their aerial displays on calmer, milder days, so our first visit, on a Monday afternoon, wasn’t destined to go down as one of the greats. The clear skies of lunchtime had clouded over, the wind had picked up and a distinct chill was in the air. At about half past three the first birds started to arrive, and each successive group came in larger flocks, until the largest ones which spread out along the horizon, producing a seemingly endless supply of Starlings, which flowed down into the reeds with little of the artistic flair that we were hoping for. Once the sun went down, and the birds stopped coming, and we were feeling really cold, we called it a day and went back to the B&B and the roaring fire. Overall, it was a little disappointing - we were hoping to witness aerobatics the like of which we’d not seen before, and obviously I wanted to take some good photos of the Starlings in action, neither of which happened. However, it was still worth the visit, and we decided to go back if we came down to Somerset later in the winter.

A couple of days later we were in Wells, the day was chilly but sunny, and the car park ticket ran out at two o’clock, so we wondered what to do with the rest of the afternoon. I suggested that we revisit Westhay, as I was still keen to get some better photos, and the sunset looked more promising than the previous one. Some time later, we were again stood in the small, open ‘hide’, from which you can see at about reed-top height, waiting for the Starlings to come back. A small crowd of people had gathered, and were not disappointed to see the first birds swooping down. Again, they just descended straight into the reeds, and we were not given the delight of watching thousands of birds twisting and turning through the air, but even so, it was still a magical experience.

The sunset glowed, as cloud after cloud of Starlings came in, the rushing sound of thousands of beating wings swiftly followed by chattering calls as they settled in the reeds. We’d watch one huge flock, spread out over hundreds of yards, get closer and closer before pouring down out of sight, 30 seconds separating the landing of the first birds from the last. And in the distance, a bigger flock would be forming, following the previous one in and adding to the clamour of noise from the reeds. And from behind us, and from the right and from the left, more birds would arrive in groups of 60,000 or more (one photograph that I took shows around 3,000 birds, and this is just a small section of one of the big flocks).

This went on for around 20 minutes, the sun sinking below the horizon and the chill air cooling rapidly, with now only a few stragglers arriving with a mad dash. With the show over, the birdwatchers left, but with a clear sky and a feeling of calm after the storm, my wife and I stayed for a few minutes more. That’s when we noticed the Starlings were not at rest, but had now started flying around in the reed-bed, spreading out from where they’d landed, flowing through the reeds, their wingbeats sounding like rushing water, closer and closer to us. With a wonderful sense of awe, we delighted in the experience. It was now far too dark for photography, so we simply watched and listened - just the two of us and one million feathered friends.

Further details about Westhay Moor N.N.R. can be found on Somerset Wildlife Trusts website - www.somersetwildlife.org.

Pentax User Magazine

Daniel Bridge — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:49:00 +0000

I'm lucky enough to be the featured photographer in the Portfolio section of Pentax User Magazine this issue (Issue 4, 2007), and I have to say I'm very pleased with how the spread looks.

If you're sensible enough to a) use a Pentax and b) subscribe to Pentax User, you'll no doubt have already seen the feature. However, for those of you who don't and/or don't, click the image below to see the full article with eight photos to illustrate.

Many thanks to the Pentax User editorial team for the opportunity to present my work in this way. The Pentax User website is www.pentaxuser.co.uk.

1-2-1 Photographic Tuition

Daniel Bridge — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:11:00 +0000

I've mentioned it on my blog before, but I now have a specific web page for my One to One (1-2-1) personal photo tuition. A link's shown along the bottom menu bar, but for now you can click here.

Although I cater for all brands of camera, from Minolta to Sony, Nikon to Canon, Olympus to Leica, my personal preference is Pentax. Don't let that put you off if you don't use Pentax, I can still offer advice and guidance to your specific requirements, it's just that usually all you see when a workshop or tuition is advertised is "EOS approved" or "Hands on Nikon". I'm more like "Pick up a Pentax"...

So as the number of Pentax users increases, due to the stunning bodies they produce at an even more stunning price (<£300 for the K100D and around £475 for the K10D, both with a 'kit' lens), there are going to be more people looking to get to grips with their new camera. If you happen to be near to Essex, I'm your man - with 4 years experience of running workshops, both with Essex Wildlife Trust and Havering Adult College, I can address your needs and get you on the road to photographic heaven!

Private 1-2-1 tuition with Daniel Bridge.

Thorndon Workshop 17/11/07

Daniel Bridge — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:05:00 +0000

So here's some 'further news'! I have booked in another 'Photography in the Park' Workshop at the Essex Wildlife Trust Visitor Centre at Thorndon Park, Brentwood, Essex, on Saturday 17th November 2007.

These photographic workshops cover apertures, focal lengths, exposure and composition, as well as looking at the equipment I find useful for photography in nature reserves and country parks. The morning is spent indoors, with a discussion and slideshow to illustrate the effect of lens choice, different apertures, and ways to compose your images, then we go out in the afternoon to put ideas into practice, and get hands-on with any specific queries you have.

