Pops of purple are appearing everywhere! 💜 Caught these stunning purple crocuses pushing through the dewy grass. Nothing beats the hardy beauty of spring arriving in Ireland.

#photography #EastCoastKin #TeamPixel #SpringFlowers #Wicklow #Ireland #Crocus #NatureLovers #MacroMagic #SpringIsHere

Kleine Welt, große Bedeutung (Small World, Big Impact)

Ein seltener Blick in die kleine Welt einer Hummel: Zwischen den Grashalmen sammelt sie Pollen, während das Makro jede feine Struktur ihres Körpers sichtbar macht. Ein stiller Moment, der zeigt, wie faszinierend und wichtig unsere Bestäuber sind.
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A rare glimpse into the tiny world of a bumblebee: nestled between blades of grass, collecting pollen while the macro lens reveals every delicate detail. A quiet reminder of how beautiful and essential our pollinators are.

#Hummel #Bumblebee #MacroPhotography #Makro #InsectMacro #InsectPhotography #Insekten #Pollinators #Bestäuber #Wildlife #WildlifeMacro #NaturePhotography #Nature #NatureLovers #CloseUp #MacroMagic #MacroLovers #Biodiversity #Biodiversität #EcoPhotography #SaveTheBees #TinyWorld #SmallWorldBigBeauty #HiddenWorld #GreenVibes

The ground is finally waking up here in Wicklow! 💜

#photography #EastCoastKin #TeamPixel #Crocus #SpringWatch #Wicklow #Nature #Ireland #Garden #Flowers #MacroMagic

Beauty in the small things.

© 𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓡𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼 𝓡𝓮𝓼𝓮𝓻𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝓫𝔂 𝓚𝓮𝓿 𝓟𝓮𝓲𝓻𝓬𝓮.

#photo #photography #australia #flower #flowers #YellowWildflowers #MacroMagic #GroundCover #NaturePhotography #LittleBeauties

A 1mm mushroom carrying an almost-as-big droplet

Sometimes nature hides its most extraordinary scenes in places most people never look. While walking through the Kampina near Oisterwijk with my wife Christel and my sister-in-law Hanneke — a birthday walk and lunch gift from last October — I noticed something no taller than a grain of rice. There, growing out of the lush green moss on a tree trunk, stood a tiny Mycena adscendens. Barely 1 mm tall, delicate as a whisper… and balancing a raindrop almost as large as its cap.

Photographing something that small is always a technical puzzle. Tripods were impossible on the tree bark, the light was miserable — wet, grey, and sleepy — and the mushroom itself looked like shiny plastic thanks to the moisture. So I relied on my Canon 5DsR paired with the MP-E 65mm, shooting handheld with a flashlight as an improvised lightsource.
1/250s, ISO 3200, and the fixed aperture of the MP-E — a setup that pushes both the photographer and the camera to their limits. At this magnification even your own heartbeat becomes camera shake.

But somehow, everything aligned. The droplet clung to the cap with perfect surface tension, turning the whole scene into a tiny physics lesson: cohesion, adhesion, and gravity negotiating their delicate balance on a 1 mm stage.

Moments like this remind me why I love macro photography — you don’t just take a picture; you discover a world that was already there, quietly waiting.

#MacroPhotography #MicroNature #TinyMushrooms #MycenaAdscendens #FungiFriday #FungusAmongUs #NatureCloseUp #ExtremeMacro #MacroWorld #MacroMagic #Canon5DsR #CanonMacro #MPE65mm #HandheldMacro #NatureIsArt #ForestFinds #DutchNature #Kampina #Oisterwijk #MossAndMushrooms #RaindropArt #WaterDroplet #SurfaceTension #MicroWildlife #NatureWalks #PhotographyJourney #StoryBehindTheShot #NaturalWonder #TinyLifeBigWorld #ForestMagic #NatureLovers #ScienceInNature #PhotographersOfPixelfed #MacroCommunity #HiddenWorlds #ByMaikeldeBakker

#Sichelschrecke
#PhaneropteraFalcata #Heuschrecke #Insektenfotografie #Makrofotografie #Naturfotografie #MacroPhotography #InsectPhotography #WildlifePhotography #MacroNature #MakroLovers #CloseUpNature #TinyWorld #NatureFocus #WildlifeSeekers #GreenInsect #NaturePhotography #Makroaufnahme #MacroMagic #Insektenliebe #WildlifeOneShot #Biodiversität #Naturmoment #FlowerMacro #OMSystem #OlympusOM1 #Naturbeobachtung #NatureLovers #Insektenvielfalt

A Morning in Layers

Yesterday’s morning light was something else — the kind of light that shifts the entire mood of a landscape. I started early, camera in hand, watching as the first rays of sun broke through the horizon at the Loonse en Drunense Duinen. The Canon 5DsR with the Sigma 24–70 Art captured that dance between storm clouds and sunlight — a fiery sky meeting cold, dark clouds above a golden line of dunes.

