As the Covid-19 lockdown continues seemingly ad-infinitum, my photography has become more and more a device that keeps me somewhat sane during the darker and more lonely periods and it has been the impetus to get myself outside, something that really is essential to mental wellbeing. You don’t need to venture far from home to see that there is a clear winner in the midst of this human crisis. Our absence from the landscape, combined with an unprecedented warm and sunny spring has allowed nature to thrive - and it looks spectacular! Cliff paths and other public areas, left untamed, are awash with green, pink, yellow, white and purple, clear sky abounds not with con-trails but flying insects and the plentiful Bumble Bees are the biggest and fattest I’ve seen.

Sadly now, with more relaxed lockdown restrictions, the strimmers have recently been unleashed and the cliff paths are once again falling victim to mankind’s imposition of tidiness and we may never again see nature flourish so beautifully and wild as it has during the first quarter of 2020. I understand the desire to keep public footpaths clear but I do question whether there really is a need to cut back so far into the adjacent undergrowth. It certainly doesn’t benefit nature, but I presume it reduces costs and the need for repeat visits.

With business halted and movement restricted, I have pulled my macro lens out of hibernation in order to photograph the wealth of small insects that are now appearing. Photography has always been a meditation for me - a way to temporarily depart our world of worry and concentrate on nature’s beauty instead. Macro wildlife photography takes me deeper, allowing me to enter an alien world with child-like fascination, barely visible to the naked eye. You will have noted already that ethical issues are never far from my mind and I will talk (rant) more about the ethics of this discipline later, so please read on, because it is important. I also want to show you a little of what you can find quite easily, right outside your door.

We have a small back garden that isn’t overly pedicured. A wooden post has a couple of ‘Bee hotels’ attached - open fronted boxes with hollow sections of bamboo inserted. Solitary bees will lay eggs inside the tubes then close up the entrances for winter, which the pupae will chew through before emerging as next-year’s bees. They are currently a hive of activity as the bees clear out the bamboo tubes in preparation for laying later in the season. This activity needed to be photographed! Macro photography necessitates getting extremely close to your subject and I was hesitant to push my luck at first. My attention was drawn to the bees one day as I walked past and they quickly surrounded me, one even knocking me on the head, seemingly as a warning. I stood still, made no sudden movements and before long, they were back to work, albeit regularly flying up to my face to make sure I was behaving. I decided to mount the camera on a tripod and carefully position it where I would be shooting and left it in place over lunch. When I returned, the bees were busy as ever and using the camera as a new resting spot. With a cable release, I was able to stand at a reasonably safe distance and only move in to alter the camera’s position or exposure slowly. As a result, I was able to shoot for a couple of hours without unnecessarily disturbing their work. For much of the time I had bees resting on my head and ears - a little disconcerting but by moving slowly and not panicking, I was accepted and nobody got hurt - good for the bees, good for me.

I'm prepared to take a sting or two in the line of duty, not that I have, but the impact this would have on the bee far outweighs my own discomfort - bees only sting as a last-resort when they feel threatened and will usually die soon after as part of their abdomen is ripped out and left behind, attached to the stinger. I don’t believe any photo is worthy of needless suffering and I try hard not to interfere with habitats or interrupt an animal’s natural behaviour. Sadly, there are some photographers who disagree and don’t seem to mind the damage they cause to wildlife for the sake of their ‘art’. Cue my next rant…

Macro wildlife photography can be frustrating. An insect might be in an awkward position for a photo and most will scurry or fly away long before you get the shot. To me, that is the enjoyment of this style of photography - to enter their world and play by their rules. There are however, too many photographers who choose to impose their own rules. At one end of the spectrum there are those who will try to manipulate a bug into a more pleasing position or break off the leaf or branch on which they are sat to place it in better light. Next are those who net insects and bring them into a studio environment for more control over background and lighting. They may return the insects to the natural environment once they have fulfilled their objective, but only after potentially damaging their delicate legs and wings and having denied them the survival activity that they were originally undertaking. There’s another subset of photographer who will capture and refrigerate bugs to force them into a state of suspended animation, making them easy to place in a studio set and ‘pose’ as they see fit. Some will revive as they warm up and may be returned to the wild, others will die on-set. Then there are those who will suffocate insects and pin or glue their dead bodies to a set for that ‘perfect’ photograph, just in time before their vibrancy and sheen fades away. This is not ethical photography, it is blatant cruelty and self-obsession and I abhor it. It promotes a total disregard for nature and the ethical treatment of animals. It is done purely for ego - to achieve a ‘perfect’ shot otherwise impossible or too difficult to do without causing harm, by those who either don’t have the skill to shoot ethically or those who simply don’t seem to care.

If you see a photograph of an insect or any other animal which looks unnatural, I encourage you to ask the photographer how they achieved the shot. Any ethical photographer will be thrilled to describe their methods to you whereas an unethical one will often avoid the subject, make excuses or just lie about it. If you have concerns, please don’t encourage them by ‘sharing’ and ‘liking’ their material on social media. The more that unethical work is praised and popularised, the more likely a new generation of photographers will be encouraged to copy it. I’d never consider praising a photo of a ‘hunter’ posing proudly with the body of a lion or elephant he/she just shot, and I can’t see any fundamental difference between the two.

Encouraging people to see the natural macro world alive and functioning is the best way to develop their appreciation for it. I’ve said for a long time that the surface of the sea is its own worst enemy, because it forms a barrier that most people can’t see through. It gives us an excuse to care little about what exists beneath it - out of sight, out of mind. Divers appreciate the underwater world far more because we are able to immerse ourselves in it and experience its amazing complexity first-hand. Similarly, the fact that the macro world is so small as to be almost invisible to most, allows us to disregard its its importance. It is easy to swat a fly or squash an ant because we mostly see little more than a black dot, but by viewing it through a macro lens, it becomes a fascinating giant, intricately designed with unbelievable detail and colour - things we simply cannot see with the naked eye. Once you have seen the living natural world up-close, you can’t help but gain appreciation for it.

Getting back to my photos, during a recent macro shoot I came across this little Shield Bug, just 7 or 8 millimetres long. Thinking it would quickly scurry away as I came closer with the camera, I was surprised to sense that it had noticed me and was trying to approach. It crossed leaf-to-leaf as the wind blew them together to get closer, and even flew onto the cuff of my jumper at one point and we had to carefully put it back. I’ve seen many fish approach their reflection in camera lenses before and it may have been just that, but we looked and couldn’t see an appreciable reflection. This little bug continued to pose on the edges of the closest leaves until I felt I’d taken up far too much of its time and left it alone. I like to think that it was at least inquisitive, just as the bees seemed to be and I feel grateful that when treated with respect, these tiny creatures occasionally give me permission to experience their world.