It's a fun day, and at a bargain price of just £25, but you'll need to book soon to avoid missing out on this, which is probably my last workshop this year. Ring Thorndon Park Visitor Centre on 01277 232944 to secure your place.

2008 Workshops

Daniel Bridge — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:37:00 +0000

I've added some dates for workshops in 2008 (all at Fingringhoe Wick at the moment, Thorndon dates to follow), details of these are, naturally enough, on my Workshops page.

Keep checking back for further news...

New Canvasses

Daniel Bridge — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:58:00 +0000

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had a Blackthorn Blossom image printed to canvas, which was on sale at 'New Art Prints'. Well, that canvas has been sold, so I've replaced it with two more (shown below), as well as a few prints (also shown below).

The canvasses are of a Teasel head and a Fern leaf laying across a rock, both square images, printed to 16" x 16" size.

The prints are a small selection, including moss, common blue butterflies, the ever popular Oak Tree and a cobweb.

So that visitors to the gallery can see a wider selection of my photos, I produced a small catalogue for them to look through.

Once again, for those interested in seeing these prints, the gallery's address is:

New Art Prints
Unit 43
Barleylands Craft Village
Barleylands Road
Billericay
Essex
CM11 2UD

Look out for the sign for 'Terra Fusion' framers, with which New Art Prints art gallery shares a unit.

Workshops Part 5

Daniel Bridge — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:25:00 +0000

I've added another date for a 'Photography in the Park' workshop, which will guide you through the pitfalls of composition, exposure and technique, with a slideshow and discussion in the morning and an afternoon of photography, putting theory into practice.

Once again at Thorndon Park, a superb venue with fabulous woodland surrounding the Visitor Centre, this workshop is in just two weeks time on Sunday 9th September 2007. There are already participants booked on, so don't delay, book your place today, spaces are limited.

Ring the Essex Wildlife Trust Visitor Centre on 01277 232944.

While I'm here, I'll just mention that I will be displaying my prints in the EWT Visitor Centre at Hanningfield Reservoir next Sunday 2nd September at their Family Fun Day, running from noon until four o'clock. Hope to see you there.

Private 1-2-1 Tuition

Daniel Bridge — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:03:00 +0000

I've mentioned it before, but I thought I'd give a few more details about the private one-to-one tuition I offer, which is based on 4 hour sessions, at a cost of £75, and are loosely along these lines...

1/2 hour chat to see what you want to learn (no obligation, if you decide not to go ahead, that's fine), then we go for a walk to try out and/or explain different techniques.

One gentleman was interested in the way that I took pictures, so he basically wanted to see how I would frame and expose the shots, rather than actually take them himself. But I would normally expect us both to be taking pictures and comparing them to see how different viewpoints, lens choice etc has an effect on the outcome. But whatever you want to address is fine, whether it's just the basics of what you camera does, or looking at specific techniques.

The best places for these are really Essex Wildlife Trust Visitor Centres, where we can sit down with a cup of tea for a chat, then have plenty of subjects to seek out once we're outside. Thorndon Park is a good one as there's plenty to shoot once we're out and about, but Hanningfield, Chafford Gorges or Bedfords Park are also more than suitable.

I can do weekends or weekdays (I work 3 days a week for Essex Wildlife Trust, but am usually available Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and one day at the weekend), and any 4 hours during the day.

If that's of interest, let me know and we'll see when we can schedule you in!

New Print Style

Daniel Bridge — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:02:00 +0000

I've just updated my 'Buy' page to reflect the new pricing structure for my Limited Edition Prints. Rather than offering the mounting and framing options that I did before, I have decided that it's better for the customer and myself if I supply prints that can be popped straight into a ready-made frame by the customer if desired, or they can pass the print on to a framer who will do a better job than I at mounting and framing.

So the new style prints look like this:

Sized so that they fit most ready-made frames, I have reduced the number of potentially confusing options for the customer, with three of the most popular sizes of print available. Alternatively, any image can be printed to canvas, pricing of these is also shown.

This also means that at future exhibitions I can have a selection of prints ready to take away, rather than all of them being printed to order.

Pentax SMC FA50mm f/1.4 Lens

Daniel Bridge — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:37:00 +0000

I mentioned on my previous post the Pentax SMC FA50mm F/1.4 lens that I recently got hold of, just before I spent a week in Wales. I'd previously had a manual focus 50mm lens (f/1.7), but having heard how superb the autofocus 1.4 version was, I couldn't resist any longer.

On a couple of days when I was away, this was the only lens I used, and I had great fun shooting with a wide aperture (usually f/2.4 or f/2.8), and relishing in the super-shallow depth of field it gave. The out-of-focus areas are beautifully smooth ('nice bokeh').

