A diffuser is a small and cheap device that can really make a difference in the quality of your macro images. You just hold it between the sun and the subject you want to photograph.

Harsh sunlight is not the most beautiful light for nature photography. Take the following image as an example.

The strong contrast caused by the midday sun is not a very beautiful light and in my opinion this image is not good.
Fortunately, it’s not difficult to get a much better light as in the next shot:

Now the contrast is much weaker and the image has better colors and is much more pleasing to look at.

A diffuser saved the image, here. I just held it between the flower and the sun:

A diffuser is a very cheap item that you should always carry with you when you want to photograph flowers. With it you can photograph all day long, not just in the early morning and late evening hours when the natural light is better.
Instead of a diffuser, you can also just use a white shirt or something similar.

With macro photography, a small diffuser will be enough and normally you are so close to the subject that you can hold the diffuser yourself without needing an assistant (as would be required most of the times, for example, when photographing people).

The next time you are photographing flowers or other macro subjects, try a diffuser in harsh sunlight and you will be surprised by how much your pictures improve.

Be careful when using it with insects like butterflies. Sometimes, when you put a diffuser between them and the sun, they just fly off. In that case, using a flash to reduce the contrast might be a better idea.

When you are photographing wild animals, patience and a “never give up” attitude help a lot. Let’s take for example the Eurasian Bittern, an endangered species of heron that lives in wetlands in Europa and Asia.

EOS 40D, EF 4/500L IS, 1.4x, from car, about 60% crop

It’s a very secretive species that is active mostly at night and during dusk and dawn.
Last April, I spent one week at the Neusiedler See national park in Austria. This year was a particularly good year for bitterns there, as it had rained more than usually during the winter and many places were very wet – a perfect situation for bitterns.
But that does mean that they were easy to photograph. We got a tip for a good location from the owner of the hotel where we stayed. But the first morning we tried to see and hopefully photograph them we didn’t see a single bittern. The same on the second and third day. We heard them every day and even during the night from our room in the hotel. But we never saw them.
After three days of fruitless searching, we decided to give it another try on our last day. This time we were very lucky and saw not a single but four different bitterns, two even in flight.
The one above was very cooperative. It came out of the reed for almost an hour and closer and closer to our car from which the picture was taken.

The lessen from this story is: Be patient and never give up. Many photographers spend many hours over many days to get the perfect shot of an animal. Perseverance is the key to success in nature photography. This is much more important than the latest camera or the highest number of megapixels.
So the next time you plan to photograph a bird or another animal, be prepared to try over and over again. In the end you will be rewarded with a great shot.
The same is true for landscape and flowers. I know of photographers who camped several nights next to a large tree just to get the perfect shot of the tree in perfect light.
Again: Never give up!

I love my Canon EF 4/500L IS. It is a great lens, very sharp even wide open. IS works great and the AF speed of the lens is amazing. But sometimes when I frame a bird or another subject I am a little too close and it would be great to have 450mm. Or sometimes the birds is a little to small for 500mm but when I add a 1.4x extender it is too big in the frame. Of course I can always crop the shot taken with 500mm but then I will always loose some data and pixels. Sometimes you can get around this problem by slightly moving towards the subject or away from it, but that is often not possible (for example when you are in a hide).
What we really need is a telephoto zoom lens. Nikon offers an amazing 4/200-400 VR which is very sharp and immensely popular among Nikon shooters. I don’t understand why Canon still doesn’t offer such a lens.
The problem with 200-400mm is, that for many animals 400mm is just not long enough. Sigma offers a 5.6/300-800. The range of the focal length is perfect for wildlife and birds. The problem is that this lens is very long and heavy (it is also knows as the “Sigmonster”). Also, it does not have image stabilization.
What we need is a Canon or Nikon 4/200-500 with image stabilization and a closest focusing distance of about 2.5m at 500mm (great for small birds and large insects). If that lens would have a bigger weight than the current 4/500 lenses from Canon and Nikon, I am sure it would be a big seller. Almost every nature photographer who could afford it, would probably buy it. And probably also most sport shooters and any other photographer who needs or wants a long lens.
So far, nothing is in sight. Nikon recently announced new versions of their 2.8/400, 4/500 and 4/600 with VR (finally) so I doubt that they will come up with a zoom in the near future. Canon announced a 5.6/800 IS so maybe there is room for a 4/200-500.
Sigma some time ago announced a 2.8/200-500. But that is nonsense as that lens is way too heavy for practical use. I wonder why they built it. If they had offered a 4/200-500 with image stabilization and fast AF, they would have had a real winner.
So for now, all we can do is to wait and see if sometimes in the future Canon or Nikon (or someone else) will offer a 4/200-500. Next time you see a Canon or Nikon representative ask them for such a lens. If enough photographers keep asking them, maybe someday they will wake up.