Later that morning, a flash of movement caught my eye. Perched high in a tree, a Lanius excubitor — the Great Grey Shrike (Klapekster in Dutch) — scanned the landscape. A master of patience and precision, this bird is both predator and poet of the heathlands. Just as I focused, it launched into flight, wings twisting into the sunlight — a single frame of balance between control and freedom, taken with the 5D Mark IV and the Sigma 100–400.

Before heading home, I found a small Mycena mushroom rising from a bed of moss, surrounded by acorn caps and fallen leaves. Humble, delicate — yet part of the same story. The sun, the bird, the fungus — each a layer in nature’s quiet symphony.

#ByMaikeldeBakker #NaturePhotography #WildlifePhotography #MacroPhotography #LandscapePhotography #CanonPhotography #SigmaArtLens #5DsR #5DMarkIV #DutchNature #LoonseEnDrunenseDuinen #GreatGreyShrike #LaniusExcubitor #Klapekster #Mycena #FungusAmongUs #MushroomPhotography #AutumnVibes #ForestMood #MorningLight #NatureStorytelling #ScientificPhotography #EcologyInFocus #FieldObservation #NaturalHistory #Heathlands #SunriseGlow #SkyDrama #BirdInFlight #AvianBeauty #MacroMagic #MossAndMushroom #ForestFloor #NatureDetails #CanonLover #Sigma100400 #Sigma2470Art #PhotographyJourney #DutchWildlife #ByMaikelPhotography

Close encounter with a forest master beetle

Meet Trypocopris vernalis, also known as the spring dor beetle — one of the true “masters” of the forest floor. Yesterday, while exploring a beautiful larch and pine forest near Rijen and Oosterhout (the Surea area) with my wife, I spotted this little armored worker quietly making its way through the moss. The day was grey and moody, but a brief ray of sunlight broke through — just enough to bring out that deep black sheen that makes these beetles so mesmerizing up close.

This shot was taken with my Canon 7D Mark II and the Canon MP-E 65mm super macro lens at 5× magnification — a lens that truly lets you dive into another world. At this distance, even a beetle’s face feels monumental. You can see the fine texture of its exoskeleton, this time no grains of forest soil clinging to it, and even the subtle reflection of the forest canopy above.

Scientifically speaking, Trypocopris vernalis plays a vital role in the ecosystem. It’s a dung beetle — recycling nutrients, aerating soil, and quite literally keeping the forest clean. A quiet little hero beneath our feet.

#TrypocoprisVernalis #BeetlePhotography #MacroPhotography #SuperMacro #Canon7DMarkII #CanonMPE65mm #ForestMaster #MacroWorld #WildlifeMacro #NaturePhotography #ByMaikelPhotography #DutchNature #Oosterhout #Rijen #Surea #MossForest #LarchForest #InsectPhotography #MacroDetails #CloseUpPhotography #WildlifeLovers #EcoPhotography #Biodiversity #DungBeetle #NatureStory #InsectWorld #MicroWorld #CanonMacro #NaturalBalance #WildlifeConservation #InTheForest #MacroArt #NatureCloseUp #PhotoStory #NatureLovers #FieldPhotography #MacroMagic #WildlifeMacroPhotography #CanonEurope #ForestEcosystem #TinyWorld

Ein Moment der Natur, eingefangen mit messerscharfer Präzision: Die Centaurea montana strahlt in kräftigem Magenta, während ein kleiner Käfer sich im Zentrum der Blüte niederlässt. Die feinen Blütenblätter wirken wie gezeichnet, das Lichtspiel bringt jede Struktur zum Leuchten.
Ein Makrobild, das zeigt, wie kunstvoll die Natur wirklich ist.


#MacroMagic #CentaureaMontana #FlowerDetail #NatureFocus #CanonStyle #MakroLiebe #PixelfedNature #InsectAndFlower #BotanicalArt #FloralVibes #NaturPur #MakroKunst #Brandenburg #nature #germany #Naturfotografie #Flower #natur

A hypnotizing gaze of nature. The intense red eye contrasted with blue feathers – a true masterpiece crafted by evolution. This is a Victoria crowned pigeon – the largest and most majestic pigeon in the world.