Here are a few examples from the scuplture park at Lake Vyrnwy, Powys.

Pentax K10D, FA50mm f/1.4 @ 1/125s, f/2.8, ISO100

Pentax K10D, FA50mm f/1.4 @ 1/350s, f/2.8, ISO100

Pentax K10D, FA50mm f/1.4 @ 1/30s, f/2.8, ISO400

Pentax K10D, FA50mm f/1.4 @ 1/60s, f/2.8, ISO400

The more I use the lens, the more I love it.

Pentax K10D

Daniel Bridge — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 22:56:00 +0000

I realised earlier that I really don't say much about the camera I use. In some ways it's good to think of the camera a simply a tool, and as long as it's capable of giving you the results you want, that's all you need. When I was using film I used a Chinon CE5, which in itself was a great reply to the perennial "You must use a fantastic camera" comment. People were expecting me to say "Yes, a £5,000 Canon/Nikon", when in fact it was a secondhand £50 Dixon's own brand...

These days I use the Pentax K10D. It's a 10 megapixel Digital SLR, which is nothing extraordinary these days. What is extraordinary is that it's fully weather sealed, has in-camera image stabilisation (so any lens, not just the expensive ones, are stabilised), is immensely customisable, so both of it's command dials can do just about whatever you want them to, has some new exposure modes, has an 11 point autofocus system (nine of which are cross type sensors) and has unlimited continuous jpeg shooting (over 3 frames a second until your card is full). All for £399 body only.

The Nikon (D80) and Canon (400D) cameras in the same price bracket just don't compare. Add to that the great kit lens (18-55mm), which knocks spots off the Canon offering for sure, and you can't go wrong. And no-one else makes lenses like the 'Limited' series, or the 'Pancakes'.

I've just got myself the Pentax FA50mm f/1.4 lens, which is just sublime, and along with the Pentax 16-45mm, Pentax 50-200mm, Sigma 105mm macro and Sigma 10-20mm I've got a versatile, high quality set-up that allows me to achieve the results I need.

Never let anyone tell you that you need a Canon or a Nikon to be a 'proper' photographer.

Hedgehogs

Daniel Bridge — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:17:00 +0000

Not exactly photography, although there is a photo on this post, which is more than I can say for others that I've done. Today we collected two hedgehogs from the South Essex Wildlife Hospital, and these have been released in our garden. Prior to release we needed to ensure they had a nice, waterproof home (a chamber at the bottom of our logpile) and a way out of the garden so that they can roam about and get their food. They may just wander off and never be seen again, but hopefully they'll stick around.

Hedgehogs are in trouble due to loss of habitat, poisoning from slug pellets, getting run over etc. The South Essex Wildlife Hospital currently have around 200 needing rehoming. If your garden and surrounding area is suitable, they'll be only to grateful of your help to provide a release site - give Sue there a call! If you want to donate to this charity too, please do, they do an amazing job. If you can give them some of your time, even better!

This is the male, before we got him out of the box and ushered him into his new home.

Hopefully we'll have success with these two, and some of you will provide some others with places to go.

Canvas Print

Daniel Bridge — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:10:00 +0000

Well, perhaps I'm behind the times, but I've just got my first canvas print made, by the very helpful people (Daniela and Chris) at 'Life as Art' at Barleylands, Billericay, and very nice it is too (if I say so myself). Very good service by the team there.

Once I'd collected it, I nipped next door and dropped it off at 'New Art Prints', a lovely little gallery run by Peter Patterson (see below), with a good mix of paintings in all media, and a few photos.

The canvas was duly hung, and is now available to the discerning buyer! Like all my prints, it's one of a Limited Edition of just 25.

For those interested in seeing this print, the gallery's address is:

New Art Prints
Unit 43
Barleylands Craft Village
Barleylands Road
Billericay
Essex
CM11 2UD

Look out for the sign for 'Terra Fusion' framers, with which New Art Prints art gallery shares a unit.

Hoverflies

Daniel Bridge — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:13:00 +0000

I ran my first 'Macro and Close-Up Nature Photography Workshop' yesterday at Thorndon Park in Brentwood, Essex. Everyone seemed to have a great time, learned at least something, and spent an afternoon grubbing about in the undergrowth, finding out just how many subjects there are for a macro lens!

One technique I touched upon, and one participant tried his hand at, was getting hoverflies in flight. It's tricky, very hit and miss (mainly miss), but good fun when you have a bit of time to spend on it.

My method is this. Switch your camera to manual focus, and prefocus the lens on a spot about 10 inches away. Use a flashgun that you can set to manual and using trial and error, get a correct exposure (I use ISO200, f/13, 1/125s). Now, holding the camera at arms length approach the hovering Hoverfly, estimate when it's in the frame and in focus, and shoot!

Good ones can look like this:

Most come out like these... :)

It's just a bit of fun...