I'm stepping out of my usual comfort zone a little with this one. I don't normally do bugs for a start, and my "first day of the year" shot would typically be more, how shall we say, "uplifting" than this. However plans for the metaphoric (if not actually clichéd) sunrise shot were borked by expansive cloud cover this morning. And in any case it's 2013, with all that the last two digits entail, so when my attention was drawn to Mr. Wasp, who had stung Mr. Huntsman Spider into unconsciousness and was dragging his possibly/probably lifeless carcass into the grass, I figured "What the hey, just go where the lens takes you". Especially as this kind of wildlife is the reality of summer in these parts. The huntsman had but a few hours of 2013 to enjoy.

The lens in this case was the 24-105. I considered swapping out to the 60mm macro but decided that I'd rather keep some extra distance between Mr. Wasp and myself albeit, alas, at the cost of some sharpness on him.

(And looking back on this from 2023... I don't think I would have taken this shot again. However it's the only one I had from that day.)

Last Year