The Hidden Life of an Irish Bog | Macro Nature Photography

Welcome to another vlog. This time around it's all about the small stuff, macro photography. I've taken myself down to the centre of Ireland, the Midlands, and beside one of the best preserved bogs in the whole of Europe, if not the world. Between the bog and where I am now, it's a beautiful meadowed area, full of butterflies and dragonflies. What you'll see behind me is a disused railway, used by Bordnemona to extract huge quantities of peat. Most of our raised bogs here in Ireland are totally destroyed and there's tiny fragments here and there. And that's what I'll be visiting today. So let me briefly walk through the gear and the lenses really that I've taken with me on this overnight trip. Firstly, and you'll be very surprised to see, a 400 2.8. I took it just in case I encountered a fox or a hare and I might be able to switch quickly or pull it out of the van to grab the opportunity. But I went for a walk when I arrived at first and there's some bog pools over the far side between the grasses here that run along the railway track and the bog. And there's some migrant hawkers, or what I think are migrant hawkers, patrolling the bog pools. The 105mm macro lens just won't be long enough to capture them in flight. So I'm glad I've brought it, not just for the opportunity that a fox or a hare might present, but also to photograph those flying dragonflies. And that's something I'm hoping to try if they're still there. And as it cools down I'm conscious they may settle down. So that's the 400mm lens. Next up is my trusty Nikon 105 Z macro lens. Now I must admit I love this lens. It just pairs with the Nikon Z8 perfectly. Automated focus stacking, the sharpness, the bokeh, it has it all. It's a beautiful lens and if you're thinking of starting macro photography I'd highly recommend a 105mm, either this version or the previous version from Nikon. And all the other manufacturers tend to produce a 100mm or a 105mm as their standard macro. It's a good reason for that. Now lastly I've brought a lens that really doesn't get much use and it's a good reason it doesn't get used. It's a very niche lens. This is the Laowa 25mm f2.8 ultra macro they call it. It's very sharp but it starts at 2.5-1 macro rather than the 1-1 of the 105mm and it goes to 5-1 macro. So we really must use a tripod. I'm thinking if I find some small lichens in the bog I'll use this and I'll pair it with the manual focus rail. This is a Novoflex Castle M focus rail. Magic ball, very heavy ball head and the little Novoflex trio pod as well. So that's a nice little combination. It is heavy but it's sturdy and you feel assured when your camera gear is sitting on this. So a high bank of cloud came in and just swallowed the sun and the evening has closed in much quicker than I expected. There's no dragonflies or butterflies flying. The place has just gone quiet and when I came at first I took a walk down without the camera and the activity, the life, the numbers of peacocks, red admirals, painted ladies, whites etc etc, dragonflies to beat the band. I just switched like that. I filmed some water mint and as I walked along the damp part of this pathway the scent of water mint was just so sweet. That minty scent just fills the air. I was about to go back to the van and get a bite to eat and make plans for tomorrow when I came across this very pale, probably parched area, a small area with some grasses here but there's a few mushrooms. I can't believe it. There's a couple of mushrooms growing on this moss. The light is really fading so I'm going to have to work quickly. I'm going to get the 105mm lens out, put it on the ground and try to do something with these mushrooms. Now if it doesn't work out, the light's so low, I may come back tomorrow morning and maybe get a They're flat against the white sphagnum so maybe a shot looking down on them might work. I have a little LED light in the bag. As you know I don't particularly like using artificial light but the light levels have dropped. The temperature has also dropped and I'm not being bitten alive by insects. I'm going to take the camera, put the 105mm lens on, put it on the ground and try these mushrooms. I'll play a little bit of video with them and I'll put the photograph of them up and we'll probably leave it there for this evening. Well it was a very humid night in the campervan last night. It rained around four or five o'clock and I can see the richness in the bog. It's changed overnight from that whitish, dried-out look yesterday evening. There's definitely a greener, warmer tone to the vegetation this morning. I searched for butterflies on the tops of the rushes, the water mint and the meadowsweet as I made my way out to the edge of the bog here with no luck. So there were no resting butterflies overnight nor dragonflies. I'm going to get busy and look for my first subject of the morning. But before I do that I'd like to share a fascinating story. In 1978, almost 50 years ago, Dutch scientists realised that Holland had lost all its bogs. It had extracted the peat on a huge industrial scale to provide fuel for the Dutch people, for power plants etc. So Dr Matthias Schoten came to Ireland with a team expecting our country here to be full of intact beautiful raised bogs. He was shocked for the Irish government through Bòrd na Mhona were fulfilling a need for fuel here