#VictoriaCrownedPigeon #WildlifePerfection #BirdEye #MacroMagic #ExoticBirds #CloseUpNature #NaturePhotography #BirdPhotography #PlanetEarth #NatureLovers #WildBeauty #MacroPhotography

Hovering Between Petals

#photography #helios #helios44 #helios44m

#MacroPhotography #NaturePhotography #FlowerPhotography #InsectPhotography #BeePhotography #MacroLovers #CloseUpShot #FlowerLovers #NaturePerfection #WildlifePhotography #MacroMagic #InsectLovers #NatureBrilliance #FlowerPorn #MacroNature #FloralPhotography #MacroShot #Pollinator #NatureMacro #WildlifePerfection

Stepping into the world of ultra macro photography feels like opening a hidden door to another universe. With my Canon 5DsR paired with the Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens, I captured details so small that they often escape the naked eye — a baby snail so tiny it looks almost transparent, the intricate compound structure of a woodlouse’s eye, and the delicate links of a jewelry chain that suddenly appear monumental at this scale.

Some images transform the ordinary into the extraordinary: abstract bursts of color created from everyday objects under special lighting, or the cellular structure of a leaf, each “room” glowing like stained glass. I challenge you to guess which objects became these mysterious landscapes — share your thoughts in the comments!

Macro photography sits at the intersection of science and art. It reveals biological structures with near-microscopic precision, but it also creates dreamlike imagery that sparks imagination. To me, this is what makes it so magical: it’s both a tool of discovery and a form of creative expression.

This journey is only the beginning. The more I experiment, the more I realize how limitless this world is. Each millimeter holds a story — and I can’t wait to share more of them with you.

#macro #macrophotography #ultramacro #canon5dsr #canonmpe65mm #supermacro #microworld #macroart #scientificphotography #abstractmacro #creativephotography #microlife #hiddenworlds #tinyuniverse #macro_love #naturemacro #snailmacro #insecteye #leafcells #abstractart #macroexploration #fineartmacro #closeupphotography #macroworld #discovermacro #microscopicworld #scienceandart #macromagic #detailshot #macro_perfection #abstractnature #creative_macro #magnifiedworld #hiddenbeauty #tinycreatures #macrophoto #microart #canonphotography #artofdetails #experimentalphotography

#NaturePhotography #WildBeauty #RoseBloom #Dragonfly #MacroMagic #OceanView #CantabrianCoast #SeaScape #BlueHorizon #HedgeMaze #NaturalDetails #WingsOfGlass

Flowers of the Kampina – Part 3

Summer in the Kampina is a feast for the senses, and nowhere is this more evident than in its wildflowers.

I began with Sagittaria graminea (smalbladig pijlkruid), its delicate white petals catching the morning light, while a honeybee worked busily at the top of the frame. Nearby, the toxic yet beautiful Cicuta virosa (waterscheerling) stood tall, its blossoms framed by a shimmering bokeh from the water behind.

The humble Prunella vulgaris (gewone brunel or bijenkorfje) was next—a true bee magnet. I captured it with my Canon 5D Mark III and MP-E 65mm macro lens, a rare, specialized lens that magnifies from life-size to five times life-size without additional accessories. It’s a tool for those who want to dive into the smallest worlds nature hides.

At the northeast near Huisvennen, I wandered into a sea of blooming clover. My photo shows just one flower, but the meadow was alive with bees darting between blossoms.

The heath is also in bloom, painting the landscape in purples and pinks. In the early morning, unopened buds still held tiny dew droplets—each a perfect lens for the rising sun.

Finally, the Galeopsis tetrahit, here in a pale form with purple specks. While modest in appearance, it belongs to the vast orchid family—one of the oldest and most diverse plant families on Earth.

Next: Part 4 – Birds of the Kampina.

Hashtags:
#Wildflowers #Kampina #MacroPhotography #Canon5DMarkIII #Canon7DMarkII #Sigma100400 #MPE65mm #SagittariaGraminea #CicutaVirosa #PrunellaVulgaris #CloverFlower #HeathInBloom #GaleopsisTetrahit #OrchidFamily #BeeFriendly #PollinatorLove #NatureCloseUp #DutchNature #Oisterwijk #WildNetherlands #MacroMagic #FloralPhotography #BotanyLovers #PlantScience #FlowerDetails #TinyWorld #FlowerMacro #InsectPollination #BeePhotography #NatureArt #BokehLovers #MorningDew #BloomSeason #SummerFlowers #WildFlora #NatureObservation #PhotographyForTheSoul #BotanicalBeauty #PlantDiversity #WildflowerSeason #HiddenNature