at home. So he surveyed and inspected what little raised bogs remained. This bog was the catalyst for a change, but a change that wouldn't happen for 40 years until about four or five years ago. The railway track that I sat upon yesterday afternoon was installed to transport all of the peat from this bog to the power station in nearby Shannon Bridge. Matthias, through a group of Irish conservationists and An Taisce contacted Bòrd na Mhona, highlighted what we were losing. The life, the bird life, the insect life, the plant life, the uniqueness of raised bogs in the world. And Bòrd na Mhona listened. They had already prepared drainage, they had that railway track to take the peat out and they stopped. And 50 years later the bog is in a beautiful state. One of only tiny fragments across Ireland. The irony is that that was 1978 and throughout the 50 years the Irish state and Bòrd na Mhona ploughed ahead with extracting hundreds of thousands of acres. And today we're in a very poor position when it comes to raised bogs. Indeed this one, the one first identified by an organisation that was set up, an organisation called the Dutch Society for the Protection of Irish Bogs. The irony of it, you couldn't make that up. Another irony, indeed a tragedy, is that the peat stripped from the centre of Ireland over those 40 years following 1978 is now contributing to climate change, to the warming of the European continent, apparently at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world. And studies have shown that even small increments in the temperature, one to two degrees, will have a negative impact on the raised bogs here. So the peat that was extracted and burned is even coming back to haunt the small fragments of preserved bog that remain. I spent a while walking around looking down for subjects. The lichen is stunning. But when it comes to photographing the bog, generally macro photography, the best place that we can find ourselves is where I am at the moment. Again, lying prostrate before my subject, the tiniest subject. I don't think even the camera there can pick it out. It's so small, barely the size or half the size of my forefinger fingernail. It's a sundew. And it's the first one I found that's glistening with the sticky liquid it uses to capture and trap insects. You'll see the camera I have the 105 bear on. So the camera is sinking in this sphagnum moss. I need to be careful that the water doesn't seep through the outbracket. I couldn't get to the other side of the camera because it's hovering over a bog pool. So I had to manoeuvre it and form the composition as best I could. I'm quite happy with it. And I took about 70 or 80, I think, stacked images at an open aperture. And I think it looks good, but I'm not going to find out until I get home and stack those images together. I'll give it another go so that we have two options when I go home. So that's the first image of this morning. I'm going to move on now and find a second, hopefully. Well, in the past three or four hours, I haven't moved too far. I've been moving between these deep, deep bog pools. I found out how deep they are when I tried to extend the full length of a tripod leg into them. It didn't hit the bottom. Beautiful caterpillar. I'm not sure what species it is. Just hanging on a little rush. I've returned to the area I photographed the mushrooms at. They're right below me here, the two of them. And I've set the tripod up very carefully on the sphagnum moss. But this pale, bleached sphagnum moss fascinated me yesterday evening. And I've looked for a sun dew, but I've resorted to using a little LED just to boost the contrast around the sun dew. And the sun dew, it's like the shamrock, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It has three arms to it and it lies on a little hill of the sphagnum beneath it. And the sphagnum beneath it contrasts beautifully with the sun dew. It's so pale and the moss is quite perfect. I've taken about 150 or so stacked images, maybe far too many. I just wanted to make sure that every single part of this frame is sharp and in focus. Every little piece of contrast, every little piece of moss and the sun dew itself. I've been here for the past, probably three hours. I'm not sure what time it is. Time has just flown by this morning. And as each half hour passes, I'm getting more relaxed and happier sitting on the ground. I tried to chase the dragonflies. I got one okay shot, nothing to write home about. But I think I'm going to head back to the van and get, I would imagine, what will be a very late breakfast. Well, I'm going to leave the vlog where we started it, on that railway track that was ready to take all of the peat from that beautiful bog. That bog that gave me a wonderful day photographing the dragonflies, the sun dew, caterpillars, etc, etc. What a wonder was preserved back in 1978. And the catalyst for saving this bog and many other bogs in Ireland was Dr. Mathias Schouten. Is there a statue to him anywhere in Ireland? No. Will there be? I hope so. One day. So if you have enjoyed the vlog, I'd very much appreciate it if you'd give me a and comment, and maybe subscribe if you're not already subscribed to the channel. If you'd like to see more of my images, videos, written articles, etc, etc, why not visit my website jimmymcdonnell.ie. So until next time, wherever the road may take us, thanks so much for watching.